It was not until my time at the Fatigue Clinic UNSW That I finally understood the different types of fatigue that i needed to address – each with a different approach, reason and differing strategies to help alleviate them.
I’m going to talk briefly about 2 of them
- Mental Fatigue
- Physical Fatigue
I cannot express my gratefulness to the staff at the Fatigue Clinic particularly Dr C who worked with me in regards to physical fatigue, and Dr S who worked with me in regards to the mental side of fatigue and helped with coping strategies.
Mental Fatigue I will address in the next post
Physical Fatigue is really hard to define, it is different to being run down or tired, but similar. One of the most common responses I have gotten from people as we have talked about my chronic fatigue condition is – “why don’t you just get some more rest” or “everyone gets tired why can’t you just push through it”
To explain – I can sleep but the sleep is not refreshing or restful. When I wake up in the morning i feel unrefreshed and more tired than when i went to bed. I do not feel refreshed, energised or rested after sleeping. This is not just every now and then but every night – and it seems to have a cumulative and compounding effect as in – being Tired, sleep, wake tired, got to bed tired, wake up more tired, and so the cycle continues (and has been continuing for some years now)
Other physical things are muscle soreness, aches, endurance and strength.
Later i will talk specifically about
Pacing
Programming
The fatigue cycle
SB
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