I thought I ate something wrong, but I've been sick for more than 3 days now. Sneezing, nose completely blocked, coughing, vomiting, terrible sleep, muscle pain, stomachache and sharp headaches.

It seems like my partner also got infected, because they started sneezing a day later.

But I don't even really mind all this physical pain and discomfort. The thing that bothers me the most is that I'm completely useless. Unable to think properly apart from a few moments during the day. Sometimes even unable to talk or properly understand my partner.

I can't even read or play a game or something because it quickly gives me a painful headache, and I don't enjoy anything at the moment anyway.

Anyone have some strategies to cope with this? Seems to happen frequently when I get sick and I don't really know how to deal with it. And it seems like it also drags on quite long because I forget to eat enough, I don't seem to have enough energy to take care of myself (brushing, showering)

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[–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

Even when sick, I tend to try and rest by playing games, watching movies or reading stuff online.

This is so me! I think it's OK to rest the body this way, and as long as you stay out of anything involving realtime interaction with people, it probably still serves as social rest. But it's not really sensory or cognitive rest, which is what we probably need if we're dealing with overwhelm/ shutdown/ burnout. These are the types of rest I really struggle to get.

I hope you find a way to get up and running again so you can prepare for your concert and trip

Didn't make it to the concert (Pearl Jam, I'd been looking forward to it for weeks, so gutted I missed it), and I had to skip the NYE festival I was meant to be going to as well. I did manage to get to Te Wai Pounamu for the tramping trip I'd lined up with my nephews, which was fantastic.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 6 months ago

    I suppose many people nowadays rest by scrolling on their phone. Which is fine if you need physical rest, but it definitely does not help with overwhelm indeed.
    I try to just lie down and daydream a bit, or meditate. But when I'm really overwhelmed, it's difficult to keep myself from randomly scrolling, and that makes it worse until I just shutdown.

    Not sure what a good way is to retrain this habit.

    Nice to hear you enjoyed the trip, even though you missed the concert and festival.

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