Published on 12, July, 2020
Seriously, how?
Dehydration is something I've struggled with my entire life. As a child I was always dehydrated, I never remembered to drink, I didn't feel thirsty. I'm pretty sure when I die one day the cause of death will be dehydration, or kidney failure from too much dehydration. I was in hospital 2 weeks ago with dehydration and the nurses and doctors told me then that each time it will be damaging my kidneys. For me I'm thinking it's like my switch that tells me I'm thirsty and when I need to drink isn't switched on - because I never feel thirsty. Even when I'm in the deep end of dehydration I still don't think of having a drink. I've used app reminders but I don't feel thirsty so don't drink, I literally gag and nearly choke if I try to force myself to drink something.
At my last hospital visit a doctor, think it was a psych doctor was quizzing me on why this happens so frequently to me. I think what she was getting at was am I a psychotic trying to dehydrate myself repeatedly. I was asked if voices were telling me not to drink? I said no, it's just autism. They seriously try and drag mental health in to everything now. It's frustrating! A lot less mental health and more autism support would go a long way.
I had to incorporate making and drinking cups of tea into my routine. I do drink other things, but only when I'm thirsty or my mouth is dry, so I don't drink them very quickly as I don't feel thirsty very often. With a cup of tea, I have to drink it all before it goes cold and horrible, otherwise it's a waste. That keeps me drinking and therefore hydrated. If caffeine's a problem or you don't like tea I think any hot drink would work in a similar way- I know you can still drink fruit teas etc cold but a hot one that's then gone cold is nowhere near as good as one that was meant to be cold!
Hi, I spent a few years almost addicted to caffeine - mainly Coca Cola but stopped drinking in the end as it was giving me a lot of digestive grief and awful acid reflux, so now I'm mainly drinking tea, water and squash, though not too much juice as it also contributed to acid reflux.
How's your tea routine working for you? I've tried making a drinking routine but can never stick to it, it's a head scratcher for me, one I'm still trying to figure out.
It's working well for me, but I've been doing it for years at this point. I started when I first went on SSRIs because you can get a dry mouth with them and they can mess with your temperature regulation- it was something I did for that before I even realised that not feeling thirsty was an autistic thing. It's also not too strenuous a routine- one mug in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.