Nurse Words

All the feels

During our reading lesson this morning, we had a mini-lesson on “feelings” words. I drew a T-chart on the board:

We had a class discussion about this chart, and what the difference is between the two sides. We needed to figure out how to label it, you see. We quickly determined that the left side, “happy,” “angry,” and “excited,” should be labeled Feelings: Emotional. The students could all recognize that these were feelings that we feel with our hearts and our heads (and sometimes our guts!). The other side proved more difficult to describe. “When you’re sick,” was one suggestion. I added “warm” and “comfortable” so that there were some positive feelings on the list. “Nurse words!” exclaimed one girl. We agreed that this list definitely contains words that we would use to tell the nurse how we are feeling in our bodies.

(Sidenote: this is the going-to-the-nurse-iest class I have EVER experienced.)

Eventually we did come up with the word Physical for the right side label. It seemed to be eye-opening for the 4th graders to consider the similarities and differences between these types of words, and it started my brain a’hummin’ a bit as well. I especially sparked on one comment, “I can’t feel happy or a good emotion if my body doesn’t feel good.”

*brain explosion*

It is true that when we are sick, we are not often happy or joyful or excited. Folks with chronic pain are often down and depressed. I find that I am short-tempered if I have a headache, or if I’m exhausted. There’s the phenomenon of HANGRY. I’m also told that exercise releases “endorphins” or some such nonsense. (kidding, no lectures please) Our physical well-being certainly affects our mood, that’s not a revelation.

What is sometimes missed (or dismissed) is the inverse situation: our emotional feelings often affect our physical selves. Happiness brings a warm glow to my body. Excitement often makes it harder to concentrate on fine details and you know, work. When I’m nervous, my tummy gets jumpy — sometimes even queasy. Stress and worry often bring on a banger of a headache. When I’m sad, I move slower and my body aches.

Dear Reader, this week is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Each year, more than 1 in 5 adults experiences some type of mental illness. That means that at any given time, 20% of the people you know are Going Through It. Last summer’s depression was a wake-up call for me. I rarely left my bed because I didn’t feel able to. I felt heavy and sore and my eyes burned and my head ached. When I think about the fact that some people have much longer, much more frequent, much more severe battles with depression, the empathy wave almost takes me out.

I watch kids with ADHD battle to stay in their own skins every day. I watch them flail around, utterly uncomfortable in their own bodies. They want to be able to participate in our class discussion but their ears are ringing or their hands are buzzing or the restlessness in their limbs is torturing them every moment. I don’t require a ton of “sitting still” in my class — they are allowed to stand and bounce and wiggle, as long as I get the feeling they’re paying attention and not invading other students’ spaces. Regardless, I often feel I am torturing children.

I’m not going to lecture you about trauma and the whole child, about the anxiety that has seen a definite uptick since the COVID years (and was definitely present before that happened). What I’m going to say is this:

• Mental health is physical health — mental illness is physical illness.

• People around you, people you love, might be struggling.

• People around you, people you… don’t love, might be struggling.

• Both kinds of people — all kinds of people — need our compassion, forgiveness, understanding, and care.

• We expect too much out of humans, including ourselves.

• We need more grace.

Take care of yourselves. Don’t hurt yourself. The world needs you.

Thanks for reading.

Love, Susie