Bradykinesia – slowness of movement – can feel like being a snail inching along beside a road where the rest of the world are blurring past obliviously.
Its severity can fluctuate quite a lot throughout the day, and over time.
I can move relatively “normally” one moment and be severely affected the next.
Sometimes is is because the medication is working, and then not. Or a range of other things can happen like:
- Adrenaline can temporarily override symptoms.
- Stress can worsen them.
- Fatigue can magnify them.
This inconsistency is part of why bradykinesia (and Parkinson’s) can be difficult for others to understand.
What Bradykinesia Actually Feels Like
The truth is that “slowness” doesn’t even begin to describe it properly.
Bradykinesia is extremely frustrating – you are using an enormous amount of energy and effort just to keep moving at a “normal” speed. It can feel like your body has quietly disconnected from your intentions. Your brain says move, but the message arrives late, distorted, or incomplete.
This can gradually over time evolve into freezing as slowness grinds slowly into not being able to move at all for periods of time.
People may assume:
you’re lazy
distracted,
not trying,
tired,
unfit,
or simply “old”.
Or if you don’t look old enough for that assumption to make sense to people you can attract a lot of uncomfortable staring as people try, and fail, to categorize you in their heads.
For me, one of the hardest parts is that internally, I still feel like the same person. My thoughts are there. My intentions are there.
But the body moves on a delay
What Helps Me
There’s no magic fix (although taking levodopa/ carbidopa sure feels like it is in the beginning), but there are things that make bradykinesia more manageable.
1. Exercise – especially BIG, intentional movement
Exercise genuinely helps.
When I’ve got the go slows the natural reaction of my family has been that I need to rest.
Sit down they would urge me.
Or:
Let me do that they’d say as they took over the thing I was doing.
Weirdly the opposite is more helpful. Movement helps the brain recruit alternative pathways and maintain function.
What we call “exercise” is really just training or practicing types of movement.
For me, helpful movement includes:
karate,
walking or crawling or running,
mobility work,
strength training,
and consciously practicing larger movements.
And sometimes I have to exaggerate movement to get my body to produce something close to “normal”. You can learn large functional movement patterns for this purpose in courses like LSVT BIG.
2. Rhythm and cuing
External cues can help “unlock” movement.
Things like:
music,
counting,
stepping over lines,
marching rhythms,
or verbal prompts.
It sounds strange until you experience how dramatically it can work. A metronome or music can be helpful, and there are mobile phone apps designed to help with this.
3. Allowing extra time
I don’t always feel slow, so it’s frustrating to realize everything takes longer.
But building margin into the day helps reduce stress and rushing — because stress often makes symptoms worse.
And managing family expectations around getting to things on time is also helpful in this regard.
4. Medication timing
When medications are working well, movement is usually easier.
When they wear off, bradykinesia can become much more noticeable.
Learning medication timing patterns can make a huge difference in planning the day.
This will take constant experimentation and adjusting as your needs change – even within a day, not just over time. So this isn’t necessarily about disease progression. (Ouch, just used the ‘p’ word – sorry PWP!).
5. Reducing multitasking
Yes, I know – we’re all supposed to be multitasking and productive at all times.
But – bradykinesia gets worse when my brain is overloaded.
Trying to move quickly while processing multiple things at once can completely jam the system.
Doing one thing at a time isn’t laziness — sometimes it’s the most efficient way forward.
What I Wish People Knew
If someone with Parkinson’s is moving slowly, please don’t rush them.
Please don’t finish every task for them automatically either.
Sometimes we need patience more than help.
Bradykinesia changes the speed at which the body operates — but not the value of the person inside it.