How do you recover from a crash?

[Tiffyshea]

Lately I'm finding it harder and harder to recover from my crashes. I have to be a lot more careful once I'm feeling better, and I've noticed that my recoveries are largely mental.

What do you guys all do when you crash? How long to they last? What seems to work for you to make it better and start moving again?

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

My crashes aren;t as bad as they were even 6 months ago, but when they hit they still feel brutal ....

The only thing I've found that helps is limiting anything even slightly stressing, including sometimes even this site, as much as I love it, and any and all phone calls, and vegging out on my bed, watching something either really interesting but uninvolving on PBS, or something really compelling but undemanding on the movie channels, which is an almost impossible oxymoron. For the last two, I use my orange, anti-blue-light glasses, just to be ultra careful. I dnt know how much they help, but they dont hurt, which in itself is a positive.

Sometimes boosting my potassium helps, but not always. Boosting my magnesium and Vit C will usually make a dent in it, but doesnt often bring me all the way back. Increasing my water intake is the first thing I do, even when dragging myself to the bathroom to then get rid of it is often a bridge too far. If I can boost my protein intake a bit, I've found that sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't.

It's the usual grab bag o'crap that this miserable little cunning conundrum of an illness is so good at rubbing our noses in. Things that helped last time don;t help this time. Things that helped 4 hours ago suddenly bite me on my posterior, especially irritating when I have to spend so much time on it.

The one thing that I always hit pretty hard when I'm starting down that dismal road is the magnesium, which has been a HUUUUGE blessing for me. There are times when I've started crashing that I realize I've been lax on my mag glycinate discipline, even tho I credit it with saving my life back in the very, very, exceptionally, really, really totally bad old days about 18-plus months ago. Even now, tho I'm much improved, if I let up on my multiple-doses-per-day of the mag, I pay for it, one way or another. And it may not cut the crash completely, but it often reduces the effects and duration of it. I use very small doses, along with 500 mgs ov Vit C, every 1 -2 hours now, depending on how bad I am and what my little internal voice says. WHen I was really bad, I was taking 50 mgs w/Vit C every 45-60 minutes, all day and much of the night.

Crashes that used to last for a week to 10 days now only hit me really hard for 3 or 4 days, maybe 5, with only the first day or two being really unpleasant. Sometimes I get lucky and get the abbreviated 1-2 day version, which is always a relief. I have no idea what swings the balance between those two time spans ....

I dont know if any of this can help you, @Tiffyshea , but I truly hope it does, and if I can think of anything else, I'll be back to share .

Like this isnt long enough

 

[Tiffyshea]

Like this isnt long enough

This is great actually, it's exactly what I was hoping for... My crashes have slowly gotten worse... I think I didn't take them seriously enough and kept doing too much. And now I'm in one that doesn't seem to be letting up no matter what I do!

The only things that seem to help are going on a short, light walk, sunshine, and easy qigong sessions. For me I seem to need a little movement, but I have to be careful to keep it light movement. Once it turns into "work" it works against me.

I might try upping my magnesium.

I'm still curious about everyone else and to see if there's anything that helps everybody overall...

 

[ljimbo423]

What do you guys all do when you crash? How long to they last? What seems to work for you to make it better and start moving again?

I just rest as much as possible and keep my physical and mental stress as low as possible. But my crashes only last 24 hours now.

I do find that I need to spend some time walking at least 2-3 times a week or I start to feel worse. Like I'm slowly moving into a flare if I don't. But I don't go out walking when I'm in a flare, it just makes it last longer.

I have improved my health a lot, from severe to fairly mild. Which has improved the time I spend in crashes from 5-14 days to only 24 hours. I can't remember having a flare or crash last more than 1 and a half days.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

easy qigong sessions

If you tolerate it well, QiGong is absolutely perfect !!! It's healing, it gets blood and lymph moving, it gently massages your organs, and for me, it precipitated a form of meditation while I was doing it ..... I used to love QiGong, and then my QiGong master moved on to other venues and a bigger and better set-up, and other shite descended on my life, leaving me no wiggle-room for anything other than the demands of the moment.

I might try upping my magnesium.

I tried several forms of magnesium with very little to no luck, and various dosages and intervals.

What finally helped me immeasurably was what I described above: small doses at varying intervals ranging from 30/45 mins when I was really really bad, to 45-60 as I got better, then 1-2 hours, which is the interval I use now.

The dose has remained constant: 50 mgs, which I managed by tracking down the only decent tablet form I could find, Solgar's Chelated Magnesium which is mag chelated (bound) to glycine. This produces a large molecule which is digested in the stomach instead of rushing off like the Mad Hatter to your intestines, which is how mag got its rep for causing diarrhea. Mag glycinate is also one of gentlest and most easily bioavailable forms. I tried citrate (bad intestinal response), threonate (which allegedly crosses the BBB and is the most calming .... I didnt find that to be true for me), orotate, malate, and two others I can't recall. None of them were worth the extra $$ ....

I'm glad my longish wheeze helped, and I'm absolutely certain that others will be posting what works for them. Unfortunately, this isnt a one-size-fits-all illness, and often what's helped someone else, or even several someone else's, may not help you. I just follow my instincts, and if something feels right (very scientific ) I give it a trial, starting at a lowish dose and increasing it gradually once it's proven that it isnt going to kick my @ss.

Good luck, and hang in. You'll fnd what works for you. Honest .

 

[Abrin]

The only thing I've found that helps is limiting anything even slightly stressing, including sometimes even this site, as much as I love it, and any and all phone calls, and vegging out on my bed, watching something either really interesting but uninvolving on PBS, or something really compelling but undemanding on the movie channels, which is an almost impossible oxymoron.

This has been my experience too.

You'd think that trying to avoid things that don't get you overexcited in a good way or a bad way would be a somewhat easy thing to do but it really is near impossible, In general any sort of books or media are produced with the specific purpose of causing a large emotional reaction in the viewers. Sighs.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

In general any sort of books or media are produced with the specific purpose of causing a large emotional reaction in the viewers. Sighs.

The problem with books when I'm in a spike is that I cant remember the last paragraph that I read, which makes it a slow and laborious task.

As far as TV goes, PBS is an excellent source of interestng but usually not particularly emotionally triggering media. And if I wear my orange anti-blue light glasses, I can watch silly, dumb movies, like any of the superhero stuff, with little or no penalty. And the next time I'm in a symptom spike, I can watch 'em again, since they dont have much staying power under the best of circumstances.

 

[Juanita Vee]

One thing I've noticed is if I'm in a major crash for the day and am not very hungry and even nauseous, it helps just to eat whatever I feel like, and however much of it I want. I used to eat healthy all the time, but now I can have pretzels for dinner if I want. Trying to make myself eat, and also trying to eat a full meal, sometimes makes things worse.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I seem to need massive rest that takes the form of- having to lie on my stomach across the bed (not the way I sleep)..with my head turned in one direction only and at times: I"m almost hallucinating in exhaution before i manage to get into this position. Then sometimes, I can actually rest. I can- float away to Galaxy 16. Rarely veru rarely do I fall asleep. Its a profound- semi-coma.

Several days of doing that- I'll then finally feel a bit better one day. Then its: how to not blow that, again.

 

[Abrin]

One thing I've noticed is if I'm in a major crash for the day and am not very hungry and even nauseous

This happens to me too! I didn't realize that I wasn't the only one.

 

[crowtor]

Kaneka's ubiquinol and lying upside-down on a tilt table, lots of naps, three things that help me.

Also I use a Bipap, takes the edge of breathing muscles. Usually an hour and I'm okay.

 

[Juanita Vee]

This happens to me too! I didn't realize that I wasn't the only one.

Yeah.. I feel like maybe CFS should be short for Chronic Flu Syndrome... the kind that knocks you into bed and you don't get out unless you've decided you're really more hungry than yucky feeling.

 

[crowtor]

That can be quite dangerous, I Iost 20lbs just by waiting for feeling hungry. Had to develop a habit of saving up energy and eating every 2h's. At the beginning I'd only get up to prepare food, eat food, and toilet.

 

[Juanita Vee]

Yeah, I make sure to have meal supplement drinks always on hand. I lost weight too, at one point. But between the meal supplement drinks and ice cream, I have successfully gained it back. Good ol' ice cream!

 

[RyeRyeBread]

What do you guys all do when you crash? How long to they last? What seems to work for you to make it better and start moving again?

I'm only 6 months in to ME, so virgin talk here (Lmao):
My crashes currently last only 2-6 hours, with one big stupid flare surrounding them (1hr or so of flare, 2-6ish hrs of crash, days of flare recovery). When a crash comes on, I usually feel severely exhausted and know immediately that I need to lie down- NOW. Occasionally, I feel myself flaring beforehand, and guess that I may be crashing soon...But whether or not I listen to that... :/
Denial of crashes is strong with this one.

Once they hit, I lie down immediately.
I may sit on my phone for a bit but usually within minutes my hands are too tired to hold it up, so then i watch videos hands-free, until my eyes get tired as well. After fighting it, I pass out. Wake up a few times feverishly out of it, head fuzzy as hell, and wake up hours later feeling like I just resurrected but in the worst way - and then I get up and keep going.
If it's a bad crash, I get migraines - In those instances I skip straight to sleep, sometimes with an eye mask.

Not the best, but with pacing and immediate rest, I've avoided crashing real bad for a few months now.

 

[hapl808]

Not the best, but with pacing and immediate rest, I've avoided crashing real bad for a few months now.

This is key and especially a great strategy for avoiding getting worse. (Things I wish I knew back when.)