Appointment with an occupational therapist

Today I returned to my local ME unit for an appointment with an occupational therapist (OT), L. The appointment went well and I found it very helpful :)

L had been through my activity diary and colour coded it. Cognitive activities were in green, physical activities were in blue, rest was in pink and sleep was in yellow. The majority of my diary (around 90% of the time I was awake) was green, with a small amount blue (about 10%) and no pink at all! So I have to try to incorporate rest periods into every day (ideally 4 lots of 30mins). I hate doing nothing, so have been told that resting can be listening to audio books. I've tried that once so far, but wasn't very impressed with the audio books I found around the house. So I've ordered some books on CD that I've enjoyed reading from my local library.

I've been advised to try to split up my activities (so I don't spend 3 hours solid on the computer for example), perhaps using an alarm to help me keep track of the time, and to forward plan activities when possible. This all makes sense to me, and L said if I can make time to rest then hopefully in a year's time I'll be feeling better, whereas if I was to continue like I have been without making time for rest, then I'd likely be in exactly the same position in a year.

I asked L about her opinions on me taking an evening course in Japanese this year, as I loved studying Japanese in sixth form. She thought that I should be ok with that, so will have a think and look into when the course starts.

I was also given information about some websites that I can use to buy Melatonin online, so am going to do that ASAP, as I feel the sooner I can get it the better, as I'm not sleeping well at the moment. It's quite reasonably priced too. And I've been given details of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), though I'm not sure if I'll try that or not. L leaves tomorrow, but I've got details of someone else to contact if I have any questions or need any help.