By the clock
A colleague told me about someone she knew who had chronic fatigue and was in a wheelchair. Recently though, she has established a routine, eating sleeping, getting up at set times every day.
Apparently, it’s helping.
I haven’t heard of this approach before, and while it doesn’t appeal to me, I can see why it might help some people. It might even help those with the worst symptoms most.
My mother had chronic fatigue for 14 years. She got it around six months before I did, and though I recovered in around 18 months, she never really got over it.
She used to drive me mad, because as soon as she began to feel better she’d overdo it and be back to square one, or worse.
I couldn’t begin to count the number of times she told me she was feeling better so she “cleaned the house and mowed the lawn”, “cleaned the windows and took the dog for a long walk” or “spent the day shopping and went out for a meal”.
She never knew when to stop.
I tried to coach her, discussing with her that though she might want to go to her the shops and do the ironing, it would be better to do one at a time, but somehow, though she knew it was true, in her heart she never got the message.
She never seemed to get the knack of listening to her body. But for people like her, a routine could take the place of that. There would be no getting up early to take advantage of extra energy, no staying up late to finish the ironing.
Now, while I’m feeling healthy, I hate the idea of forcing myself into a routine. But if you’re in a wheelchair, having breakfast at 8 am every day is going to be much less constraining than not having the strength to walk.
