Coping with fatigue (How too)

“What do you do?” this is the question that those who want to get to know you ask. I was asked this many times when I was sick for the 5 years, it felt shameful not being able to answer, because I was too sick to have extracurricular outside of my sleeping bubble and being too tired to socialise with others, I was in looking after myself mode and listening to my body that needed loads of time to heal.

We all need to listen to our body’s whether you have chronic illness or not. That sounds simple right? Unfortunately many people don’t because of the western society’s expectations of working a 9-5 day, then going home cooking dinner, putting the kids to bed, and so it goes on, but many people seem to think that your lazy if you listen to your body, when it’s tired you need to rest it.

Here are ways to cope with fatigue for us spoonies:

• Go to bed when your tired (don’t push through the feeling of being tired)

• Get to know the signs of overdoing it and stop what you’re doing. (For me personally whenever I have one of my FNDs/brain freeze is a sign I’m overdoing it, which is a tell tale sign for me overdoing it.

• Does your body need a rest? Or coffee? Or food? Remember to fuel your body, it doesn’t have to be loads, but little pieces can make a difference for your body

• Have realistic expectations of what you can and can’t do, don’t work yourself into an early grave

• Planning and pace out what you need to do,

• Prioritise from most important to the least important task.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help (Delegate tasks to others) It’s ok to ask for help.)

• Don’t apologise for being tired, it’s OK to be tired and you and your body comes first!

Happy mind=Happy body

Instead of asking others “what do you do” why not try to change it up a bit? ask,“So tell me about you?”