chronic fatigue

Vampiric, You are not alone! I had a heart attack three years ago and have spent much of the time since in bed believing there was something physically wrong with me. I felt tired all the time. At first the doctors would tell me that I just needed time to heal. Later, my doctor told me I was depressed and prescribed antidepressants. Nothing helped. A year and a half later, I was still having trouble getting the energy to do the simplest tasks. The turning point for me was listening to an audiobook called The Upward Spiral. It suggests paying attention to how you feel before and after activities. Finding the things that energize you and the things that drain you. Then make small and gradual changes to slowly increase the energizing activities and where possible decrease the draining ones. I found that biking energized me, so I started doing it more regularly. At first it was just 5 to 10 minutes a day (when I remembered). It was hard to push myself but I felt better afterwards so I kept doing it. Overtime, I increased the distance I was biking and last summer I completed an 850 km bike trip! Just in case you’re thinking; he must have been a crazy health nut or athlete before the heart attack, I’ll share that seven years ago, I weighed 350lbs and today I’m still about 285lbs. I’m definitely not very athletic. There is no magic way to get back your energy. It’s all about making small and gradual steps in the positive direction. Eventually, you will reach a point where the little changes all combine to create big results. like a snowball growing as it rolls down the hill, small changes can gain momentum and make a big impact. Having been recently diagnosed with ADHD, I now realize the exercise and movement of biking was also treating my ADHD and helping me focus. I’m still struggling to work on my bigger goals. Many things still drain my energy but now I have a way to recharge. I’m hopeful that adding ADHD medication will enable me to feel less overwhelmed and get my life back on track. So, in a nutshell, here is my advice for you: 1) Forget the cleaning. It will still be there later. 2) Find the thing that energizes you and do that instead. 3) If you don’t know what energizes you, try different things and write down how you feel before and after. 4) Tackle life’s challenges (ie cleaning) after you figure out how to recharge yourself. Hope this helps

I’m seeing how long this works but a recent suggestion I’ve seen is to keep your work clothes/shoes on when you get home until you’re done with stuff around the house. I’m pulling a Mr Rogers as a stay-at-home and having my house shoes for getting stuff done vs barefoot/slippers for downtime. (I say house shoes because we are a no shoes house usually so I need ones that stay inside and clean). So far, it’s helping me a bit.

I play music and it helps a lot, gets the momentum started just bustin some moves lmao, for me personally I can’t take a break halfway through or at all when cleaning or else I won’t finish, I have to ride the momentum all the way until I’m done