Answering Questions - Less tired

Today I continue with my ‘Answering Questions’ section. If you have a question about my Autism or my Chronic Fatigue, please ask me. I’ll try to answer it in a blogpost if possible.

The question that I’ll be answering is: “Do you notice any difference between your energy since you just got Chronically Fatigued and now?” The easy and quick answer is: Yes.

Getting Chronically Fatigued happened gradually, it didn’t just happen overnight. Only at one point it got too much and I collapsed and couldn’t finish my school year. This is when I started going to a psychologist and had several medical tests. I’m going to use this point as my starting point, as this is where it was at its worst.

At my worst I couldn’t even go to the supermarket normally. Just so you know: There’s a supermarket just two minutes cycling away from my home. I can even walk that if I want to. Just going to the supermarket was already bad enough. Then I didn’t know how to get back, as I didn’t have the energy for it. I would end up sitting on the side-walk, regaining my strength. One time I even went to the snackbar next to the supermarket. Not because I wanted an unhealthy snack, but because I needed quick energy and a better place to sit, so I could rest up. All this, for two minutes of cycling.

As a way of recovery my mum once took me to a place that sells plants and other garden stuff (I have no idea how to call that). This was a twenty minute bike trip. She would let me rest up on the side of the road whenever I needed to. Getting there and back took all day long, because I needed to rest up so much. It did get me out in the open air, which was very good for me. (because I had so little energy even on good days, I had plenty of days that I was bed bound. I didn’t get much fresh air because of this. This is why my mother did this.)

Now I’m about seven years later or something like that (I might be off on this one. I didn’t keep track.) and a lot has happened since then. I learned to spread my energy, I got physical therapy, I now know that I have Asperger’s Syndrome and how to deal with it, I got vitamins that I take, I have less hours of work in a day (What most people always forget: School is an average of eight working hours a day!), I have better guidance, etc.

All this helped in getting me more energy. Every single thing is a small thing, but together they changed a lot.

I’m still Chronically Fatigued, but I have come a long way from where I was. Because my life is now better organised and better suited to my needs, my fatigue got a lot less. First I couldn’t even go to the supermarket. Now I help run events and go to LARP and things like that. I still can’t go on for many hours on end and I always need a lot of rest after an event. This is also why I still can’t hold a job, because it still wears me out too much. But still, I went from not being able to go to the supermarket to being able to help for a few hours with something before I need rest. So yes, my energy got a little better in the last few years with the help of many small things.