Yesterday I woke up at 4:30am, never fell back asleep, and didn’t take one nap! (I always take rests.) Today I woke up at 8am and took a nap for 2 hours!

What?!

I haven’t shared this publicly yet, so here goes, but I’m questioning whether I need a power chair for situations like large malls, zoos, walking Marshall, state or other fairs… Just because I get so tired walking and I have to rest so often. But I don’t think I’d need one just shopping at one store in a mall or even an hour at the zoo.

It’s so inconsistent.

Sometimes I feel like my PTSD acts up and I get panicky. And other times I feel like the “most traumatic” things literally don’t even bother me at all. They don’t even cross my mind.

My symptoms feel so random!

And I’m guessing some people can relate to this. So it’s important to remember that people with different disabilities won’t always have the same level of symptoms, and our diagnoses and experience are still valid.

I think some helpful questions, at least for me, are ones that kind of narrow down the timeline to be really specific. “Big” questions are thoughtful, I don’t doubt, but it’s hard for me to answer them because so much can happen in one week or one month that is contradictory (in bed this day, went to the zoo this day, couldn’t afford groceries this day, got some extra money and shouldn’t have made that impulse buy, felt anxious, felt happy….) Instead of asking big questions about what someone does, how their week was, what have you been up to lately, try these smaller, less overwhelming questions!

•How are you feeling today?

•Were you able to work this week?

•What’s something nice you did this week?

•Did you have any important doctor appointments this week?

•Tell me one new thing about your health.

•What kind of questions are helpful for me to ask?

•Why do you sometimes need to sleep and sometimes not?

And many more examples!