Thurday Thoughts: Fatigue

So for Manual Monday the topic was Fatigue and that got me thinking about it.

For my fatigue I mentioned I take Rhodiola which helps me a lot. Twice a day. As soon as the fatigue hit me again I take another. It helps me manage it. I can’t recommend it enough but talk to your doctor of course. It is also a nootropic so in improves cognition. The studies show it improves it in relation to the fatigue… so when you are fatigued you are also mentally fatigued, and it will likewise help with that. I recently increased my dose to 200mg a day, and at that level, it helps with FM fatigue all day, unless it is extreme.

And here I wrote about it The brain fog, cognitive dysfunction, and fibromyalgia

and this one Fatigue and fibromyalgia

Basic tips for fatigue are:

• Planning rest times- because we literally need to build up the energy to do anything.
• Change routines- to fit your fatigue, if you can, in fact, do this. So plan down times. Plan rest times. Plan recovery times. Pacing in the extreme, people, pacing, pacing, pacing.
• Exercise- is a big one. Not major exercise. Mild exercise. Whatever you can literally manage. Start real slow. Like a ten-minute walk sort of exercise. But it can be stimulating.
• Short naps- like power naps. Not late in the day. 90 minutes being the longest because that is a sleep cycle.
• Sleep hygiene- well we have serious issues with sleep as is, so always a go idea to have good sleep hygiene.
• Stress reduction- I think this is always on the list and likely because the fatigue is caused by a lot of other factors including pain, so reducing stress can sometimes help manage our other symptoms.

I find it a pretty endless problem though. Like thick heavyweight wants to pull me into a nap. Like sleep sucked the energy out of me instead of giving me some. I got nothing when I get up. You have to wade through the fatigue to get anything done with a 1/4 full tank dropping to empty within seconds. Soon coasting on fumes.

There isn’t an easy way to deal with this if you have a semblance of a life. Fatigue is substantially worse than other people think it is. Just a wee bit tired are you? No, I am so fatigued my body craves a thousand year nap. Exercise does make me fatigued, not sure how it makes it better. Immediately after I have exercise fatigue, where I can barely walk from ten minutes of exercise. I would say it is better at helping me sleep than anything, so I do that at night.

I would say the most important tips on that list are giving yourself recovery time, for anything. Go out on a Saturday, not a Sunday if you work, you need the Sunday for recovery time. And pacing, because the pacing is the only thing we can do with extreme fatigue, we cannot push ourselves.