Thursday 17 May 2012

Understanding Chronic Fatigue


By
Many people wonder what it's like to have chronic fatigue and I just say them to try and imagine having a cold without the congestion that never gets any better. Sometimes I tell them having chronic fatigue is like driving 1000 miles non-stop. That feeling of being lost, tired, your eyes are tired and you just want to pull into a rest stop and go to sleep.
Unfortunately for CFS sufferers, the bed doesn't do much to help the symptoms.
When you have chronic fatigue syndrome you feel fatigued for long periods of time, such as months, have severe headaches, nausea, muscle cramps, joint pain, light sensitivity and many other symptoms.
Unfortunately for people who have fatigue issues, there's no known cures available. The only thing you can do to treat chronic fatigue syndrome is learn to pace yourself, find a pain medication that seems to work without many side effects as well as get much needed rest. Rest is something that us CFS sufferers get a lot of.
Over time you start to realize that you can't perform your daily tasks such as doing laundry, going out to eat, seeing friends, watching long movies. It's very easy for depression to set in at this point and panic. It is everyday that you read a new “magic formula” for people with CFS, you think it sounds interesting, you try it and are let down because it seemed the treatment was pure snake oil.
This goes on and on again, after all you have to be your own doctor, because the doctors don't actually know what CFS is.
Really, CFS is something that you will have to learn to deal with. You will have to deal with doctors saying that there isn't anything that they can do to help your situation, except to send you to pain management doctors.
It is not uncommon for a CFS sufferer to be recommended to a therapist for a mental evaluation. It is so easy to become depressed, develop social anxiety when you have a limited disabled lifestyle.
You can keep CFS at bay for a little while with exercise, but your body soon will tell you that it needs to take a much needed break. Those signs that you need a break will start to become everyday until you are laying in bed 85% of the time. It's really a never ending cycle that snowballs out of control. Since you are unable to perform as many tasks, you find yourself laying in bed more often, the body starts to put on weight, which really increases the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Everyone is different and there are many things that you can do to lessen your symptoms. Just because there isn't a known cure for chronic fatigue, doesn't mean that there aren't ways to make coping with it easier for you and your family. Things such as different types of vitamins help you with pain, concentration, joint pain, sleep. Different types of sleep aids, natural and prescription will help your body get a more restorative sleep. You just have to find the right formula that works with your body, never give up hope!
For more information on lethargy, visit http://www.discoveryfatigue.info. Feel free to comment, let's open up some discussion and fight fatigue together!



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