Take Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Seriously, Becuase it is Serious.

If you have chronic fatigue, you may hear responses like this from others who don't understand:

"Oh, you're tired? You should try to get more sleep."

"You shouldn't be tired since you slept all night."

"Oh come on, drink some coffee and let's get to work!"

"Can't you work on something that doesn't take much energy? You're wasting your life just laying there."

"Are you ever going to not be tired?"

"Why are you so lazy?"

"You should go to a doctor and fix the problem. Go get your health back."

"You know what your problem is? You don't eat sugar. How do you expect to have energy if you don't eat sugar?"

...and I could keep going. I've heard all of these, and more. And explaining myself so often makes me more and more exhausted.


So I want to clear this up. I don't expect those of you without chronic fatigue syndrome to understand the condition after reading this, but I hope it helps you learn compassion and patience with those of us who suffer it.

From my personal experience, I've determined that...


...Being tired is not the same thing as being fatigued.
Feeling tired means you need rest and sleep. It can mean you're hungry, it can mean you didn't get enough sleep, it can also mean you've spend all your energy already and need to rest to make more. Everyone feels tired. It's a normal, healthy human thing. If you've never felt tried, you're probably not human.

Fatigue means a loss of strength, a loss of mental energy, and a loss of physical energy. A tired person can still function normally, just more slowly and lazily. A fatigued person cannot function normally. It may be impossible for a person with severe fatigue to even walk on their own. A moderately fatigued person might be able to walk, but not far and probably can't think about what they're doing while walking. Rest isn't usually enough to recover from fatigue.

Feeling tired is like your battery being at 50% power. You have to recharge to recover energy so you can get back to work for hours upon hours. Recharging is all you need to get better.

Feeling fatigued is like your battery being at critically low power and you must recharge now or shut down completely. When fatigued, it's impossible to keep going - there's no battery power left to work with. The problem is, recharging isn't enough. It will help you gain back maybe 10-20% power, because you can't hold very much power anymore. You're like an old cell phone that has to be recharged after every phone call. A fatigued person has to be very picky about what he or she spends limited energy on, and then spend the rest of the day recharging so that they can spend limited energy on something new later on.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is extremely debilitating. In fact, it's so debilitating that this Danish study suggests that it affects quality of life more than any other chronic illness.





...And there's more to Chronic Fatigue than just the fatigue.
Fatigue affects the entire body, not just energy levels. It means blurred vision, poor circulation, ringing in the ears or loss of hearing, poor memory and concentration, aches and pains, slurred speech, and more. Organs, glands, and all your body parts require energy to function properly. If the brain can't get enough energy, of course it'll work poorly. If the stomach can't get enough energy, it's not going to digest very well. If the muscles can't get enough energy, they're not going to move well.

Friday evening, after working 3 long hard days in a row, I seriously considered going to the hospital. My throat and tongue were swollen up and I had a hard time talking and eating. My vision was very bad and my muscle tension was extreme. I had terrible insomnia the last two nights because my body was desperate for energy to keep me alive. I had to take 3x the amount of herbal sleeping pills that I normally take, and it still took me hours to fall asleep.





So next time someone complains about having chronic fatigue, don't offer them a cup of coffee. It won't help - it gives a boost now, but actually causes worse fatigue later from the crash. Help them accomplish their task so they don't have to spend all of their limited energy on it.

I have spent my whole weekend at the mercy of my fatigue. I overspent myself on Thursday and Friday at work, and now I have to spend my days doing as little as possible so that all my energy can go to healing my body. I nearly fainted at church this morning, and I actually regret going because it made me more fatigued. I need to recover so I can make it through work this week. I've discovered my limit of how many hours I can handle at work. If it wasn't super ridiculously busy on Thursday I probably would have been okay and wouldn't be so fatigued now, but I can't know how busy we'll get.




...But wait, I have chronic fatigue and I'm working? How is that possible? Yes. If you read my previous post about working with MCS, you'll see that I actually didn't work for 2 years. It would have been impossible, as my fatigue was too strong all of the time. I've recovered enough where I have enough energy to work for 12-15 hours a week. It has depleted me on occasion, but I can do it. My fear is that I won't be able to regain much more energy than I already have. 2 years of full-time healing has only brought me to this level. Which is incredible, as I started out totally bed-ridden. I've made a ton of progress with my health, and yet I'm still very weak compared to the average healthy person. Sigh. But I hold on to hope, and I'll do whatever I need to in order to continue healing.

So please. Take Chronic Fatigue seriously. Don't assume they're over exaggerating. Don't assume they're simply not taking care of themselves. Don't assume that they're lazy. Don't assume that they're supposed to be able to function as well as you. Chronic fatigue steals a person's energy, and makes living very difficult. Don't be one of the difficulties.




I also want to point out the possibility that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is an auto-immune disease. The medical communities haven't agreed on this, but there's enough research showing that it acts like an auto-immune disease. If someone told you they have an auto-immune disease making them weak, would you take them more seriously than if they told you they have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?