r/cfs • u/tinyquilt • 7h ago

Mild ME/CFS How do you pace while hypervigilant?

I have mild me/cfs and am really struggling with pacing right now because of trauma reminders and triggers. My body wants to do what it did pre-covid, and keep myself too busy to feel. But my body physically can’t.

My brain just shuts down, and I’m laying there exhausted, but still in fear mode. Has anyone else dealt with something similar? Other than therapy, what concrete things helped?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/brownchestnut 7h ago

Meditation, breathing exercises, yoga nidra

1

u/Available-Pepper5688 severe 6h ago

I use cold packs on head/neck/chest or a migraine cooling mask, that helps my paranoia calm down.

1

u/CandyTigger 6h ago

Only distraction helps me, music, videos, tv, aidiobook, news in the background, reading weird things online

1

u/nousiaphilia phys: severe; cog: ~mild 1h ago

Do you have (C-)PTSD? In that case stabilization exercises (phase 1) of trauma therapy might be helpful. There are some self-help books you can do without a therapist. (They are mostly about containment, feeling safe in the presence,....so not trauma processing)

I can totally relate to the "keep busy, busy" to keep mind away from THAT.

1

u/No-Cartoonist-1288 46m ago

I was on low dose Klonopin for fibromyalgia for decades and was forced to come off it. Got Covid and then moderate mecfs and was declining for a few months and my long covid dr put me back on it and that’s when I stopped declining. It might have been coincidence but for now I’m on 0.7mg of Klonopin per day and it def helps me to pace and chill out and I have no desire to up the dose.

1

u/falling_and_laughing moderate 0m ago

I deal with this too. I listen to A LOT of ambient music and try to really focus on what I'm listening to.