Always Tired - How Chronic Fatigue is Stealing Your Life

Do you find yourself always tired? Many people wake up every day feeling more and more exhausted as a result of chronic fatigue. In America we tend to live fast hard lives where we push ourselves to the limit every day trying to accomplish something only to be thoroughly drained of energy when the time comes to be with friends and family and have fun.

Being always tired when it's time to celebrate with friends and family is no way to live. If you feel exhausted all the time maybe it's time to see someone about it. Here's a personal testimonial about how chronic fatigue effectively stole fifteen years of my life.

Always Tired But Not Anymore
By Jane P Lass

"I was always tired. From the moment I would wake up in the morning until the time I went to bed I would have a lack of energy. It did not make sense for me to feel always tired yet I did. I have not ever led an extravagant lifestyle, I do not make it a habit of being on the run all the time, and I certainly do not have the stress level of other folks the way a single parent does."

That quote was from a patient suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but needless to say there are many causes of illness which have similar effects. Sadly doctors frequently have difficulty differentiating the ultimate causes and aren't always able to provide relief from fatigue.

Common symptoms include (but are not limited to):

• continuous low grade fever
• joint pain
• difficulties with short term memory
• waking up tired on a daily basis

While any and all of these symptoms are attributable to a number of potential causes what should throw up a red flag for individuals suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is the continuous (hence: Chronic) nature of any or all of the aforementioned symptoms - the leading among them being always tired.

Sufferers Often Don't Know What's Going Wrong... or Even If Anything Is Wrong

As an example consider this patient quote: "Yet there I was, waking every day feeling lousy and being always tired. It just wasn't any way to live but I had been to the doctor numerous times, probably an average of three or four times a year for various ailments and just general malaise. It finally cam to a head one day this year when I had simply had enough. I was fed up with being always tired. I went to my doctor on a day I was feeling normal and said, 'Listen, today is like any other day for me, and I feel just plain lousy. I felt lousy yesterday, I feel bad today, and odds are pretty good tomorrow is going to be the same. I've had it!'"

Chronic Illness Comes from a Variety of Potential Culprits

Comments like these are common for people suffering from long term illnesses, whether it is an ingrained pitched battle with something like sinusitis, or perhaps continuing viral or strep infections. Inevitably what happens with these people feeling always tired is that something has got to give. Usually what gives ends up being the patient's spirit. Their desire to live life fully dwindles until they become a shell of their former selves. Sometimes it gets to the point where their own family members don't recognize the personality of their ill relatives anymore because they've become so withdrawn.

Diagnosis Perplexes Doctors

Diagnosis of chronic symptoms like these is extremely difficult for doctors because they are used to reacting to and treating short term issues, such as a cold or flu. Rest and relief medication are the normal prescription for short term sickness. Unfortunately many sufferers of longer term disease do not go back to their doctors after a few days when their being always tired has not subsided. Patients who trust their doctors too much and don't express the nature of continuing symptoms run the risk of not ever feeling better. Being always tired is just no way to go through life.

I interviewed an expert in fatigue, a specialist for those complaining about being always tired. He suggested anyone feeling constantly tired should take a free online fatigue symptoms quiz. Then simply take the quiz results to their doctor and set a course of treatment or further diagnosis. Patients with similar symptoms who are always tired ought to learn more about the cause of their lack of energy symptoms and seek treatment. You don't have to be always tired.

I hope you start feeling better soon.

Jane P. Lass

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Always So Tired - My Battle with Chronic Fatigue

I was always so tired. I would go to sleep at night just dreading the coming of morning. I knew that when the sun came up I simply wouldn't want to join it. If it was raining outside... forgeddaboudit!

I Had Become a Zombie
My inability to participate in the human race was causing me to just barely live. I could make myself get up to go to work and trade some of my time for some money, but outside that I could barely function at all. I would wake up tired and spend my day just trying to make it through without (getting caught) falling asleep on the job. Thank heavens I had an office to myself - I'm sure that had I been in a cubicle somewhere I would have been toast long ago... but that's another story.

My Doctors Couldn't See the Forest Through The Trees
I had seen various doctors (general practicitioners) over the years but I never really had a history long enough with any one of them for them to be able to say, "Hey Jane, you really seem to be sick and tired a lot. What's really going on?" I would constantly get throat infections, felt like I had fever all the time, and just generally felt lousy.

I Had All But Given Up On Life
I had resigned myself to the belief that this might be all there is. If I had not had some amazing friends I might have simply dwindled away the balance of my days because I simply had given up the fight myself. It was only once prodded by a friend to try acting that I realized how much of life I was missing... and that my energy level was far below that of most everyone I knew. Something was dreadfully wrong, and I needed to do something... ANYTHING... to try to get better.


Research Was Critical
The expansion of medical related information on the web was critical to helping me figure out what was wrong with me. I was able to compare my symptoms of chronic fatigue with the testimonials of other fatigue sufferers and finally start to get some answers. I owe a lot to the efforts of researchers and others in the medical community who have worked tirelessly to document the vast number of illnesses the cause people to turn into walking zombies and be always so tired. I didn't want my life to continue this way. I got facts, I got treatment, and now I'm feeling the results. I'm not always so tired anymore.