Suffering from chronic fatigue? Causes + tips
Sleeping is really all you want to do, but it doesn't seem to help. When you wake up, you would prefer to crawl back under the covers as you drag yourself out of bed to go through your morning ritual before going to work or doing other daily activities. Once you start those activities, you need more coffee than ever before. If this situation has been going on for weeks, you may be suffering from chronic fatigue.
There are multiple causes and solutions to fatigue that won't go away. In this blog, I explore them in depth.
Causes of fatigue
If you are only just starting to suffer from fatigue, it could be a sign that you are getting sick. A bad cold or flu can be quite exhausting. Taking a rest then usually makes it go away or allows you to get really sick for a while and get completely out.
Sometimes fatigue doesn't go away. This may indicate a larger problem. It is always wise to see your doctor if your fatigue is really bothering you. Blood tests may then also show, for example, that you are suffering from anemia or another problem that needs to be physically resolved, such as an infection.
Should illness not be the cause of your fatigue, other causes are also possible, such as:
- Sleep Problems
- Depression
- Burnout (or just before it)
- Fibromyalgia
- Stress
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
What to do about fatigue?
As you can see, there are multiple causes besides an illness possible with chronic fatigue. If you see your doctor and they report that you are suffering from an illness, it makes sense to seek treatment for that. For the more "mental" problems, you can take the following steps to suffer less from chronic fatigue.
Sleep Problems
In itself, it makes sense that sleep problems lead to chronic fatigue, but it doesn't have to be obvious to everyone that they have a sleep problem. If you find it normal to sleep only 4 hours a night, it is actually not surprising that you suffer from fatigue. A person needs at least 6 hours of sleep and actually at least 8 hours of sleep as an average sleep time.
The first thing you can do if you’re feeling tired is to check whether you’re getting enough sleep. If not, you should take steps to ensure you do get enough sleep. For example, you can go to bed earlier and practice good sleep hygiene.
If you have nightmares you can see if they are caused by underlying problems.
Depression
With depression, fatigue is often one of the many symptoms that indicate the condition. In addition to fatigue, you often find that you no longer enjoy anything. It’s important to seek help if you’re dealing with depression. If you don’t want to take medication to overcome your depression, you can get help through therapy — such as hypnotherapy— to overcome it on your own.
Mindfulness can also help you recognize and stop depressive thoughts.
Burnout
If you begin to suffer from burnout, it may start with fatigue. Also, a reluctance in your work or just going to work very fanatically and not relaxing can cause the fatigue in either case.
Burnout is incredibly unpleasant and it is important to intervene in time. Take advantage of your weekend and take rest or relaxation where you need it. Also, try to dose your work so you don't have to do everything at once.
Fibromyalgia
Like depression, fatigue is 1 of many symptoms in fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is also characterized by muscle pain and a feeling of weakness. It is incredibly annoying and super tiring. In the process, doctors often cannot find a logical cause for the pain. The only cause there is is that the pain stimulus in fibromyalgia is not really turned off.
Fortunately, hypnosis and mindfulness can go a long way in managing fibromyalgia.
Stress
Stress is really something that can keep you awake and tire you out tremendously. This is partly because stress weakens your immune system. This gives viruses and other microorganisms a chance to weaken you, which is also very tiring.
Stress can also cause you to get worse sleep, making resting very difficult.
Fortunately, stress is primarily a mental issue. Beliefs you hold about your work or about how you think your life should be can cause stress. By changing those beliefs, you can already experience much less stress.
Hypnotherapy can help you identify and change your beliefs. In addition, mindfulness can also be very helpful in combating stress. Stress can often be caused by thoughts about the future, such as “I have to finish this by tomorrow.” This actually distracts you from the work you’re doing and can cause you to get stuck, which in turn throws everything off track.
Mindfulness keeps your mind in the here and now and allows you to focus better on what you are doing.
In addition, daily meditation can also help reduce chronic stress. For example, meditating for 10 minutes every morning can already have a significant effect on your stress levels.
Chronic fatigue syndrome
If you suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, you suffer from fatigue with no apparent cause. The fatigue in this syndrome can be made worse by physical and mental exertion, but this is not true for everyone.
The cause of this syndrome is not yet known. Scientists are investigating various possibilities, such as viruses, stress, and hormonal imbalances. At this time, they believe it is a combination of factors, but exactly which ones remains unclear ( 1).
Currently, treatment for this syndrome still focuses mainly on relieving symptoms. In addition to fatigue, for example, you may experience concentration and memory problems. You may also have physical symptoms such as sore throats and muscles.
A doctor usually prescribes antidepressants or sleep medication. Instead of or in addition to these, you can also use mental techniques to better cope with fatigue. For example, you can make sure you have roughly the same amount of activities every day. In addition, you can talk to a psychologist about the options available to you for taking control of your life.
Research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy alongside medical therapy provides greater improvement than medical therapy alone. Cognitive behavioral therapy can also be received while under hypnosis.
Effects of chronic fatigue
If you’re chronically fatigued, it affects your cognitive function. This makes problem-solving more difficult, which can lead to making mistakes more easily ( 2).
Those mistakes can, for example, cause additional stress at work. This actually only makes the problem worse, causing you to experience more stress and sleep even less.
It also affects your reaction time. This can make activities like driving a car dangerous. In that case, it’s better to find another mode of transportation or carpool to work with someone else—so you’re the passenger.
People with sleep problems and who are chronically fatigued as a result are also more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
For example, you then still try to get energy from food. A glass of soda can make you feel awake, in part because of the amount of sugar in it. Unfortunately, this does increase the chance that your body will no longer process sugar properly, leading to diabetes.
If you suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, the consequences can have a significant impact on your life. You face an increased risk of depression, social isolation, lifestyle changes, and more frequent absences from work due to illness.
Always tired
Being always tired, then, can have several causes. First, it may be a sign that you are suffering from some disease. Therefore, see a doctor first to check that you are not sick and therefore have been suffering from fatigue for weeks.
If this can be ruled out, there are other mental health issues that can cause fatigue, such as stress, depression, burnout, fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue syndrome. In many of these cases, mindfulness and meditation can help reduce the impact of fatigue, and hypnosis can also support the treatment of these conditions.
It is important to do something about your fatigue because it can have a major impact on your life. First and foremost, because it affects your ability to think. Decisions you make while fatigued are not always well thought out which in turn can have negative consequences.
Fatigue can send you into a spiral of negative consequences as a result. Break that spiral before you have a real problem!
Would you like to learn more about mental techniques to help yourself or others improve their lives? Then come to a seminar or check out the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.
Sources:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsr.12258/full