These effects are proportionate in intensity and duration. In the course of a day, a bit too much normal activity around the house can very quickly lead to mental confusion, which half an hour of lying down will dispel. After a few weeks of riding my bike, (following advice which I knew I shouldn’t have), the initial, exercise-induced euphoria was replaced by a relapse which took a year of rest to overcome.
Tragically, the story of many, if not most of the severely or very severely ill is of a strong- willed individual determined to fight through their symptoms, often having been given well- intentioned advice to exercise, but too often having been told that their financial support requires them to cooperate with a programme of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Graded Exercise Therapy, whose initial moderate illness transformed into a state of constant, intractable pain, complete incapacity, and, I only recently learned, intermittent paralysis.[5, 6, 7]