Pacing Therapy

Hello!

Today Foggy wants to talk about Pacing therapy.

When Sally was first diagnosed (it took them 3 years to work out what was wrong!), she was told to 'pace' herself and to think of her energy levels as a battery. She should always try and keep her energy battery half full. ME sufferers never have a full battery even with a 'good' nights sleep and lots of rest, but the main objective of pacing is to make sure your battery doesn't run out of power. Don't rest completely and allow your body to go to sleep but don't exert yourself too much either - tricky!

There are no medicines to take for M.E.; Foggy can't understand how so many people are affected with this horrible illness and there are no treatments that don't involve some kind of therapy. Can we have a pill now please?

Pacing is incredibly difficult, believe it or not. Common traits of M.E. sufferers are pushing yourself too hard, being a high achiever and perfectionist. Just because you get ill doesn't mean that personality trait turns itself off. Sally has 'mild' M.E. and, even though she knows it is bad for her health, is always pushing herself too hard and wears herself out A LOT! Sally has always been, and will always be, a high achieving perfectionist and sets, sometimes unobtainable, high targets for herself.

When Sally is at work she tries to regularly go somewhere quiet just to 'tune out' for a couple of minutes (even if that quiet place is the work bathroom). Just that brief rest time is enough to re-balance her battery and she can carry on for a couple more hours before the next break. Girly shopping can only be done if, every 30 minutes or so, she can sit and rest. Constant sensory stimulation wipes her out very quickly. Unless you are a sufferer you don't appreciate how your senses are affected by the noise, lighting and hustle and bustle of shops. Fortunately Sally has lovely understanding friends who force her to rest when Sally is forcing herself to keep going. She hates admitting she can't cope when she is having a good time with friends! They can usually tell she is reaching her limit by looking at her eyes; they glaze over and look empty.

Foggy hopes his M.E. suffering followers aren't allowing their battery to go flat today. Rest and take care.

This is an article on the ME Association website about Pacing therapy

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2012/05/research-pacing-as-a-strategy-to-improve-energy-management-may-2012/

Doggy snogs xxxxx