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If Your Illness Makes Showering a Struggle, These 16 Memes Are for You

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For many healthy folks, showering is a routine part of the day – a brief activity that gets squeezed in before work or after the gym. But for those who live with health conditions, showering can be much more complicated.

Maybe you have an illness that causes a lot of fatigue and exhaustion, and you just don’t have the energy to make it into the shower – much less stand there and complete all the personal cleansing and grooming you need to do. Maybe you have a chronic pain condition, and it hurts to raise your arms above your head, or feel the sting of water droplets against your skin. Maybe you have depression and struggle with the lack of motivation it can cause.

There are countless reasons why a person’s health can make showering difficult (or, at times, impossible). And whether you need to sit down in the shower, use a shower stool, only take baths or rely on dry shampoo and baby wipes most days, know that is 100 percent OK. There are so many folks in the same boat who understand; you are most certainly not alone.

Though the struggles that come with showering aren’t funny, sometimes it can be helpful to laugh about some of the more ridiculous aspects with others who “get it.” If humor is one of the tools you use to cope with your health issues, the following memes are for you.

1. When a shower wipes you out for the rest of the day:

you don't know what fatigue is until you've had to rest after taking a shower
via Pinterest

2. When dry shampoo and baby wipes are your lifeline:

marble statue with arm raised and the caption: sniffing your armpit to see if you can go another day even though you already used dry shampoo on your entire body three days in a row
via @alrightmom Instagram

3. When you have to rest in your PJs before and after a shower:

changing out of pyjamas to shower and then immediately putting a clean pair of pyjamas back on is chronic illness culture
via @TinyWriterLaura Twitter

4. When you immediately collapse in bed, unmoving, after taking a shower:

me sitting in a towel for 13 years after a shower: dog wrapped in hand towel
via @youlaughmeme Instagram

5. When you debate how long you can make dry shampoo last:

Shower thoughts Spoonie: its been a couple of days since I showered Spoonie: *really does not want to shower, is in pain, is too tired* Spoonie: can i pretend my hair is just shiny or is it just too far gone? Spoonie: *has to shower*
via chronicillschronicpills Tumblr

6. When showering makes you feel like you just ran a marathon:

how I feel after showering
via @chronicillnessmemes Instagram

7. When you just don’t have enough energy for both showering and cooking:

you know you have a chronic illness when you have to make a choice between breakfast and a shower
via Imgflip

8. When your illness makes pretty much any kind of movement hard:

getting in the shower: nah, I don't really feel like it. getting out of the shower: nah, I don't really feel like it
via Pinterest

9. When you have to give yourself a pep talk to try to make it through a shower:

some days, I can conquer the world. Other days, it takes me three hours to convince myself to shower.
via @supportforspoonies Instagram

10. When shaving your legs is just too exhausting:

cartoon of woman saying "yay sunshine! time for my annual shave!" and only shaving the lower two inches of her ankles to wear cropped jeans
via Becky Barnicoat

11. When you finally get clean and wonder why you don’t do this every day:

me: oh my gosh my hair is so lovely and cleeeean and beautiful and I feel like an actual person. Why don't I shower more often? my chronic illness: … me: oh…yeah…
via pain-does-not-discriminate Tumblr

12. When your exhaustion overpowers your need to shower:

when you know you need to shower but you're just too tired to move: photo of a dog lying in mud
via me.me

13. When you sit down in the shower to rest and accidentally fall asleep:

this is what happens when you fall asleep in the shower: person with very wrinkled hands
via Reddit

14. When you need to recharge after a shower:

when you get out of the shower in the morning and you sit down on the sofa, holding your coffee like: dog in robe with a towel on its head
via me.me

15. When you get exhausted halfway through your shower:

every time I take a shower, I end up sitting down until the water gets cold
via makeameme.org

16. When you finally have enough energy to shower:

finally work up strength to shower, too tired to dress
via memegenerator

If showering is difficult because of your illness, check out the following stories from our community:

Originally published: March 14, 2019
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