I’m in social work with people diagnosed with significant mental illness. ADLs (activities for daily living) are the things we all should be doing every day- eating, washing, laundry, tidying up your living space. They don’t seem like much, they are usually the first indication of a poor mental state, and as the mental state worsens, they can become huge barriers to other things we need to survive- like employment and housing. If you can’t keep your body clean, you risk losing or not finding employment, isolation from peers that may not want to be around someone that has poor hygiene. If your place is trashed, you risk eviction. If you’re not working, also eviction, lack of transportation, it all piles up. We stress ADLs at my workplace because once those start to slide, it snowballs into a complete loss of control of your life, only worsening mental illness and the effects.

It’s very crucial that if one starts to lack in these areas, that they reach out to a mental health provider or nonprofit agency so that the person may get back on track before it becomes unmanageable.