Fatigue is a massive challenge for anyone with MS. The statistics for the number of people with MS who suffer with fatigue are very much understated, in my opinion. I'm yet to find an MS sufferer who doesn't suffer with fatigue.
Because fatigue is such a prevalent symptom for MS, including my own range of symptoms, I was really happy that my local NHS MS support team were running a six-week fatigue management course. This is something that they have run a number of times and I was excited to get on it, running once a week on Monday afternoons for six weeks at a local community centre.
The course ran with a different focus each week, and sometimes a few different ones for a session, over the course period. Such topics included sleep, stress, posture and physiotherapy, mindfulness, diets, medication and other subjects.
Fatigue, for me, manifests itself in a number of different ways. Like many others, I suffer from the usual tiredness and lethargy associated with doing too much or doing some exercise. However, my threshold is much lower than it used to be. Therefore, I get tired in a physical sense much more quickly than I used to.
However, I also experience fatigue in some different ways than that obvious, usual manner. One of the main challenges that I have is a lack of motivation. Fatigue makes me feel emotionally flat and I lack the motivation to actually get up and do things. This means that I can end up playing on the PlayStation 4 four hours on end without feeling the motivation to get up and do much more useful things. I used to be very much a doer, someone who would achieve an awful lot in a day by just being very active and very good acts starting and completing tasks. However, now I feel that I lack the drive to do anything in the way that I used to.
However, I also experience fatigue in some different ways than that obvious, usual manner. One of the main challenges that I have is a lack of motivation. Fatigue makes me feel emotionally flat and I lack the motivation to actually get up and do things. This means that I can end up playing on the PlayStation 4 four hours on end without feeling the motivation to get up and do much more useful things. I used to be very much a doer, someone who would achieve an awful lot in a day by just being very active and very good acts starting and completing tasks. However, now I feel that I lack the drive to do anything in the way that I used to.
Due to the fact that I am already running a series of videos detailing my experiences with HSCT in Russia, I thought it would be rather easy to run video that would be generally useful for sufferers of MS. As a result, I will be running a few videos on fatigue management. Keep your eyes peeled for these videos as I bring them out. Hopefully, these will be useful for someone!
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