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Recovering from Christmas! 🎄

BooKitty

Hello all,

Does anyone else try to do all the things over Christmas and then pay for it in January? My husband is getting irritated that I'm so tired but we basically had 12 days of non-stop socialising, travelling and visiting people. I find it hard to explain how tiring I find it all even though it's enjoyable. I have MS so my illness is largely invisible, just that fatigue is bad at times - even on stimulants for ADHD! We're all back to work on Monday and I feel very ill-prepared!

I remember an MS nurse saying they get loads of calls in January because people think they are relapsing but are not - we're just all suffering post Christmas fatigue!

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Comments

Littlefatfriend

The "post Xmas (or Christmas) blues" are popular enough with people that there's an established term for it BooKitty! Lots of people do it for all sorts of reasons.

What helps me allow myself to fully enjoy Xmas and New Year is my knowledge that Spring will be here soon.

The longer days have a significant natural effect on virtually all of us, lifting our mood and helping us energise. I'm very conscious of the difference already.

Friends with MS have told me they've found the attached link and resources there to be helpful when they've tried to explain fatigue in MS. You're probably aware the two conditions are often associated, often (but not always) directly.

Good luck

😺

https://mstrust.org.uk/news/expert/how-explain-ms-fatigue-others

BooKitty

The funny thing is I'm more tired now than before Christmas, even though I've had 12 days off work! I think adrenaline and FOMO kept me going through the holidays, now I feel like hibernating through January! Instead it will be back to work on Monday and I think the cold weather is making me extra sleepy - not to mention the post Christmas 'just one more mince pie' sluggishness! 😅

kitsmum

@BooKitty I am the same as you though my husband is understanding. I have ME/CFS Fibromyalgia and PoTS which all cause fatigue and we went to family for Christmas which totally fatigued me due to not pacing properly and doing packing /unpacking, wrapping presents, loud TV due to parents being deaf and different temps in each room. Hope you manage to climb out of the fatigue and be less symptomatic soon. Rest carefully.

Kimi87

Suggest to your husband that he research The Spoon Theory 🥄

Or explain to him that your body battery works differently to his. Yours is faulty. His is in normal working order.

You begin each day without a full charge, it runs down very quickly and is slow to recharge 🔋

BooKitty

I do tell him but like all things disability related, it's hard for people to understand without the personal experience 😕 Especially stuff like fatigue because people think it's just being tired. I use all sorts of colourful analogies to try and convey it but unless they have had a bad flu or something they really don't understand.

theme79

It is one of the most difficult aspects of living with a neuromuscular and neurological condition - fatigue and that as we all know isn’t just tired or worn out by a busy time - it’s a unique qualitively totally different experience that spills over into mood and then even those closest to us don’t ’get It’ ! They say and think they do but don’t and act and feel irritated without understanding. It’s a damn pain in the butt ! And it can impact f otherwise good relationships - but if you don’t live it - you don’t get it!

it can feel very lonely and we end up saying sorry and apologising for what is not our fault and actually is made worse by other people’s ignorance.

WhatThe

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1093564#Comment_1093564

Ditto. I don't miss the family dramatics of old! I used to work in hospitality over the Christmas period and preferred that to being stuck indoors with people who didn't much like each other.

It's now the twelfth day of Christmas and I'm still waiting for my little one to get here and open her presents 🎁 it keeps the fun going for longer and they do look lovely wrapped up!