Fatigue - For Children and Young People
We can think of our energy levels like a battery, just like the one in your phone. It is a certain size, needs charging regularly, and will give you enough energy to do all the activities that you want to do in your day. When you have fatigue, your energy battery shrinks in size, takes longer to charge, and uses up the available energy quicker, just like a really old phone would do! This can mean you find it harder to do the things you used to do easily.
Types of Energy
The Boom and Bust Cycle
When you feel really fatigued, it can feel easier to do nothing. Then, when you have a good day, you might want to do everything you wanted to do all at once. This can end up with your energy levels going up and down just like a rollercoaster. We call this Boom and Bust.
When we are in a Boom and Bust cycle, it can mean that you spend days at a time not doing anything you enjoy whilst you recover from the Boom days. This can even result in days off school whilst you recover. It can make it really hard for you to balance all the things you want and need to do, and can make it hard to feel like you are getting better or making progress.
Managing Fatigue
A good way to manage fatigue is to do a little bit at a time – this is called pacing. This means doing some activity when you are feeling good but making sure that you are not using up all of your energy. Try to do something you enjoy, even on your worst days, to help keep your energy levels more balanced. This will flatten the Boom and Bust curve, allowing us to do a little of what we enjoy each day. For more information on Increasing Activity, see our page Thinking about Increasing Activity.
Managing our energy levels is tiring in itself. When we are experiencing symptoms of fatigue, it is very important that we are kind to ourselves, and remember that you don’t have to do everything perfectly or all by yourself. It’s okay to ask a trusted adult for help. You don’t have to manage this alone.