Does anybody else have trouble just resting?

[November Girl]

I know there are times (like right now) that I should be resting, not reclining with my laptop & being online. But some days I can only take so much. Today, I rested and/or dozed for an hour or so, then got up. I guess I might have read in bed, but the room was getting stuffy.

When I manage to stay in my energy envelope I feel better, and actually get more done. But way too often I use enough energy to read, or watch TV or whatever when I'm tired - when I could lie down & actually store up some energy for something that needs more mental or physical energy.

Maybe I should tape a reminder note to my bathroom mirror. "You are worth resting for"

 

[SOC]

Hell, yes! Before I got ill, my husband used to tease that I never sat down. I was not a resting sort of person. Learning to rest has been torture. However, the evidence got to me. If I didn't rest, I kept getting worse.

Exercise testing and the heart rate monitor made all the difference to me in adjusting to rest. I don't have to make the decision to rest, the alarm tells me I have to.

Which isn't to say I don't have rebellious moments and overdo.

 

[hurtingallthetimet]

Hell, yes! Before I got ill, my husband used to tease that I never sat down. I was not a resting sort of person. Learning to rest has been torture. However, the evidence got to me. If I didn't rest, I kept getting worse.

Exercise testing and the heart rate monitor made all the difference to me in adjusting to rest. I don't have to make the decision to rest, the alarm tells me I have to.

Which isn't to say I don't have rebellious moments and overdo.

i was the same way SOC always busy busy busy...and its weird even now i will be drop down exhausted but cant sleep....these illness are very strange...but it is good to lay down and rest even if you cant sleep im learning that...

 

[taniaaust1]

Ive always been a person who loves to be doing stuff, I HATE doing nothing. This hasnt changed even when ill.. I still hate doing nothing so hence often have to FORCE myself to be still, lay in bed or whatever...

You probably can feel the energy bouncing off my posts.. having to constantly contain it, as if I dont, I just over do and make myself ill.. its always trying to burst out of me. Irronically right now Im feeling enough energy that Im wanting to go for a 5km run..but I wouldnt last even to the end of the little street!!

Its far easier now then when I was bedridden and couldnt do the most minorly things.. now I jump around from doing one sitting activity to bed activity to sitting activity to an occassional on feet activity... sometimes hard to keep still due to that want to be doing things. It sucks having a post excertional illness... I feel great, until I excert.

Im now days thou an expert at keeping myself busy with low physical grade activities.

Right now Im feeling kind of hyper due to good pacing (which is great which means I will have energy to be cooking dinner tonight but I have to hold onto this energy until then, so have to keep forcing myself to do sitting activities till then).

 

[SickOfSickness]

Yes it's hard at first when you get ill, but it is also hard after years of this. You get tired of so much of your life being laying down or sitting, and hearing of the things other people do.

I hate insomnia so much. Then I have to do boring stuff. If I could fall asleep faster, then I could wake up faster and do things. Instead all these hours of my life of laying in bed or sitting at the computer trying to pass the time.

 

[xchocoholic]

I'm looking at this too. I get jazzed up from anything my body considers an excitotoxin so I'm trying to eliminate those.
The last thing I found that id this too me was caffeine.

Excitotoxins are bad for our brains. I have enough damage already ...

Being without that jazzed up feeling is new and odd tho. I have energy but only after I've layed down for an hour to satisfy my upper body's need for blood. I'm affected profoundly by OI / hypoperfusion.

tc ... x

 

[Rooney]

I struggle with this. Then try to nap and can't relax. Antihistamine to the rescue. It helps me relax so I love the stuff.

 

[viota]

i should rest but i find it impossible then i get tired but wired.

 

[ahimsa]

The short answer is yes, it's hard to make myself rest (see the quote in my signature for the reminder to myself that I need rest). Here's my reasoning (a bit over-simplified but I hope it makes sense).

For me, it's a balance between my physical well being and my psychological well being. My body might sometimes get overstressed by doing too much around the house. (or going out with friends on those rare but happy occasions) But, on the other hand, I would be very psychologically stressed out, and feel completely worthless, if I did not contribute in some small way to our household (it's just my husband and myself). And I'd be unhappy if I never pushed myself to spend time with my friends.

If I were much sicker than I am now, and I could not do these things at all, then that would be one thing. But since I can do a few things, albeit with symptom payback later on, then I try to do them. I try my best to strike the right balance. I try not to do so much that I'm completely crashed. But I also don't get nearly as much resting as my body needs. I would get really depressed if I rested that much.

I don't always get the balance right but that's my goal. It's hard to force myself to rest even as much as I do now. There's a certain level of symptoms that I can tolerate. It's worth it for me to push a bit, and have those symptoms, so that I can feel that I contributed something.

My ability to help out has changed over the years by quite -- it has gone up and down (I'm not able to work now but I'm also not at my very worst which was back in 1991). But it's just my personality that I want to push my boundaries, which is why I used to do rock climbing, weight lifting, hiking, and so on.

I'm not saying I recommend this for others. And for all I know I have damaged my health with this approach (esp. during those years I kept working because I was too stubborn to give up). I'm just saying that this is what I'm able to live with.

PS. I'm lucky in that I don't get that wired but tired feeling. When I'm crashed, I'm crashed, and I don't want to move.

 

[Sparrow]

YES. Yes yes yes, yes YES yes, absolutely yes!

...Yes.