A bad spell (which can last for months) means:

• Energy
  to do only one or two things per day. Taking a bath or shower counts.
  So does cooking a meal. So does writing a blog post, or talking on the
  phone with a friend. Take your pick.
• Neglecting the pets. Not walking the dogs. Insufficiently petting the cats. Ignoring the parakeets. Being a bad pet parent.
• Beginning, setting down, forgetting, several books at once.
• Sleeping at least twelve hours per day. Not quite being awake the other twelve.
• Wearing the same clothes, unwashed, day after day after day, because doing laundry is too difficult.
• Eating rather too much pizza. Cheap, filling, delivered.
• Stepping carefully around piles of books, magazines, unread mail.
• Leaving phone calls, email, paper mail, blog comments — unanswered.
• Wondering how one prioritizes long procrastinated tasks.

Of
course, the fact that I can write this means that the bad spell is
easing; it's only in looking back that I see how bad it's been.

I saw the doctor today. He suggests — tentatively, as it's spendy — a drug called Provigil.
It's meant for the treatment of narcolepsy, but apparently has showed
some effectiveness in patients suffering severe fatigue. He's seen
patients respond with increased energy and mental acuity.

Sounds
like heaven to me. I remind myself, keep hope within bounds. I've been
there before. First task, investigate drug. Next task, ask you: have
any of you tried this?

PostScript:

A quick note on new features!

TypePad has implemented pagination, which means that you can now navigate Abide from links at the bottom of post and category pages; and category pages won't be so long and slow to load. And, we now have feeds available for comments on specific posts.
Yay!