ABSTRACT
Neurological fatigue
“Neurological fatigue” is one of my most significant and stable side effects. Fatigue is not well understood by others, who mostly relate it to an emotional issue.
My new identity as an “economist”, continuously making energy calculations, carefully planning my movements and using my new tools, helps me to ration my energy.
Attention difficulties
I now accept that I need full attention to follow conversations, reading material, TV series and day-to-day situations; that I am no longer the multitasking woman I was before.
I have new habits such as sitting near the front at events and using earplugs to block out noise. I still need to distinguish what is essential from what is secondary, as I pay the same attention to both.
The saturated hard drive
“The best image to explain what happens to me mentally when I receive too much information is a saturated hard drive”. I have created my own motto: “Just one intense thing a day!” When I ignore my motto, exhaustion kicks in and I have to cancel the next activities, or those planned for the following day. Tools like mindfulness help me when my “hard drive” is saturated. They don’t help to empty it, but they do help me to stay relaxed and accept the situation and not to overload it even more.
Brain sluggishness
Personally, and as a family, it took a long time for us to understand that my slow movements and increased reaction times were due to the fact that orders from the brain now take longer to arrive. Despite being able to walk, my legs took a long time to start moving.
