Fatigue

Are you feeling exhausted, unmotivated, and are lacking energy? You may be experiencing fatigue, a condition that effects almost everyone to some extent at some point. About 20% of Americans report having intense fatigue that interferes with their everyday lives.

Fatigue is not the same as tiredness or drowsiness, which may simply feel like you need to sleep more. Fatigue, although often accompanied by the desire to sleep, is characterized by feelings of overall weakness and weariness, and is a much more intense exhaustion, often physically and/or mentally consuming.

Fatigue is a completely normal response to the following causes:

• poor sleep quality
• lack of exercise
• anxiety
• depression
• too much work

Your individual pattern of fatigue may help your doctor determine its cause. If you awake feeling well rested and energized and begin to experience fatigue as the day goes on, you may have a physical condition making you feel this way. Perhaps you wake feeling fatigued and you find that it lasts all day long. It is possible that you could be suffering from depression. A physical cause is estimated to be responsible for fatigue 20% to 60% of the time, while emotional or mental causes are often responsible for the other 40% to 80% of fatigue cases.

If you do not think your fatigue is caused by an underlying medical or psychological issue, you should try the following self-help tips to improve your energy levels and get yourself feeling motivated again.

Self-Help Tips:

• Get regular exercise
• Get adequate sleep
• Alter your stressful circumstances, which may involve taking a vacation or quitting a job
• Eat a healthy diet or take a daily supplement vitamin
• Avoid alcohol and drugs

Although these tips may dramatically help certain people experiencing fatigue, they do not replace the medical care that a health care professional can provide if the problem is a bit more serious. For people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, bed rest will generally not help the problem go away.

Please seek help if you:

• are feeling chronically depressed
• can’t sleep through the night, have insomnia
• get regular headaches
• produce little urine, are constipated
• have an immune disorder

Treatment:

Nobody wants to feel exhausted and not have the energy to live a full life. Medication is available as a treatment for people suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, especially if there is an accompanying illness that caused the syndrome in the first place. People who suffer from depression and anxiety disorders with CFS should seek help from a medical professional who can provide the necessary tools to alleviate symptoms.

This is not something that you should have to live with. If you’d like to talk to someone about any problems you may have in this area or others, don’t hesitate to contact me by email mark@markdworkin.com or call me directly at 516-731-7611. I am available for speaking engagements for the general public and professional communities, radio and tv appearances, seminars, webinars, enhancing professional development, workshops and trainings.