Rest-Do Days: How to live with fatigue and get things done

The practical guide to pacing, using occupational therapy principles to live well with long-term chronic fatigue.

A practical guide to finding a balance between resting and doing so that readers can recharge their energy levels and also do the things that are important to them. Using concepts from occupational therapy about pacing, occupational balance and creativity in everyday life, this approach is based on Wendy Bryant’s professional experience as an occupational therapist and her personal experience of living with chronic illness through which she has learned how to adapt her rest-activity balance, keeping an eye on what (or who) is controlling her decisions and focusing on doing what’s important and satisfying in her life. The book is not a quick-fix but includes ways to think about what is most important and satisfying for the individual reader each day so they can work with their own situation as it changes. It is aimed particularly at sufferers from degenerative diseases that involve high levels of cyclical fatigue with no expectation of cure, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, vasculitis, Parkinson’s and any other chronic autoimmune disease.

Dr Wendy Bryant MSc PhD PGCertLTHE DipCOT began her practice as an occupational therapist in 1984 and has worked across a range of health and social care settings, then becoming an academic in 2003, first at Brunel University and then at the University of Essex. She retired from clinical practice in 2018 but continues to teach and was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists in 2021. She is one of the three Editors of the latest edition of Creek’s Occupational Therapy and Mental Health (Elsevier).