Hello all! Welcome back.
A topic that has come up a lot recently in my practice has been pacing or energy conservation techniques.
If reading is tough for you – follow along with the audio file below
Pacing is crucial to your recovery! It is one of the most important skills I can teach a patient. People with brain injuries experience crashes during their recovery process and some will struggle with crashing for the rest of their lives.
Our crashes are completely different from when the average person gets “tired”. When we crash, we deplete the resources our brains need to function which is what causes that horrible lead feeling. There are new studies suggesting that these crashes and periods of inflammation can cause continued cell death long term.
Think about being in a group project. If one member doesn’t do their share (original damage from your accident), the rest of the team has to work harder. If the rest of the group keeps having to do more and more, they will eventually become so tired that they can’t keep up –> more cell death. Now the teams around that group have to work harder to make up for this loss. And this cycle could theoretically continue forever.
When the average person does too much they will experience their “break down” as fatigue, or maybe get a cold. They take a day to recover and are back on their feet. This is not what a brain injury break down feels like. We can’t get out of bed, our brain just wont work, we can’t think, we feel emotional or like the world has fallen out from under us. You know exactly what I mean. This is not “being tired”. This fatigue is from using up all the currency your brain uses to function! We have to rest until we build up stores of this currency for our brain to start to work again.
BUT FEAR NOT! With adequate pacing techniques to avoid these crashes you can help to protect your brain!
To describe pacing I use what was once described to me as the “Stoplight Theory” – I apologize to whomever gave me this bit of wisdom that I cannot give you credit! If I remember I will make an edit!! 🙂
The Stoplight Theory:
In a stoplight you have your green, yellow and red zones.
In life, as humans, when we get to yellow we tend to speed up and rush through the light before red. Most healthy people will never hit red. They just speed on through and keep going. This behavior is human nature.
In those with head trauma – we speed through yellow and crash into the red zone. We can’t just push through like you would if you had a sore back or ankle. We become useless people for days or weeks depending on the severity of your case.
What I teach patients is to learn to identify the yellow warning signs and practice your energy conservation techniques (ECT) to return back down to green.
ECT: rest or a nap, music, meditation, painting etc. Whatever calms you back down and helps you recover.
Patients get frustrated here and say “I’d NEVER get anything done!!” This is when we discuss quality over quantity. Once you’re in the yellow or early red zones, you aren’t really accomplishing as much as you think you are anyway! You might accomplish in an hour of yellow what you would have in 15mins of green. This means if you just rested for 30mins to return to green and then got back to it you still would have accomplished double in that same hour.
This is when patients have their ah ha! moment. They know EXACTLY what I’m talking about.
This brings us to what I like to call “learning opportunities“. Because you WILL fail at identifying yellow or listening to your body when it tells you you’re in the yellow. You will fail. Period. It is okay! As long as you keep trying you are moving in the right direction!
You will start to learn when your body gives you the warning signs a crash is coming. And then you will start to learn to listen to your body. And that is when the magic starts.
Because the less often you crash, the more you start to build endurance! This is where your zones are able to grow! What once brought you to red will only take you to yellow. And then someday, what would have brought on a full blown crash will only take you to the start of yellow. Without following these pacing strategies your endurance can never build, or will build so slowly it’ll feel like forever.
But if you follow these strategies you will start to notice you can do more and more and more in that 1 hour. Or tolerate more hours in a row. And then someday it’ll be more days in a row. And then weeks. And then a crash will happen out of the blue and you’ll be devastated. DON’T BE! It means you did so well for so long you didn’t realize you were pacing!
Just start back on your recovery strategies and remember that you are still recovering. Some of us will have to use these techniques for life – I still do and I’m over 3 years out. Some of you lucky ducks will eventually outgrow this process. But we will all start to function better!
Remember – as you start to advance your zones will start to stretch between days and weeks. So what you did Monday and Tuesday may add up to a crash on Thursday.
Personal Example:
I recently went to a conference with the American Institute of Balance – I set myself up for failure – I booked a red eye flight landing 1 hour before the conference knowing I had to book it right to the first 8 hour day of the conference. I was there for 3 days and then was getting in very late Sunday and going right to work Monday AM.
So, I knew I had to pace myself the week before AND the week after to avoid a crash. I had to make sure not to overbook myself leading up to the flight and be cautious about my commitments after. But I needed help.
I got distracted by an issue with Phoenix and my husband found me (while I was supposed to be napping) redesigning the homepage. OOOOO I was in trouble! He says, “you’re supposed to be napping!!!! What are you doing?”
Me…ummm well, you see….
And the hubby takes my computer away from me and makes me nap. Was I happy about that, well no of course not. But I then slept for 1 of the 3 hours I had planned and was only a little off the next day! And most importantly, I was able to learn a lot at the conference!
So even now, with all my preaching and teaching. Telling patients about the stoplight theory weekly. Even I need help sometimes! Learning opportunities!!
So get started today! Why wait! And when you forget, and you crash don’t get frustrated! Just start over the next day. Eventually you’ll get it and you’ll start to see it working! Often patients notice a difference in just a week.
Go for it! What do you have to lose????
