How to Be Sick so You Get Well Faster

School is in full swing and warm days with cool nights are increasing here in the US.  Either one of those events—or both—could contribute to something we’d all rather avoid:  getting sick.

Sickness, of course, isn’t limited to the Fall.  You can become sick any time of the year and for a variety of reasons.  But during this particular time of year, the goal of avoiding sickness (like colds) is a nagging concern rising to the surface.

Before you run out to your local drugstore and stock up on medicinal supplies, consider this commonsense wisdom I’m sharing here.  No, I’m not a medical professional, so do NOT rely solely on this advice.  I’m just sharing what has worked for me and my family.

As much as we’d love to never get sick, the chances are still good that we will.  This is especially true if you’re not taking care of yourself that well in general and even more so whenever you’re pushing yourself harder and are stressed.

Once you start feeling achy, tired, and otherwise just miserable, you’re going to be glad you read this post!  I’m going to tell you now what you will need to do then so you’re back to healthy faster!

My advice:  Stay in bed.  Spend the day in the confines of your bedroom, leaving only to go the bathroom.

And do NOT bring into your bedroom a bunch of work or even entertainment.  If you’re truly sick, you’re not going to feel like concentrating anyway, and lights from electronics (TV, laptops, smartphones) will probably make your eyes hurt.

Why this restriction?  Because your body needs you to stop wasting its energy on things that are not helping you fight your infection.  Your body needs to channel all its energy into fighting disease.  So, let it!  Just walking around and even trying to do the thinking required for comprehending a TV show or a book or for doing any work is draining away energy your body could be using for healing.

Use only a minimum of over-the-counter (OTC) meds, if any at all.  Lots of people have basically built up a resistance to this stuff by taking it so they could keep going on with life as normal.  Either unwilling or unable to pause their work/world for even one day of bedrest, they’ve ingested more of the OTC than would have been needed if they’d spent a day in bed.  Consequently, the public has demanded stronger meds and higher dosages, only to build up their tolerance levels to new heights because they’ve relied solely on the medicine to make them feel better.  What they’ve needed from the start was to stop and rest.  Fully rest.

I’ve discovered that for some ailments, there is no medicine that helps.  This is why I say you may not even need any OTC’s.  The only cure for these types of sickness is to get the rest you should have been getting all along.  (EXEMPTION:  IF YOU’RE SICK ENOUGH TO WARRANT DOCTOR-PRESCRIBED MEDICINE, THEN IGNORE WHAT I SAY HERE AND TAKE THAT MEDICINE ALONG WITH RESTING!)

My personal experience behind this point is headaches.  I’ve discovered that a sleep-deprivation headache will NOT be helped by any headache-relief pills.  The only cure is to go to bed, close my eyes, and sleep.  (I wonder how many people think they have migraines when they truly just have a sleep-deprivation headache?)

I first learned the value of this quarantine method at college.  The school policy was sick students stay in their dorm room for 24 hours.  If you weren’t able to get to classes, then you weren’t going anywhere.  No leaving the building (unless for a doctor’s appointment).  Not even roaming the halls of the dorm was allowed!  Even when I was very sick, that kind of limited activity in the small confines of my room was all I needed to feel better by morning.  Usually I was feeling better by the evening of my sick day!

This kind of strict limitation of activity and space will also work wonders for curing a child who isn’t sick but is just hoping to get out of going to school.  The boredom of the sick room will be welcomed by only the truly sick, and even then, the truly sick will eventually be eager for the 24-hour period to be over.

But don’t cave in and stop taking this “medicine” just because you feel better (ever read something like that on a prescription?).  Finish the whole 24 hours.

Trust me, you will feel so much better the morning after your sick day that you’ll be bounding out of bed, eager to get back to school/work and your life!  And now you know how to be sick so you can feel better faster.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Featured Image by mojpe from Pixabay