In our hectic lives these days, I often hear people say that they are ‘chronically fatigued’, or they know someone who is. While I try to withhold judgement (and try not to put them in this blogpost!), I often wince when I hear these words. Obviously, I know that they might be spending days, weeks, months in bed feeling horrendous, as many of us have or done who visit the blog. But, there’s always a little bit of me that thinks they’re probably just going to sleep a lot over the weekend, and they’ll be ok on Monday.

I know- I judge people too. I’m not perfect.

So, maybe you’re asking yourself, “Do I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?” What is the big difference between normal fatigue and chronic fatigue? What are some Chronic Fatigue Symptoms?

Photo taken from here

Normal Fatigue

• Even if you’re feeling particularly tired, after a few days you begin to feel better.
• If you take regular breaks and rest up at the weekend, you usually feel ok.
• Your eating patterns remain largely regular and unaffected.
• You can exercise more-or-less as normal and while you might find the workout harder than usual, you recover in just about the normal time with little to no after-effects.
• You sleep almost normally, even sleeping for a little longer to let your body recuperate. You feel more or less ok after waking up, if a little fatigued, but this doesn’t go on for more than a few days.
• Side effects such as headaches and stomach discomfort are minimal.

Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue

• Even taking time out to rest for a few days or a week has little to no effect, and in some cases can make you feel worse.
• Doing exercise has become out-of-the-question. Even doing menial tasks around the house or walking is becoming too much to bear. Even taking a shower can start to feel overwhelming.
• You begin to feel the need to get more and more sleep, but never feel refreshed when you wake up.
• Side-effects, such as headaches, insomnia, muscle pain and brain fog, are becoming more frequent.
• You find that activities you normally became excited about can often fall by the wayside, because of a total lack of energy,
• Your eating patterns are a little bit ‘off’.
• Fatigue is starting to effect your quality of life.

How else can I tell the difference?

Instinct. Intuition. Gut.

Sometimes you can feel on a cellular level if something isn’t quite right. I knew when I was sick all those years ago, the second I woke up feeling incredibly ill in fact, that this thing wasn’t going to shift overnight. You know your body better than anyone else, and consequently you know when something’s not quite right.

Should I go to the Doctor?

As I mentioned in this article, you should go to the doctor in order to be tested for any illnesses that CFS/M.E. often get confused with. (anaemia, Lyme disease and Glandular Fever, to name just a few). You probably don’t want to, but I would always recommend this to people who are feeling abnormally tired.

I really hope this helps my darling. Let me know below, would you add any other symptoms to the list above?

Love and listening in,

Katie      xxx