What creates the worst PEM for you?

[RyeRyeBread]

*i have mild-moderate symptoms

• Walking/standing/sitting around a bookstore for 45 minutes
• Walking around an amusement park for 2 hours eek:) because denial and urge to push myself, not realizing I’d be passed out and feverish later
• Sexual activity
• Heavy lifting

 

[wabi-sabi]

For me, taking a shower is bad. It's the warmth. It makes me orthostatic and I can't sleep afterwards.

 

[hmnr asg]

• heat (hot shower)
• social interactions (when I have to talk to more than one person)
• arguments with spouse, cognitive load (focusing and challenging mental tasks, or multi tasking)
• and of course physical exertion beyond my current threshold (which isnt much)

 

[Jadzhia]

Concentrating too long on demanding mental tasks - can wipe me out for the rest of the day and into the next.

Personal upsets really wipe me out.

Going over my (very low) limit of physical exertion. Normally I'm quite good at managing this, but a few weeks ago we got a new vacuum cleaner that has a neat digital display, showing how much battery power remains. I started vacuuming the bedroom with about 8 minutes left. My vacuuming isn't the type where I move things around to get all the dust, I just do the open spaces . I finished and still had 5 mins on the dial. Normally my set limit is one room. However, I went on to do two more rooms to run down the battery. Only 5 minutes work, right? Hooo boy. Next day I had really painful lower ribs on my right side, so much so it was hard to sleep that night, also shoulder pain, sore muscles and generally felt exhausted! It took one week for the rib pain to subside. In the meantime just about anything set it off. So lesson learned - no looking at the battery life!! Not worth it.

 

[christiankatz]

Everything, but the worst are emotional upsets, intense mental work, leaving the house (even the anticipation of going somewhere), and constant noise. Any physical activity is bad news, but it doesn't seem to cause depression and anhedonia like the others.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Everything, but the worst are emotional upsets, intense mental work, leaving the house (even the anticipation of going somewhere), and constant noise. Any physical activity is bad news, but it doesn't seem to cause depression and anhedonia like the others.

very similar here.

I really have to watch emotional, my trigeminal nerve goes off and I feel horrible. And the eye issues- its just immediately bad if I cry (because the photo is so pretty, for instance) (not depressed like cry because your happy)

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Concentrating too long on demanding mental tasks

concentrating is the huge issue, and I might start out engaged in a topic, reading about it but soon enough, the visual brain processing thing starts up, the sentences run together, I realize I can't keep this going and I bale out.

 

[Jadzhia]

leaving the house

I can relate - had to go to the vet with one cat recently, I had a lift from a kind neighbour but it still wiped me out so much, I guess the emotional stress as well as an unexpected trip out, and I felt tired the next day, too. I never used to react that way. Scary to feel so fragile!

 

[iliketoread]

heat, the sun, weather changes, storms, and a lot of interactions with people although conversely I also get energized by very positive interactions with people

 

[christiankatz]

had to go to the vet with one cat recently

I relate to this as well. Sorry about it. I hope your pet is okay. I have to keep taking my cat to the vet every few weeks, and I'm not able to recover in between. Before this, I'd only leave the house twice yearly for my doctor visit.

 

[Jadzhia]

I relate to this as well. Sorry about it. I hope your pet is okay. I have to keep taking my cat to the vet every few weeks, and I'm not able to recover in between. Before this, I'd only leave the house twice yearly for my doctor visit.

He's fine, he managed to injure himself on 'something' outside, nothing bad but he had to stay in for a week and he was not impressed! I'm sure you know the cat 'death stare' as you have one yourself! Hope your kitty is doing OK. It is tiring if you have to keep going out like that, though. I only go out for essential things like dentist, doctor (although during Covid it's pretty much impossible to see a GP physically, everything has been via phone) or vet (although with the latter my partner often takes the cats now, but if I can go I will).

 

[Martin aka paused||M.E.]

Sitting for more than a few seconds, speaking, eating, reading for too long... Everything that has anything to do with being alive can cause crashes that lead to brutal deterioration for months.