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Riding in car causes draining fatigue.

Dr.Patient

There is no kinship like the one we share!
Messages
505
Location
USA
When I ride (not driving) in a car, I feel draining. This has made me homebound. I have to ask my wife to go slow, about 30-35 miles an hour, and I go less than 5 miles from home, about a couple of times a month. Any acceleration worsens my draining.

Interestingly, flying does not do this.

Any of you have any ideas on how to deal with this, thanks in advance!
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
When I ride (not driving) in a car, I feel draining. This has made me homebound. I have to ask my wife to go slow, about 30-35 miles an hour, and I go less than 5 miles from home, about a couple of times a month. Any acceleration worsens my draining.

Interestingly, flying does not do this.

Any of you have any ideas on how to deal with this, thanks in advance!
Could it be an OI issue? Many of us who are/were homebound don't typically sit upright with our feet down very much, so we compensate to some extent for OI issues while at home. When we have to sit up in a car, OI problems raise their ugly heads. If that were the problem, I'd expect you to have the same problem flying, though. o_O

Perhaps it's an over-stimulation issue. Have you tried closing your eyes and wearing headphones during the trip to see if that changes anything?

If acceleration or speed was the problem, I'd expect it to me much worse in an airplane.
 

jimells

Senior Member
Messages
2,009
Location
northern Maine
Too much visual information definitely causes me problems. I can't watch most TV programs - frequent edits and shaky cam drive me nuts with anxiety. Before I can absorb a change in perspective, it changes again! Films and TV made in the Olden Days (before computers made it easy to have 60 edits per minute) don't have this effect on me.

I can still drive the ten miles to the grocery a few times a month, but it's all rural, and there are few other vehicles on the roads I drive, so there are few moving objects for brain and eyes to deal with.

I have a full-size pickup, which puts me up fairly high, and the world appears to go by the window a little slower than in a car six inches off the ground. I'm not sure what causes this illusion, but it's really noticeable in big trucks, which I used to drive, a very long time ago.
 

Dr.Patient

There is no kinship like the one we share!
Messages
505
Location
USA
I think it is happening because of the close distance from the car to the ground, it is kinda putting me in a microjogging type motion with the vibration, which is causing immediate draining.

On the plane, I am much higher up. The acceleration does not seem to vibrate me. Although lately I haven't been in a bad turbulence for some amount of time, I suspect I would experience the draining if I had been.

If anybody has this riding problem, maybe they found a way to handle this?
 

Dr.Patient

There is no kinship like the one we share!
Messages
505
Location
USA
Could it be an OI issue? Many of us who are/were homebound don't typically sit upright with our feet down very much, so we compensate to some extent for OI issues while at home. When we have to sit up in a car, OI problems raise their ugly heads. If that were the problem, I'd expect you to have the same problem flying, though. o_O

Perhaps it's an over-stimulation issue. Have you tried closing your eyes and wearing headphones during the trip to see if that changes anything?

If acceleration or speed was the problem, I'd expect it to me much worse in an airplane.

Yes, I have tried them, no difference.
 

Dr.Patient

There is no kinship like the one we share!
Messages
505
Location
USA
Too much visual information definitely causes me problems. I can't watch most TV programs - frequent edits and shaky cam drive me nuts with anxiety. Before I can absorb a change in perspective, it changes again! Films and TV made in the Olden Days (before computers made it easy to have 60 edits per minute) don't have this effect on me.

I can still drive the ten miles to the grocery a few times a month, but it's all rural, and there are few other vehicles on the roads I drive, so there are few moving objects for brain and eyes to deal with.

I have a full-size pickup, which puts me up fairly high, and the world appears to go by the window a little slower than in a car six inches off the ground. I'm not sure what causes this illusion, but it's really noticeable in big trucks, which I used to drive, a very long time ago.

Maybe a higher placed truck could help me...
 

Dr.Patient

There is no kinship like the one we share!
Messages
505
Location
USA
Or maybe a neurological motion sickness. It's a problem I get once in a while, and it can make car trips (or watching TV) very unpleasant.

No motion sickness, I have no other symptoms other than draining fatigue.
 

SDSue

Southeast
Messages
1,066
This may sound wacky, but you might want to consider optokinetic nystagmus, which has become a big trigger for my vertigo and/or fatigue. I can no longer scroll rapidly on devices, and I've learned to block my peripheral vision when riding in a car. This is from Wikipedia:

Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) is nystagmus that occurs in response to a rotation movement. It is present normally. The optokinetic reflex allows the eye to follow objects in motion when the head remains stationary (e.g., observing individual telephone poles on the side of the road as one travels by them in a car).

Needless to say, it can use a lot of brain power. In planes, there are no telephone pole stimuli so the brain is more at rest. This is the reason many people experience motion sickness in a car but not on a plane. In slower cars, the stimuli are also moving more slowly and less likely to invoke nystagmus. This mechanism is the reason those with motion sickness are taught to focus on one object on the horizon.

 

Dr.Patient

There is no kinship like the one we share!
Messages
505
Location
USA
This may sound wacky, but you might want to consider optokinetic nystagmus, which has become a big trigger for my vertigo and/or fatigue. I can no longer scroll rapidly on devices, and I've learned to block my peripheral vision when riding in a car. This is from Wikipedia:



Needless to say, it can use a lot of brain power. In planes, there are no telephone pole stimuli so the brain is more at rest. This is the reason many people experience motion sickness in a car but not on a plane. In slower cars, the stimuli are also moving more slowly and less likely to invoke nystagmus. This mechanism is the reason those with motion sickness are taught to focus on one object on the horizon.


I feel draining even with my eyes closed.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
It sounds like @Dr.Patient is asking if anyone else has this problem and how they've dealt with it. Of the 6 people I know personally with ME, none of them have the problem of being drained of energy from motion without visual/auditory stimuli. Some people have dizziness and motion sickness. Others have trouble sitting upright and get exhausted from sitting up in a car. Visual over-stimulation wears some people out. But exhaustion from motion alone without other symptoms is a new one to me.

Anyone else have this symptom?
 

daisybell

Senior Member
Messages
1,613
Location
New Zealand
I find being a passenger in a car extremely exhausting. For me, I think the factors at play are the changing movement so that I need to use my core muscles for holding my position. I get very sore and tired very quickly. It's much worse in some cars than others, worse on twisty roads or in stop-start traffic. If I drive, then I can control the car motion to reduce some of that, but I get very tired from the concentration. I've always got car-sick so I have to see the road.
 

AndyPandy

Making the most of it
Messages
1,928
Location
Australia
@Dr.Patient In the early stages of the illness when I was at my worst this was a significant problem for me. Just a short ride in the car to the doctor triggered nausea, dizziness, severe fatigue, constricted throat, loss of voice, difficulty breathing.

Just the activity of riding in the car, sitting up and stabilising using muscles amounted to overdoing it and exacerbated symptoms. Like @daisybell the changing movements, stop-start and winding roads make it worse. I am much better in a plane, where the movements are minimal.

This has improved over time, but I still can't tolerate longer distance car travel as a passenger. I need lots of breaks where I can lie down somewhere. I know I need to rest as soon these symptoms start to appear.

Best wishes, Andy
 
Last edited:

daisybell

Senior Member
Messages
1,613
Location
New Zealand
I'm glad to read that plane rides are better!
I find that the type of car makes a big difference too.. Soft seats, good headrests and not too firm suspension all help to reduce the problem for me. I also tilt the seat back a bit so I am more supported and can rest my head.
Then I nag my husband to drive slowly!! (Which he hates.....both my nagging and driving slowly!)
 

PennyIA

Senior Member
Messages
728
Location
Iowa
Sadly, I'm stuck in the driver's seat far more often. But driving to take my son to his dad's is almost crippling for me.

I've got things sorted where I have a lumbar support pillow added to my seat, drive with cruise control as much as possible, and have a heating pad that I can plug into an adapter which lets me apply heat to the various pain-points that come from being in the seat. Those are all things that would bother me (well except the need for cruise control) even if I was just a passenger.
 

cmt12

Senior Member
Messages
166
When I ride (not driving) in a car, I feel draining. This has made me homebound. I have to ask my wife to go slow, about 30-35 miles an hour, and I go less than 5 miles from home, about a couple of times a month. Any acceleration worsens my draining.

Interestingly, flying does not do this.

Any of you have any ideas on how to deal with this, thanks in advance!
The only thing that can be done is to avoid the situation if you can. I've had a lot of experience with some grueling long car trips.