The Feral Truth About Being Too Tired to Take Care of Yourself

The Feral Truth:

Self-care sounds great until you’re too tired to do literally any of it.

Drink water.

Go for a walk.

Take a break.

Do something for yourself.

Cool. Love that for me.

Except I haven’t:

• finished a cup of coffee while it’s still hot

• sat down without immediately needing to get back up

• or had a thought that wasn’t interrupted in… I don’t even know how long

  
  

And somehow I’m supposed to… what?

Journal my feelings?

I don’t even have time to feel them.

This is the part that gets skipped in every well-meaning piece of advice.

Self-care assumes you have:

time

energy

mental space

And caregiving burns through all three like it’s nothing.

So instead, self-care becomes:

• eating whatever’s closest

• showering when you can

• sitting in your car for 3 minutes of silence before going back inside

That’s it. That’s the routine.

And honestly?

Some days that is enough.

Not ideal.

Not aspirational.

But real.

Because the goal isn’t becoming your best self right now.

The goal is not completely disappearing.

So if all you did today was:

• keep someone safe

• get through the next thing

• and exist in the middle of all of it

  
  

That counts.

Even if no one sees it.

Even if it doesn’t look like “taking care of yourself.”

Even if it feels like the bare fucking minimum.

Sometimes the bare minimum is what survival looks like.

Yours in chaos,

~Kari, The Feral Caregiver