{"id":580158,"date":"2026-04-03T19:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580158\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T19:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:24:07","slug":"counselor-shares-advice-for-people-struggling-to-complete-daily-care-tasks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580158\/","title":{"rendered":"Counselor Shares Advice For People Struggling To Complete Daily Care Tasks"},"content":{"rendered":"

People tend to misunderstand that depression is so much more than just feeling sad. It makes it difficult to muster the motivation and energy to complete tasks that seem simple to everyone else, like taking a shower<\/a>.<\/p>\n

KC Davis, a licensed professional counselor and the founder of Struggle Care<\/a>, understands this from both personal and professional experience. In 2023, she gave a TED Talk entitled “How to Do Laundry When You’re Depressed.” Davis offered sage guidance for completing basic care tasks when it’s hard to do anything at all, and reminded everyone that they are not a failure if they struggle with these things.<\/p>\n

Davis explained that there is nothing wrong with making accommodations for yourself when you need them.<\/p>\n

Davis had tips for how to cook, clean, and maintain basic self-care for those struggling with depression, bereavement, job loss, or any other myriad of challenges that life might present.<\/p>\n

“If it’s too hard to shower today, grab the baby wipes,” she urged. \u201cIt may not be the normal way to do it, but you deserve to be clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we all have to do things like eat to survive, Davis said this does not have to look perfect or be overly complicated. \u201cIf it\u2019s too hard to cook dinner, get paper plates, heat up something frozen,” she continued. “You\u2019ll go back to cooking and washing another day, but the day is not today. And in the meantime, you deserve to eat.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re too depressed to do your dishes, get a two-gallon Ziploc bag and keep it in your bedroom, because if you put a dirty plate into a 2-gallon Ziploc bag and seal it, it will keep the bugs away. Because you deserve a sanitary environment even if you can\u2019t get out of bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: 4 Unexpected Signs Of Depression That Don\u2019t Feel Like Depression At All<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s easy to feel guilty when you can’t complete self-care tasks, but Davis said there’s no reason to.<\/p>\n

\"woman Gladskikh Tatiana | Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Davis explained that she works in the intersection of mental health and care tasks, and she\u2019s uncovered a philosophy. \u201cAnd it all starts with one simple idea. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, it doesn\u2019t make you a good person or a bad person,” she argued. “Listen to me: care tasks are morally neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, completing those tasks doesn’t define a person as good or bad. Those tasks just are, and even when you can\u2019t get them done, you are still worthy of care and love.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we liberate ourselves from the idea that we are a good person or a bad person with care tasks, we can stop thinking about the right way to do things, about the way that things should be done, and instead, start thinking about what we can do with our current barriers to improve our quality of life today,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Survey Reveals The One Thing Most Americans Actually Agree Is The Absolute Worst<\/a><\/p>\n

Seeing care tasks as morally neutral allows us to stop measuring our worth based on anyone else\u2019s standards and find what works for us as individuals.<\/p>\n

This is far from a concept that Davis just came up with on her own. Psychologist Deborah Serani, PsyD, confirmed<\/a> that dealing with depression can make these things that once felt minor suddenly seem “unattainable.”<\/p>\n

Despite some people’s belief that depression is not serious, science shows<\/a> that it actually changes the way a person’s brain works. Serani explained that living with depression usually means your frontal lobes are not functioning properly.<\/p>\n

\"depressed MART PRODUCTION | Pexels<\/p>\n

This part of the brain controls executive functioning, which includes things like judgment and planning. This is why it becomes so difficult to bring yourself to complete tasks that the rest of the world believes are no big deal.<\/p>\n

Davis acknowledged that for people living in a world inundated with \u201cperfect Pinterest aesthetic, that it can feel like struggling with these tasks is a moral failure. Like it\u2019s because we\u2019re lazy, or irresponsible, or immature.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that, she said, is completely wrong. \u201cYou have to give yourself permission to do a little. To do it with shortcuts. To do it while breaking all of the rules,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd replace that inner voice that says, \u2018I\u2019m failing\u2019 with one that says, \u2018I\u2019m having a hard time right now. And people who are having a hard time deserve compassion.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Allowing ourselves to just be “good enough” when it comes to navigating an increasingly\u00a0challenging world means giving ourselves grace and showing ourselves the love and care we innately deserve, something Davis clearly supports.<\/p>\n

RELATED: The Burnt Toast Theory Explains The Inconvenient Way The Universe Gets You To Exactly Where You\u2019re Meant To Be<\/a><\/p>\n

Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a writer who covers psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help topics, and human interest stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People tend to misunderstand that depression is so much more than just feeling sad. It makes it difficult…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1129,49,48,74290,222122,6319,850,84,393,394,5584,13471,148533],"class_list":{"0":"post-580158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-counselor","12":"tag-depressed","13":"tag-depression","14":"tag-entertainment-and-news","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-mental-health","17":"tag-mentalhealth","18":"tag-self","19":"tag-self-care","20":"tag-shower"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}