Chronic Rants

I noticed it after the election, though in hindsight it started long before. I tried to ignore it, but I should have known that was a mistake. Still, it gave me the wake-up call I’ve been needing.

For a while I was feeling better than I had in ages. The crisp fall air was delightful, and with the cooler air I had less inflammation. I enjoyed better sleep with the fresh autumn air coming through my open bedroom windows. I was taking 2 walks every day, and one of them was longer than my previous once-a-day walks had been. I was doing pretty well, and thought it would continue at least through the fall and winter.

Then on that beautiful Saturday, we got the election results. It was like I had been holding my breath for months, and I could finally exhale. What a relief! I was having a socially distanced visit with a friend, our first time seeing each other since this had all begun. We had met up in a suburb between where we each live, and had taken a walk. We got the news after the walk, as we stood across the street from each other, chatting. First there was stunned disbelief, then jumping up and down (her), texting everyone I could think of (me) and dancing in the street, literally (both of us.) I was excited all day long.

But here’s the thing about adrenal fatigue: any type of stress on the body can’t be handled. Bad stress causes problems, but good stress also causes problems. I explain it like this: winning the lottery would probably have the same physical impact as the death of a loved one.

So, after many months of the pandemic, a lot of isolation (I live alone and have no one I can be in a bubble with, so I haven’t had any non-medical human contact, even a hug, in 8 months), fear over the election, and then election-related celebration, my body couldn’t take any more. The good thing is that I didn’t have the kind of fatigue “crash” that I have had in the past. Maybe the medication is helping or maybe it was something else, but I’m grateful for that. Still, I felt it, but I pushed myself anyway to keep doing things. I did stuff around my home. I brought my car in for work. Each day, I felt it coming on more and more. Then on Wednesday I had a sore throat and a slight cough. Uh oh.

I’ll interrupt myself here to say that I know fatigue, sore throat, and cough are Covid-19 symptoms, but I was 99.9% sure it wasn’t Covid-19. These are the exact symptoms I get whenever I have adrenal fatigue issues. The cough wasn’t regular – it was one cough every hour or two, a small one, and it had nothing to do with chest congestion. The sore throat has more to do, I think, with my thyroid getting inflamed. So while Covid crossed my mind, it was hours after I’d already assumed this was my usual adrenal stuff. These are the warning signs, the “I better rest NOW or else I’ll get really sick” signs. That’s what I was paying attention to.

So by Thursday I knew I had to rest, and I did. I felt sort of gross and forced myself to shower, which took far more energy than I’d have liked. Aside from that, I rested all day. I ate leftovers. I watched lots of YouTube knitting videos. I crocheted and knit, read a book, watched tv, barely left the couch. It was just what I needed.

On Friday I was still a bit tired, so I spent another day watching YouTube videos, this time about decluttering (something I have been working on.) I felt inspired, so I put away a few things, and made notes about other things I would do when I had more energy. That little bit of activity felt good, so I figured I would be ok the next day. Usually I only need to rest for a couple of days if I listen to the warning signs. (If I ignore the warning signs, I end up sick for about a week and a half, so it’s worth paying attention.)

But then Saturday rolled around. I was still a bit fatigued. No problem, I could put off the world for another day. I watched fewer videos, but still rested. I thought about taking a walk. After several days of rain the sun was out, but the idea of expending that much energy was too much, so I stayed in. Watching videos and reading a book felt like such a luxurious treat! I cleaned up around my apartment a bit, finally clearing the crap off my coffee table for the first time in ages and putting away the clutter that had accumulated in a corner of my living room. This felt good.

Then it was Sunday, and I knew I was ok and should go back to “normal.” The thing is, I didn’t want to do normal. Normal for me felt like a job. And for the first time, I realized that normal had become a job! I was spending so much time on volunteer work and some small bits of paid work, and feeling the rest of the time like I needed to check off items on my personal to-do list, that I wasn’t taking time to relax. Watching a knitting video felt like a luxury I had to squeeze in, and spending time on that instead of on something that was supposedly “productive” was stressful. WTF? I’m disabled. I’m unable to work. So what am I doing? I’m pushing myself to work as much as possible anyway. Hmm. Not good.

Granted, I’m not “working” that many hours. I don’t have many “good” hours in a day, and I have to spend a lot of time cooking, cleaning, exercising, doing physical therapy, etc. Still, I am trying to do too much with my remaining hours. That’s why I have multiple posts I have been wanting to write for this blog for weeks, but haven’t been able to find the time to write any of them. I am writing this now only because I haven’t quite returned to my “normal” routine yet. Even so, my list for today has way too many items on it: a video call with my mom, a video call with someone who wants to pay me for some work that I don’t have time for but don’t want to turn down, taking care of some financial stuff, working on a book that I want to write, doing laundry, decluttering around the house a bit, watering the plants, writing this post, taking a walk, doing my physical therapy… that’s already way more than I have the time or energy for. Plus, I should really shower and leave time and energy for meals. I am trying to do too much, and it’s leaving me burned out.

Taking four days away from the world has done me so much good. It gave me the physical rest that I have so badly needed. It gave me emotional rest. But it also gave me insight. What I am doing is not working, and something has to change. I have always had a lot of drive. When I was in graduate school, working towards a PhD, at one point I worked as a teaching assistant and also the manager of my apartment building, while also volunteering as vice chair for the university’s Americans with Disabilities compliance board. Sure, I was young and still had energy, but YIKES! That was a lot! I’m not good at doing things part way.

On top of that, there’s the problem that while my body doesn’t function the way I want it to, my brain does, and my brain wants to do lots of things. I have a lot of interests, and I keep adding more and more, but not taking things away. During the pandemic I have added one new hobby, one new volunteer job, and one new paid job (the paid job is short-term and very little time, but still takes mental energy.) The thing is, I didn’t remove any of my old activities. Sure, I am no longer driving to doctors or doing any in-person socializing. I am not dating or going to family dinners. But while those things took up time, they also gave my life balance. Now I am lacking that balance. I am all work and little play, and that’s not sustainable.

I knew this before. I’ve been aware of it for at least a month or two, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I didn’t want to give anything up, so I kept going. I was managing ok, after all, so that meant I could continue, right? Obviously not. Because typically after this kind of fatigue, I take a few days to rest and then jump right back into things. I never feel this kind of mental and emotional resistance. Things couldn’t be more clear: it’s time to reprioritize. I am not sure what that will look like, but I know it needs to happen.

This is not the first time this has happened, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I know this is something that many of us struggle with. So as I take some time to figure out how to better balance my life, I hope that you will do the same. It’s so much better to reprioritize before we get burned out, after all. But since it’s too late for that this time, I’m going to listen to my body and do it now.