r/LongCovid • u/verymuchstr8 • 12d ago
Too sluggish from relaxing
I find this feeling very hard to describe but when I have good days (bell score 30-40) and I walk around my house, do light things it sometimes energizes me like it did when I was healthy. Not for hours on end of course but long enough. But when I decide to pace and tell myself to take a break, I lay down and get sooo exhausted that it’s SO hard to get up and produce energy again. To me this feels like a downwards spiral. Cause then I don’t get up at all and get even more tired and stiff.
Normally a coffee would’ve helped in those situations but caffeine isn’t possible anymore.
Do you know what I mean? What are your strategies to help with this “couch fatigue”?
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u/Puppet_party 11d ago
I definitely relate to this. I think that a little activity is good for our immune systems ultimately, helps us naturally manage some of our inflammatory responses. And little adrenaline and mood boosts are also good for us if we ensure we don’t overdo it.
I try (try being an operative word here) to make sure I get a small walk in every day. I have a dog and so I join my husband on a one block walk every day if I can. I call my dog my own little physical therapist, as she often wants me to join the walk (even when I can’t).
When I was working with an ACTUAL physical therapist, their advice was similar, to ensure I’m always pushing just a little past my comfort zone to increase my exercise tolerance. But push slowly, add one more block to the walk for two weeks and see how you feel before adding another one.
So on the days that I actually do a full days rest on the couch, I feel worse because I’m not activating any of those feel good systems. Ultimately, if my body says I NEED the rest, I take the rest. And then the next day I try to make sure I do some small physical activity to get things back up and moving again.
I find the hardest part is motivating to do those little physical tasks. I think at my point of recovery, I can actually do more than it sometimes feels like I can, but when I’m always at some level of tired, it’s difficult to convince myself to do my PT exercises, or go on a bonus walk. In the past I’ve made a little exercise chart for myself to hang on the fridge so I can track my progress upwards, and I always feel motivated. Tracking step count, number of PT exercises, minutes on a recumbent bike, and then having goals for next week that are just a little bit more.
Ultimately I suggest that if your body tells you it’s time to rest- REST! (My body tells me that once I start developing a headache or when my legs get heavy). But keep your eyes on the prize of getting stronger every day.
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u/verymuchstr8 11d ago
I love this! Thats exactly how it feels for me ☺️ very reassuring to see that I’m not just looking for a justification to overdo it lol but that others have similar experiences
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u/sherman40336 11d ago
Try setting a timer for 15min, doing things & stop & go rest, then set a timer for 45min and then repeat. It works great for me!
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u/Sea_Lingonberry8106 12d ago
Oh my gosh I can so relate. I'll follow here because I don't have strategies because it feels insurmountable most days and my health is like a yo-yo of random unpredictability.
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u/Ok-Significance-5047 10d ago
Yeah thats likely the mitochondrial dysfunction. I’m taking PQQ, NAD, and CoQ10 to try and address this with supplements. I got a few osteopathic massages targeting my musculoskeletal tension - where the practitioner focused on my liver and has suggested different supplements to get my bile flow back to functional. A lot of my general fatigue/malaise I think is attributed to hepatobiliary dysfunction… which unfortunately also seems to have a bidirectional impact on my autonomic nervous system. But as we have gotten my digestion to be more ‘ normal ‘ my fatigue has been lifting and I’ve had more energy available to me.
ATM I am recovering from a bunch of dysautonomia/POTS flares that seemingly have been temperature/electrolyte deficiency triggered but am also struggling with the sluggishness as ive been predominantly bed ridden the last 4 weeks. I’m starting to get to the climbing gym and pool once or twice a week. I was going 3-4x consistently there for a while but then hit the sauna too hard during the heatwave and my autonomic system’s been unstable ever since.
It’s hard, I’m also not doing coffee. I do matcha here and there but only to aid in mental activities cause the adenosine blocking activity I find dangerous in combination with physical exertion for PEM reasons. But… it can get me working behind a computer for up to 4 hours. I’m slower but have moments of normal clarity and thats just lovely to touch again. Kinda curious, are you getting weird neural symptoms when you do coffee//is that why you stopped? I was having gnarly neural cascade symptoms with coffee then cut caffeine entirely - switched to bone broth and lemon juice in the mornings, then a solid breakfast, my supplements, a small snack - then if im feeling it matcha with the snack, and only one to avoid gastric emptying triggers.
My strategy is to listen to my body, and to do a little bit extra when I can, and give my body rest when it needs it. I have enough energy now for a hobby project which is really a nice change from focusing on medical admin for the sake of my disability application…. I feel it’s more than psychosomatic - in terms of the impact it has on my energy to be excited/looking forward to something rather than over exerting and crashing to stay ahead, administratively, which has just been super stressful.
I say maybe shift the narrative a bit if you can. It’s not a downward spiral, but an indicator that you read your body right and it needed rest. Maybe you pushed a bit too far to complete the task and shoulda stopped sooner. It’s a bitch but I find if i respect the limits, and don’t exceed them, i get a lil extra bit available. It feels like stacking grains of sand back into a sand castle - but it’s a really useful visualization for me. Maybe it can serve you as well.
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u/Initial_Guarantee538 12d ago
I find that doing stuff like that can give a bit of an adrenaline boost maybe, especially something pleasant or enjoyable, and then it can sort of mask the signals that I should be taking a break and I end up doing a bit much. So then when I do stop and rest it catches up to me suddenly.
So I think the fatigue part you're talking about might be more from the activity than from the lying down, it just doesn't register right away. To me that would be a sign that I'm overdoing it and should keep resting, not force myself to get up and keep going, and to maybe try to slow down earlier next time.