One of my most stable symptoms and which, even if it improves, is always with me is fatigue. After any moderate physical activity, but above all, after intense cognitive activity, fatigue appears. In different degrees, depending on the activity.
It’s funny, at school I was “pure letters”, but currently I am developing my mathematical ability to the maximum, in order to avoid fatigue.
In order to meet my objectives on a day-to-day basis and that fatigue does not make me cancel them, I have to work hard in ANTICIPATION, otherwise I am lost. I feel like I have a much smaller and limited amount of energy. It helps me to imagine my energy as a box of dominoes, with its 26 tiles… and I have to calculate very well what I use them for and how I distribute them so that they don’t all go out at once.
If I want to listen to an interesting conference, for which I want to be attentive and with a clear head, I know that I have to arrive soon, not travel by subway, go to the first rows and sit in a seat in the center, to avoid the noise of people entering or leaving distract me.
Many times if I see that my brain begins to saturate I have to abandon an activity before it is finished. At first this frustrated me a lot, especially if it was a group thing and I had to give a lot of explanations, feeling that others didn’t understand it. Currently, although it is still frustrating at times, I know it, I understand it and I no longer aspire so much for everyone to understand it.
A year and a half after writing this post, I realize how tiredness continues to be the new “friend” with whom I have had to learn to live.
You can share your experience and tools if you live with fatigue on a daily basis after an acquired brain injury.
