Flare-ups are one of the most difficult parts for most people with Lupus. Learning to navigate flare-ups alone can feel hopeless. Luckily there are hacks to help prevent, shorten, and better understand how to deal with lupus flare-ups. Let’s jump right into it my strategy for dealing with flare-ups.
While in a flare-up it’s very important to take care of yourself and avoid any more potential triggers to give your body time to rest and recuperate. There are a few best practices that will help your body recover faster from a flare-up.
First, understand what can trigger a flare-up/ worsen a flare-up so we can avoid triggers as much as possible. Let’s look at a few triggers of lupus.
Grocery delivery
I’ve talked about shipt on here a few times before but if you don’t know what shipt is it’s a grocery delivery service that is $99 a year. I love using shipt because it’s great in times when I’m physically unable to go to the store myself. And it only takes 2 hours from when you place an order for it to be delivered to your doorstep. I at least recommend checking it out!
Brain dump
Being in a flare-up can cause mental turmoil because no matter if you’re in a flare-up or not, life around you continues. The life responsibilities pile up, having to miss out on prior plans, feeling like you’re always letting others down, etc. These are all feelings most people suffering experience at some point or another. The best way I have found to help with the mental aspect of being in a flare-up is to get everything off my mental plate so I can give my mind and body rest. Because if you’re mentally beating yourself up you are not giving your body rest.
I have a strategy to make an effective brain dump so I don’t overwhelm myself with a huge list. I make three categories: things I can handle, things I need to outsource (ask a family member/ friend), and what can be put on the back burner. This way I can get what I need done without stressing myself out and causing decision fatigue. I have free brain dump printables that have each section already made for you! Click here to go check them out.
Protect your peace
Emotions and stress directly affect the state of your autoimmune disease so when it comes to being in a flare-up it’s very important to regulate your emotions properly. If you want to read more about how stress affects your autoimmune disease click here to read “Stress and Autoimmunity”. But for now, we want to focus on giving your body a rest by giving your mind a rest. This entails cutting out toxic people, situations, and overall focusing on protecting your peace.
Flare-up plan
Having a plan already made for when I’m in a flare-up has helped me save energy and decision fatigue. I have a low, medium, and high self-care plan on a printable I made. The “low” self-care section has things like brushing my teeth, washing my face, and taking my medication. Having my “low energy” morning routine written down on paper has helped in the mentally beating myself up aspect. Before having a system in place I was upset at myself for not doing more. Having a set list that is for those days when you don’t have the energy to do anything but you have to take care of yourself. Completely stopped those feelings of being useless or I should be doing more. This might not work for everybody but it helped with my relationship with myself. If you want the printable click here. You will be taken to our free resource library where you can download as many copies as you’d like.
Support system
Having a support system is so important but I know a lot of people suffering from Lupus don’t have a direct support system or even a supportive family. I’ve found myself in the situation of not having anyone. It’s extremely isolating and can take a mental toll on people suffering from Lupus. But the great thing is there are so many free support groups online where people that are going through the same thing are searching for a community/ someone to talk to. At first, I didn’t want to join a support group but once I finally did I was extremely happy with the outcome and felt more understood than ever before.
The biggest takeaway is to take care of yourself. Which can be hard for many people because that entails not mentally beating yourself up for something you can’t control. But understanding to get better you need to be kind to yourself. The best way to look at it is how would you take care of a loved one or a friend in this situation? A Lot of the time we forget to be kind to ourselves and that saying has always stuck with me and helped me to have more grace with myself.
Leave a comment below with your Lupus flare strategy. Click here to check out our free resource library for more printables!
