Extreme fatigue

[cry]

Hello everyone,

I’ve been feeling okay with my HA the past few weeks, so I am not overly anxious at the moment but I am slightly concerned about this issue which has been going on for a couple of months.

I’ve been having feelings of extreme fatigue for about three months now - and I mean sleeping up to 12 hours and waking up feeling exhausted. I’ve had a full blood count, vitamin d and iron stores checked. Ferritin is 18 so could be higher but it’s always been quite low due to heavy periods, and gets better with tablets.

I have an appointment with my doctor again on Wednesday, but the last time I spoke to her two weeks ago she didn’t seem too concerned (or bothered to be honest) and said about CFS but I’m not sure it’s that. I’m going to push for more blood tests as I don’t feel like I explained how much it’s having an impact on my life.

Has anyone had similar and found out the cause? I eat healthily as I have non diabetic reactive hypoglycaemia (and PCOS) so don’t feel it’s diet related.

Other symptoms are loose stools on and off for months (have taken medication a couple of times so could be linked, said to doctor before and she suggested it’s anxiety but as I said above I don’t feel overly anxious at the moment) and stomach pains so I’m wondering if they’re connected?

Thanks all.

[ankietyjoe]

I've had this on and off a couple of times over the years.

My ultimate conclusion is that it's related to a phenomenon called adrenal fatigue. The main sticking point with adrenal fatigue is that it's difficult to test for, and not really a recognised condition that can be treated. I will leave it up to you to have a quick read up on it and decide for yourself if you think it's 'a thing'.

I also learned over the years that the way you feel today isn't always based on your general wellbeing over the last couple of days. Several months of serious stress and/or anxiety can easily take another several months to recover from, so what you're feeling now is possibly a product of where you were a few months ago. That is how it works for me at least.

Stomach pains and bowel issues also point towards some kind of IBS (extremely common with long term anxiety) and if I have an IBS flare up my energy levels drop to the floor.

It's always worth taking another look at your diet. Sometimes even healthy foods don't agree with us, so perhaps your body is reacting to something that's healthy for somebody else. It's a long shot, but I find it's very easy to get into a habitual dietary rut.

My solution was active relaxation techniques, practiced several times a day. In effect, you're trying to pull down your CNS to a more relaxed state. I often find when I meditate (for example) that I can sense how charged my mind and body is, even though I don't feel particularly anxious. In fact I don't really suffer with anxiety any more as my coping mechanisms are so practiced, but this just means I can inadvertently allow myself to become more stressed than I possibly should.

Just random ramblings of my own experiences over the years! :)

[cry]

Thanks anxietyjoe, you’re always so helpful 😊

I have heard of adrenal fatigue before, as I had periods of extreme fatigue a few years back and that’s how I found out about it. Things improved through eating better and gradually sleeping less which meant I didn’t need to sleep as long. I’m going to try the same now - as well as looking at stress and anxiety - but last night I slept nine hours and I feel so tired this morning. Hopefully things will improve over a few days.

I’ve got a call with my GP tomorrow so will also see what she advises.

Thanks again for replying!

[Zilde]

I experience this exact thing you describe in cycles, I have like a month of feeling like this then a month of feeling good. maybe 2 months. But it always comes back. What i'm finding difficult is correlating this sensation of malaise to my mental state, as it seems to be independent of how i'm feeling mentally.

With this in mind, the symptoms are always the same and come in the same cluster, including;

Body aches and pains that aren't 'recovered' by sleeping and resting
overall sensation of fatigue and tiredness, afternoon sleeping seems inviting
Sleep isn't restful when I do sleep, wake up feeling the same
Muscles tire easily from any physical exertion

My best conclusion so far is that it has to be somewhat psychosomatic, as nothing is being found in the way of physical disease and hasn't been found after 3 years of continuous testing.

As horrible as it feels there has to be an element of acceptance that although it's deeply unpleasant to feel like this all the time, there probably isn't anything physically wrong with you either. It just needs time to sort itself.

[ankietyjoe]

It's a hard thing to test for adrenal issues as any test will be a snapshot, and the hormones in question (cortisol, adrenaline etc) are relative to each other.

Doctors tend to not want to get involved as it's a bit of a fruitless task and there's no formal treatment available anyway.

This used to be under the old fashioned umbrella term of 'nervous breakdown'.