Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Coping with coping.....
Found another goody on a fibromyalgia Facebook page. This article documents research on whether the "energy envelope" strategy (adjusting your activity level to not exceed the amount of energy you have for it) actually has a correlation to severity of CFIDS/ME:
Conserving Energy and Coping Work in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Except When They Don’t: Study Suggests Large Group Gets No Help
Unfortunately, I fall in the "sh*t out of luck" category. I have scaled back my activity to a point where if I did any less, I wouldn't be able to take care of myself, which in turn would cause my health to get even worse. To me, the "energy envelope" is something invented by someone who has never dealt with uncertainty of chronic illness. It is not always possible to know how much energy I will have in a given day; it varies, and sometimes I feel like doing a lot more than is good for me. Also, I cannot always tell when I am overdoing it until after the activity has ceased; the interval can be several hours later or even a day or two later when I end up having to pay the consequences. Even the flares themselves vary; for instance, I participated in a picnic after church yesterday and felt somewhat ok at the time but began falling apart about 15 minutes after I went outside. Got home and dragged the rest of the day but didn't actually crash until midnight, and then I ended up having to sleep for 12 hours. But the week before, I went to church and then straight home, and guess what? Same reaction even with less activity to trigger it.
Conserving Energy and Coping Work in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Except When They Don’t: Study Suggests Large Group Gets No Help
Unfortunately, I fall in the "sh*t out of luck" category. I have scaled back my activity to a point where if I did any less, I wouldn't be able to take care of myself, which in turn would cause my health to get even worse. To me, the "energy envelope" is something invented by someone who has never dealt with uncertainty of chronic illness. It is not always possible to know how much energy I will have in a given day; it varies, and sometimes I feel like doing a lot more than is good for me. Also, I cannot always tell when I am overdoing it until after the activity has ceased; the interval can be several hours later or even a day or two later when I end up having to pay the consequences. Even the flares themselves vary; for instance, I participated in a picnic after church yesterday and felt somewhat ok at the time but began falling apart about 15 minutes after I went outside. Got home and dragged the rest of the day but didn't actually crash until midnight, and then I ended up having to sleep for 12 hours. But the week before, I went to church and then straight home, and guess what? Same reaction even with less activity to trigger it.
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