Please stop using the phrase "chronic fatigue" to refer to "feeling tired". That's seriously BAD for all of us. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome does not refer to a vague feeling of fatigue, it refers to an illness with PEM among other things. No, you are not "chronically fatigued" if you are depressed. You are depressed!
Really, if we don't have respect for the name ourselves how can we expect other people to?
I can't believe I just read what I read on this forum. Kind of upsetting.
There's no need to be upset about what I wrote, Whit. There's good scientific reasons for what I said.
There is a distinction between 'chronic fatigue' and 'chronic fatigue syndrome'.
'Chronic fatigue' is not unique to CFS.
Patients with many other illnesses can also experience chronic fatigue.
The important thing is to diagnose ME/CFS properly, and to treat it it properly.
It's only the ignorance of the media and the medical profession that causes the conflation of 'fatigue' and 'CFS', and the subsequent confusion about the nature of ME/CFS.
People with depression
can experience physical fatigue. Depression can have a profound effect on the body.
Other psychiatric diseases, such as bipolar and schizophrenia, can also have physical symptoms.
The problem here, is not how we describe the symptoms of depression, but it's how CFS/ME has been defined, using the word 'fatigue'. I remember when I first became ill, and didn't know what I had, I always complained of 'malaise', and never used the word 'fatigue'. 'Malaise' was an appropriate description.
There's also an issue of how CFS is diagnosed. The best diagnostic criteria are able to distinguish between CFS and 'chronic fatigue'. The ICC for 'ME' uses even more selective criteria to define 'ME'.
So there is a distinction between 'chronic fatigue', 'chronic fatigue syndrome', and 'ME' (I'm thinking of the ICC for 'ME', when I use the term 'ME', here.)
A person with 'chronic fatigue', doesn't necessarily have 'chronic fatigue syndrome', because other symptoms need to be present.
Looking at the dictionary definition of 'fatigue', it shows how inappropriate it is to use the word to define CFS/ME.
The first definition is 'extreme tiredness', which does not describe CFS/ME. It doesn't describe the pain, the malaise, permanent memory issues, the working-memory cognitive issues, the aching joints and muscles etc.
The second definition is 'a reduction in the efficiency of a muscle or organ', which is more helpful, but still does not helpfully describe ME, especially because the 'fatigue' is systemic, and possibly affects all the organs of the body, including the brain. 'Fatigue' is usually used to describe muscle tiredness or muscle 'inefficiency', but if an internal organ of the body is working 'inefficiently', such as the brain, or liver, causing a range of symptoms for the patient, then it's hardly appropriate to describe the patient as being 'fatigued'.
Fatigue:
1. extreme tiredness resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness
2. a reduction in the efficiency of a muscle or organ after prolonged activity:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/fatigue?q=fatigue