Lifestyle Management/Pacing for CFS/ME/PVFS

The alternative to pacing could be considered Graded Exercise, assuming there is no disease causing the symptoms. Any symptoms are considered to be a lack of fitness and why patients are asked to consider activity plans and regimes.

If you have been diagnosed with CFS/ME you wont be able to escape life style changes. You may persevere or you may have done so up to now (and lead to the diagnosis), and found that pushing yourself through tiredness only makes it worse. Acceptance of your illness is a big but understandably difficult step.

Learning to manage the symptoms and your own expectations about what you can now achieve will play a large part in your ability to commence a level of recovery, no matter how small. In the acute stage you'll find you need more rest. Learn to listen to your body and slow down when you feel tired. By grading the activities you do from 1 to 10, 10 being the most tired, you should not be doing activities that exceed a tiredness level of 6-7.

There will be days when you feel a little better and be tempted to cram everything in that you've not managed on your bad days, but in doing so you'll likely limit your chance of a good day soon after. The idea behind pacing is that you do continue to do some activity as opposed to nothing. By making a plan for the day, eliminating unncessary activities and prioritising those things that are most important for ytou to achieve, you'll find better equiped at pacing yourself.

Through time you'll learn tricks that will save you time and energy. For example, if you are upstairs resting and needing to go downstairs to collect something, then think ahead. Are you going to need anything else from downstairs which you might need later? Whereas a healthy person wouldn't think twice about going up and down the stairs to do something on a whim, someone with ME/CFS doesn't have that luxury.

If you can learn to ask for and accept help from other people, you'll be learning the art of kindness towards yourself. If there is someone willing to cook for you, clean your house, or take your children out while you take a rest, there is no shame in taking this time to rest or doing something which lifts your spirits. There will be times when you'll make the decision to tire yourself out in order to do something you enjoy. It's finding the balance between continued exertion and those times when you can over-exert yourself for the sake of something really enjoyable.

The alternative to pacing could be considered Graded Exercise, assuming there is no disease causing the symptoms. Any symptoms are considered to be a lack of fitness and why patients are asked to consider activity plans and regimes. Pacing does not make this assumption about CFS/ME, and recognises the research which considers the illness to be organic.