How do you manage fatigue after brain injury? - Headway
How do you manage fatigue after brain injury?
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To begin with I was in a bad way after the attack that gave me the brain injury, and on leaving the hospital after 11 weeks I tried to be as much as before the incident or I felt that the 3 attackers had won.
I'm not sure if fatigue doesn't affect me often or if I've just gotten used to managing it but sometimes it hits really hard. Most of the time, I do my best to fight it, which in reality probably only makes it worse, but there are days, less common days, where it is totally debilitating. If I'm at work or something, where I'm unable to rest, I get irritable and angry. I can turn really nasty but I'm lucky as my friends and family all understand and accommodate for it, but it can be a bit of an obstacle at work!! Proper food and a good nights sleep are a must!! But just in case, Relentless works a treat!! 
Sleep is all that works for me
If you need to sleep, then sleep, don't try to be a hero, just sleep and sleep and sleep if you need to, xxx
I'm not sure how to manage my fatigue! I find it hard to know when to stop until it's too late. I'm also not sure what counts as rest.
I'm the same, I think I'm ok then it's too late.
Rest and rest often. When feeling fatigued rest.
I try to pace myself but this does not all ways work , so I try to get used to it and let tiredness follow its course, fighting it does not work tried it I just get worse so when I get tired I have a sleep
Routine, routine, sleep, sleep, exercise. No good trying to fight fatigue, just go with it & listen to your body
Listen to your body and if you are shattered then sleep and do not overdo things. Take longer breaks if working and lets hope you have an understanding Boss
I plan ahead of time and avoid situations where I am uncertain what will happen. I try to avoid very busy environments or limit my time in them
Prayer helped me to focuse my thoughts on trying to be positive.
Its so difficult trying to stay awake at times I've only been out of bed for an hour but sometimes I do go back not a cap nap about 1 hour/2
After four years of fatigue you learn to pace yourself, not over due, take lots of breaks, and have a set sleep time because it will take me 2 hours for my brain to turn the sleep switch on.
Sometimes only out of bed for 1 hour have to give in the fight sometimes
I hit other to explain the fact that I'm actually quite rubbish at this and get complacent far too often resulting in subsequent days of being utterly wiped.
Also the nortriptoline is about managing the symptoms of fatigue - the first thing I get being overtired is the headache so I probably should have ticked medication as well.
Reading these I also plan - for eg. Make sure dinner sorted before going out. I try not to leave myself in a situation where I will be caught high and dry which I guess comes under pacing yourself to some degree but I find it has a far greater impact on what I can now do than the phrase 'pace yourself' implies. Particularly where commuting/travelling would be involved.
Well like most others it's pacing or attempting to chose my battles.
I do a fair amount of exercise (enough to top up the charity ride from 30 to nearly 70) and eat fairly healthy most due to my wife that one!
But the brain be damaged and it runs out of go
Frankincense essential oil.
Frankincense is good for the brain. It has helped me with my farigue.
I believe that a good healthy diet helps with fatigue too among other things.
When I say "diet" I do not mean about going on a specific diet say, the Atkins' diet or something similar. Everybody on planet earth is on a diet, whatever you put in your mouth is part of the diet whether it be cake, chocolate, fruit, veg.. Whatever.
Cutting out processed foods and eating more REAL food, natural food, helps with fatigue among other things.
The ways I manage fatigue is, because it can be very stressful, by getting plenty of sleep and rest, don't push myself to hard or be to hard on myself that can increase underlying problems. I am also lucky because I have a wonderfully understanding wife who looks out for me and knows the signs of when I am getting fatigued and tells me to stop everything and rest.
Still require at leas 3hrs sleep by 4 on a normal day of life activities.
I don't !!!!!!!
I've said that I 'follow a set schedule/routine', unfortunately, life doesn't, so, yesterday, I found myself with approximately nine million jobs to do, and, as I was changing the battery on the defibrillator, a colleague interrupted me to ask if I'd check on a student they thought was pretending to vomit... I look 'normal', you see, so other people don't realise that my brain is already working double-time NOT to fail on me.
I've said that I 'follow a set schedule/routine', unfortunately, life doesn't, so, yesterday, I found myself with approximately nine million jobs to do, and, as I was changing the battery on the defibrillator, a colleague interrupted me to ask if I'd check on a student they thought was pretending to vomit... I look 'normal', you see, so other people don't realise that my brain is already working double-time NOT to fail on me.
We should receive the most important advice and everyone else has learn the situation is not the same as before and they should have investigate and learn as well as pertain
When I'm home I'm fine.When I venture out it hits me snd st the moment feels like someone has switched me on slow !
I can't get a handle on my fatigue. I was managing perfectly well the first few years following on from a sah, but then I trod on the ol' proverbial banana skin - had somewhat a breakdown (great sadness, despair) after a relationship went bad. My energies were smashed!! My OT therapist (trained in TBI's and chronic fatigue) says I haven't accepted my brain injury, therefore haven't accepted I've got cfs/me. Am being referred to a Neuro-Psychologist.
But I was sent this very helpful article from the Optimum Health Clinic, which makes for interesting reading!!
At first I had lots of help with a community team, and help with with managing fatigue but generally fell asleep in the daytime regularly anyhow. Now that I 'look' well, I don't receive help with managing fatigue - n fact the opposite. People treat me as if nothing's different to before my TBI and expect me to be 'normal'.This usually results in me doing far too much followed by bouts of tears or upset. Increasingly I find I can't switch off and spend many nights wide awake until the early hours before I fall asleep for just a few hours before I get up and try to get through another day. It's a nightmare. I'm starting work again shortly and don't know how I'm going to cope.
Meditation and Mindfulness. Sleep and rest when your body/mind tells you and be kind to yourself.
Hi Tiss, thanks for recommending those. I will definitely give it a go!!
Whilst exercise does reduce the tension and mental fatigue symptoms, the best treatment is to be able to minimise all stimulation to the brain( mainly of sight and sound) ,I do this by finding a quiet space, shutting my eyes and taking an afternoon . I rarely sleep, but shutting your brain off like this is a great reducer of mental fatigue.
Napping is important I just couldn't not function x
Live on your own! Then you are in control of your environment x
I'm pretty much tired all of the time but just manage it with regular bed times and exercise during the day. I find that eating well is useful too and on those nights when I just can't sleep I take a sleeping pill.
We never have two appointments in one day to prevent over exertion If he is tired he goes and has a sleep ... sometimes 12 to 14 hours
It's easy for me (most of the time) to rest whenever I like. But I make myself take exercise every day whether it's working in the garden or taking a walk.
I find that alternating the physical exercise with the cognitive (reading, crosswords etc.) help to minimise the fatigue and staves off any risk of tedium.
A tricky problem though for those still holding down a job.
...if only Fatigue is the problem - its not! Too much going on to let me or my brain rest or feel tired!
Totally agree SAMBS,If you have related anxiety/depression and are on mind blowing Meds you cannot unwind and rest properly ,if I have a nap I wake up feeling rotten ,no motivation etc . Don't know if it's the wrong Meds or overanxious, can't concentrate on TV or very much at the moment. Hope you get the help you need and find some peace.
Kindest regards and best wishes
Dave
To manage fatigue I pace myself, watch tv, or play with my guinea pigs.
Sleep sleep and more sleep, it def worked for me, felt a bit bad at first with sleeping so much but there is no point trying to fight it, let your body heal and just rest
I found it extremely hard in the beginning and would hit a brick wall often. Lights are on but nobody's in type thing.i try but it's hard when you struggle with forward planning. I also don't know I've done too much till I literally shut down. Thankfully my family, friends and work colleagues see it and act on it.
I'm eternally thankful to them!
Routine is the way to go for me.
Throw in something out of the ordinary and it can take me a week to get back to being me. Small changes have big effects like the pebble in a pond!
I really thought I'd be back to normal in no time, that I'd prove everyone wrong. Now I accept that there is no normal and I'm thankful to be working and being a mum again instead of kids looking out for me x
Get into bed early, get enough sleep or relax in bed if you can't sleep;)
I go with what my body's telling me ,if its tired I sleep. Your body knows best
My fatigue is often bad and it stops me doing things and I get headaches. I try pace myself, but normally I think I can do more than is good for me, so I need a few days crashed out.
the fatigue is a throbbing sensation, like your heart beat is all over your body. so physically drained that body feels like it is buzzing, vision is affected and tinnitus is worse. body pain is significantly worse as is burning sensation all over. yet, despite all this, the brain is on overdrive. never quite sure how to cope with it, feel afraid sometimes as the fatigue is often so acute that it is hard to believe that is all it is. sleep doesn't always bring relief.
I avoid situations where my particular cognitive problems are asked to do overtime, result less fatigue.
Just go with the flow......do the important things with whatever energy you have, save your energy for when it’s needed....just remember you can only do so much and if you overdo it, you’ll suffer the next day.
I just sleep.
Fatigue is probably my biggest and most annoying problem. For 20 years I've had a daily 'Flag', as I call it. And it is getting worse, probably because I'm now Married (more interaction/conversation..) and have moved to a new area, so everything is new. And I can't learn new things, like where stuff is in the house. I start to 'flag' four hours or so after waking - my eyes and ears get hypersensitive and I get SO tired and irritable. I go to bed or lay in the car if we're out, and pass out for 1 - 2 hours. It is so annoying to have to break the day up like that. I take Modafinil washed-down with strong coffee to keep me going if I absolutely have to, but it makes me feel horribly nauseous and I have to ensure that I 'flag' the following day or things get ontop of me and I can become mentally unwell. Ruddy Brain !
23 yrs after my injury and I still have massive problems triggered by fatigue. But! I haven't give up. I need to make this the priority and build life around it. Managing fatigue is the 'seed' to build a better life around. This is a nice but usually brief period of positivity for me. I hope that improving my fatigue management unlocks the door to more positivity. Good luck to everyone aiming to manage fatigue.
Go to sleep and do absolutely nothing taxing at all.
i just do what i can fatigue is all the time for me and my brain you no
yout limites because my btain goes very tired or my fracture moves shape and i end up on bed i wish i could explain my brain fatigue to others
i no how other people think when you try to explain they dont understand
its horrific just brain fatigue we understand it here and the help line angelsx
but no one else understand it thats why my doctor wrote a letter saying edward needs to rest when needed severe brain injury i showed it to my neighbours no one understand so i just do what i can and draw curtains then they no im not good but just takeing my bruno out for walk 05 45 am just earlier and im chronic pain but proud i done that well he s my life now
so i would crawl to take him out
Aswell as doing things in stages,ignore caffeine as much as poss-whether energy drinks,coffee or cola. U will set urself up for even more tiredness,aswell as being jittery. If a job dictates u need caffeine-do another job,or quit! An accident at work isn't worth it!
Regular rests during the day (but not sleeping.)
Do not listen to others problems anymore as sadness isn't good for us, laughter and singing best medicine. Drink water and remember we are survivors xx
2nd post sorry put it down to short Term memory loss xx
Avoid all factors causing sensory overload, get as much sleep as possible and use mindfulness techniques to try and give a positive outlook. Fatigue management is very important.
With me, its concentration gets bad if I try to do too much. Such as working on my laptop or in my workshop. Then fatigue hits and I have to take a rest to get over it. Try to limit what I do and for how long, no longer than an hour. But at times it's less than that. Before concentration was no problem now it's all changed. It gets me really down ( depressed)
Was interesting reading all these old posts, thank you. I wonder how some of you are now?
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