The Courage To Nap

When I tell people about getting the horrible diagnosis of a serious illness, a lot of time they respond the way that people respond to cancer or other short-term illnesses.
Trying to be encouraging, they say stuff like this:

"You've got to FIGHT the illness
You can't LET the illness WIN
Don't GIVE UP, Don't let this diagnosis prevent you from doing anything you want, climbing any mountain......
TAKE CHARGE of your health and medical treatment, ADVOCATE for yourself, RESEARCH treatments, DEMAND better health care....."
(and then a whole bunch of stuff I'm supposed to be doing, like....)
"You've got to exercise, cook all organic foods, do this treatment, that treatment, the other treatment....."
and my personal favorite "Give 110% until you BEAT this illness"

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about all that activity, all that fighting, beating, resisting, struggling. And then when I just look sad and overwhelmed and guilty about all the stuff I should be doing, I'm afraid I come across as "giving up."

It's one more pitfall of living in our Work-Ethic, No Pain No Gain, Never Give Up society. We live in a society that FLAUNTS struggle as a status symbol.
Just by not visibly engaging in sweaty, struggling effort, we risk being labeled wimps, or losers.

Unfortunately this is a very troubling thing for Fibro and CFS patients, because a lot of getting better is learning to relax, let go of expectations, and get enough rest. Whereas overworking is a major trigger of a relapse that makes us even sicker.
But we feel guilty about resting, so we push ourselves to exhaustion and then relapse. But at least then we are giving 110% -- literally more than we can, and borrowing energy we don't have.

There is a real shortage of role models for resting and relaxing.
There is a shortage of slogans that make resting and relaxing a good idea.
Actually, I think Dave Barry, that comic genius said it best, although he was talking about baby boomers getting older. So I'll just quote from his book, page 176 of Dave Barry Turns 50.

"It would help if the people who produce our popular culture would make an effort to portray napping in a positive light. Let's take the standard scene from an action-adventure movie, wherein two ruggedly handsome action heroes discover a bomb with a detonator counting down. [...] There is no reason why it could not be rewritten as follows:

FIRST HERO: Christ, there's enough explosives here to destroy half the city!
SECOND HERO: And the timer says only ninety seconds left!
FIRST HERO: Great! We have time for a brief nap!
SECOND HERO: Good idea! By napping now, we will remain ruggedly handsome that much longer!
(Dramatic music plays as we see the two heroes inflating small portable air mattresses.)

How can I make resting seem sexy again? Here are my theories.

1) I want to invent SuperFibroWoman, the comic book SuperHeroine. She dresses like Wonder Woman, except she's chubbier and she doesnt' have time to get her hair done, so she just wears a ponytail and no makeup. She's slower than a slow pitch softball, she's stronger than a toddler.... she's SuperFibro, and she always saves the day.... eventually.

2) I want some new slogans, yelled by a Drill Sargeant, or maybe chanted by a cheerleader.
Such as "Get out there and give it 75%!!" or "R-E-S-T, find out what it means to me!" or "Snooze like you mean it!"

3) I'd like to see some big screen movies in which the hero or heroine has Chronic Fatigue. Maybe a private eye who solves crimes in his sleep? Played by Leonardo DiCaprio, of course.

Meanwhile, I am going to make an effort to encourage people to take it easy. Next time, when someone says, "sorry the house is a mess" I'm going to respond, "Wow, I admire you for letting go of perfectionism" and when they say, "I'm tired," I'll say, "Go rest then, I'll still be here when you are done." Maybe, people will think I'm a weirdo or possibly a pervert. But maybe, just maybe, we can start a social movement that makes napping cool again.