It’s easy to believe that warning signs are obvious. That the body will shout when something is wrong. For me, it didn’t work like that. The signals came quietly. Gradually. Almost unnoticed.
I became a little more tired than usual. Needed a bit more time to recover. Cut back here and there. Told myself it was normal. That it was just a rough patch. That it would pass.
And for a while, things did seem manageable.
The problem wasn’t that I felt nothing. The problem was that I didn’t want to see it. I wanted this to work so badly. I wanted to be back. I wanted my body to cooperate this time.
So I interpreted the warning signs generously. Explained them away. Normalised them. Covered them with willpower and hope. Quietly, consistently, I ignored what my body was telling me.
The exhaustion didn’t arrive with a crash. It came as a slow drain. A little less energy each week. Fewer margins. A shorter distance between “this is okay” and “this isn’t”.
When I finally had to stop, it wasn’t because something new happened. It was because the sum of everything I had overlooked became too much. My body had been speaking for a long time. I just hadn’t been listening.
That realisation is painful. Not because I did something foolish, but because I did what so many of us do: I hoped my way past my limits.
Today, I try to notice things earlier. Small signs. Subtle changes. I don’t always succeed, but I’m learning to take my body seriously—even when the signals are quiet and easy to explain away.
Perhaps one of the hardest parts of long-term illness is knowing when to stop. Not when everything collapses—but before it does.
This isn’t a story about failure.
It’s a story about slowly learning how to live with limits I never had before.
💭 “Small steps are still progress — even when no one else sees them.”
✨ “Not every day has to be good — but there is something good in every day.”
- Inner Motivation — When No One Is Applauding
- Indre motivasjon – når ingen klappar
- When Motivation Doesn’t Show Up
- Når motivasjonen ikkje kjem
- Eg er meir enn det eg produserer
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