"Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complicated disorder characterized by extreme fatigue that can't be explained by any underlying medical condition. The fatigue may worsen with physical or mental activity, but doesn't improve with rest." - Mayo Clinic
Ok, now try explaining it to people. Here are 99% of the replies:
"Maybe you should exercise more"
"You're lucky, I can never sleep"
"Sounds kinda lazy"
"Have a coffee"
Yeah....no.
Do you know that feeling you get when you are deeply, bone tired? The kind of fatigue you feel after you've been swimming all day, in the sun, had a few cold beers and your body just wants to crawl into bed and sleep for 18 hours? Now imagine feeling that way all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME. It doesn't matter if you just worked out for 3 hours or if you just woke up in the morning after a good 8 hour rest...you still feel that tired.
That energized feeling of a good night's sleep or an invigorating workout? That never happens. EVER.
You want to read that book? Good luck, within half an hour you'll be snoozing. You want to marathon a show? Why bother, one episode in and you'll be zonked out. You wanna hit that workout? Ok, but your body and brain are gonna fight you the entire time and you don't get that energized feeling afterwards.
I developed CFS after a very nasty bout of mono in my early 20's, it lasted nearly a year, I was hospitalized with multiple internal infections (kidney, liver, stomach etc) and nearly lost my spleen to a rupture. Most people think of mono as the 'nap' illness that makes you sleepy for a few weeks; not knowing it can be very serious and have permanent effects. As one person put it 'damn, you didn't get mono, you got stereo"
It's been over 10 years, and trust me, I've tried it all. Caffeine, weight loss, sleep aids, naturopathy, red bull all day, sleep timers, exercise, prayer...I've tried. I find I get a lot of the same reactions to be chronically fatigued as to depression...people have had a peripheral experience with the feeling (sadness, tiredness etc), so they feel the need to offer their own 'helpful' suggestions as though they 'get it'. Would you comfort a suicidal person by telling them to 'cheer up'? No, because the problem obviously runs deeper than you understand. So the next person to tell me to go to bed early, exercise or have a coffee is going to get a beating...after my nap.
Don't get me wrong, I know it can be hard to know what to say when someone tells you that they have a condition, a problem or something of the sort- your first instinct when presented a problem is to think of a solution...but I urge you to refrain- just saying 'dude, that sucks' is preferred. Chances are the reason I'm telling you about the issue is to offer a reason as to why I didn't attend something, am leaving early or fell asleep on your shoe at a party before the first beer; so I'm not expecting you to have a solution- just give me a pillow and keep it down.
"She loves her sleep"...ya, and diabetics sure 'love' their insulin....fish 'love' to be in water instead of air..."she loves not being stabbed by a murderer". Yes, the fact that I have to sleep a lot means that I miss out on things, but I was lame when I was an insomniac, so I feel kinda even on that end of things.
Let's also face it, getting older certainly isn't helping either. I remember when a hangover was a minor inconvenience for an hour until I could get my hands on some greasy food- now, a hangover lasts 4 weeks and requires divine intervention to stop the pain. The impending Canadian winter doesn't bode well either; the long dark nights, the abhorrently cold weather, the long work days as the year winds down, all of these things make a snooze on the couch sound even better than normal. I guess what I'm saying is that I need a fountain of youth and to live in the tropics.
Until that happens (lookin' at you lottery tickets), I just have to cope with being tired of being tired. I keep hoping that in one of my many dreams, my subconscious will think of the cure (by which I don't mean I wish I could dream of Robert Smith in his eyeliner).
Rant over. Nap time.
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