Pacing Patient Views

Prioritizing pacing this past year has greatly improved my stability (along with some new meds etc). Like another person mentioned above, constant pacing can be excruciating and sometimes, I find i’m losing my mind from the glacial pace and push myself to get the task done. The anxiety of it looming week after week, month after month, while I pace starts becoming just as exhausting as actually doing it. Visible armband has helped me understand pacing finally and it helps me be clearer with boundaries

By “pacing” I mean trying to balance “doing stuff” with rest breaks (lying down in quiet). If I get the balance right my symptoms are less intense and I sometimes can even feel like the “healthy control group” again.

It’s a lot of experimenting to figure out what my body can handle and is a work in progress every day.

The goal of pacing is at the end of the day you should feel like “I could have done more” not “I did too much”. Yea pacing is worth it. In the beginning you will be less productive, and in my experience I say I am now more productive because pacing has made me more efficient since I prioritize what is important.

There are many different ways to pace so find a system that works for you. I prefer the timed pacing model over counting spoons. Research different pacing strategies like heartrate method, intuitive, red-yellow-green light pacing, baseline method, structured rest, time based, etc

For sure. Effective pacing got me from hours a day of needing to sleep through to being able to function mostly normally.

This is such a difficult question. I relatively ignored pacing for my first two years of LC and always pushed through on good days and crashed for 24 to 36 hours after. Now, I do as many things as I can seated and take little breaks all throughout the day and prioritize rest. 10 minutes of stretching = 10 minutes of resting, etc. I have to admit that my in my case, forcing myself to finally pace has allowed me to do more consistently vs having large periods of crash where I could do nothing.

But I would add that for me it’s been crucial to learn how to pace properly on a daily basis. And this does not mean exercise, just everyday stuff like moving, getting food, etc. Doing one thing or task at a time and always resting in between.

Pacing has been the best treatment so far.

Once I started "pacing" 30 mins doing and 30 mins resting I got a lot more out of my day without the bad crashes. And I have to stick to it. Even a couple of 35 mins doing without equal resting and I pay for it! Pacing has even helped me get just the tiniest bit better. Some times I think they should name this illness Chronic Patience Syndrome.

It has taken me awhile to figure this one out, but as my condition has worsened with my continued attempts to exercise, I finally understand the importance of this strategy and on my way to healing.

Pacing has helped me more than all the medications, supplements, and programs. I rest before, during, and after activities. I know my baseline and stay within my energy envelope. Timers help.