Oh, I know, Pacing, we all have heard about it and know about it but I have to talk about it because it is a pretty big damn deal. It is one of those fundamental skills that we Know and also Ignore. It’s a thing we do and then regret that and then do it again. And regret that.
I chatted with my psychologist one day and we were talking about pacing and the cycle of the boom and bust. The ups and the downs. The roller-coaster ride. Or when we ignore our pacing demands.
The Boom and the Bust
BOOM:
I feel not too bad. I’m going to do the laundry, get some chores done, go shopping, run a marathon and solve world hunger.
BUST:
That was too much and now I feel like death. I will have to recover now for three to fifty days.
BOOM:
Those days of recovery did me good. I feel pretty good today. I’m going to do a lot of other random things I shouldn’t be doing all at once and see what happens.
BUST:
For some random reason, I did not expect this pain to happen again. Weird. I’ll just keep doing this and see what happens next time. I mean, how many times can this actually happen?
PACING:
I feel good today but I will pace my activities because I need to conserve my energy and I know I cannot push myself beyond my limits.
I feel bad today, so I will also pace.
Regardless, of good days or bad days I will pace.
We know the Boom and Bust cycle because we do it. On our good days we feel like we need to be extra productive to compensate for our bad days. And then we bust into a crapton of pain. Which is much worse bad days than if we paced all the time. We just forget that this happens all the damn time. Not to mention we want to be productive on good pain days. Yet, it is actually better to remain consistent and pace all the time to avoid significant pain flares. Not all flares, obviously, but Boom and Bust flares.
I am guilty of this. We are all guilty of this at some time or another. I think I forget to mention it because it is much easier for me to pace when not working. I am the pace master. When I am working it is easy to Bust just by working alone. Work one day, all good. Step into work the next day, BUST. The day after, your body is double BUST. You have no recovery time. It is just a BUST-a-thon. Get out of bed…BUST. Dangnamit.
I am not going to say don’t do this because it happens. Life happens. I am going to say pacing is vital to chronic pain management and to consider time management of your activities. Consider downtime after activities. Think of yourself like a quarter charged Smartphone; yeah you can use that app, but not for long, sure you can do a couple of things but not too many. Bad example. Point is, your daily battery life isn’t the same as everyone else’s. And if you overextend into tomorrow’s battery life too many times then it can shock the hell out of you forcing you to do very little for days. Not only do you run on half the battery but your battery sucks, so it runs out super fast.
It becomes a complicated problem when we cannot pace because we are unable to have downtime to do so. Not everyone can. Not everyone can rest when they need to. Not everyone can pace their activities or day as needed. I know. I remember. That is the main problem of pacing. The main importance there is not to do an abundance of things just because we feel well- but still, there is a pacing problem when we can not choose how to pace our day.
When my psychologist mentioned this to me, I was in total agreement. Aside from the fact I worked 40 hrs a week with chronic unmanaged pain and pacing was impossible. All you can do is get through the day, cut out all other facets of your life, and crash and burn when you get home. It is the Bust and Bust cycle. And he understood what I meant. It was survival mode. Bust, bust, bust and nothing left for anything aside from work- and barely functional there. And he said it wasn’t sustainable. It wasn’t and it was why I was severely depressed. But trying to get disability with chronic pain is difficult. And even wanting to, because disability income is hardly something to be desired, is another issue.
It wasn’t until I was forced onto disability that I now utilize this method of pacing. Which, yes, works. And it is recommended, of course. It just isn’t feasible for most people. Or at least it hadn’t been for me. Part-time had helped with my pacing game prior to my disability though- I had definitely began to pick up the skills then. For me, full-time work and pacing were an issue though.
Just remember pacing is for every day not just the bad days. I will post a more details pacing post next.
reprinted from braiblessblogger.net post
Chronically Nikki 