• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

What Types of Fatigue Do I Experience Poll

What Types of Fatigue Do I Commonly Experience?

  • Post-exertional Malaise - Symptoms increase significantly after relatively mild amounts of exertion

    Votes: 623 84.4%
  • Brain Fog - I experience significant difficulty concentrating, speaking with ease, etc.

    Votes: 594 80.5%
  • Wired But Tired - Feelings of low energy along with a sense my system will not calm down

    Votes: 502 68.0%
  • Molasses Fatigue - Feelings of heaviness in the limbs are common

    Votes: 467 63.3%
  • Flu-like Fatigue - flu-like feelings accompanied with fatigue are common

    Votes: 474 64.2%

  • Total voters
    738

AFCFS

Senior Member
Messages
312
Location
NC
That was a bit limited.

How about:

- severe drowsiness after eating fatigue

- difficulty reading/understanding something written for more than a few seconds type fatigue

- muscle-twitching, all aching after minor exercise or food fatigue

- mind-numbing, slurry-speaking type fatigue zzzzzz

- very sore burning eyes can't keep them open fatigue

- my neck hurts from holding my head fatigue

I can identify with those, especially "- difficulty reading/understanding something written for more than a few seconds type fatigue"

I would add:

Feel like ran a 1000 miles and then got run over by a train, while mind approaching some fugue state of conscious blankness, in no way suggestive of an enlightened state fatigue
 
Messages
2
Location
New Zealand
I get brain fog especially when I get really dizzy ...I have Meniere's to deal with as well. People who don't suffer with brain fog just don't seem to understand what its like ...they make me feel like the" village idiot" at times.:confused:
 
Messages
19
Location
Dubrovnik/Croatia
afcfs i like ur list o_O especially neck hurt fatique. everytime i have to go to some meeting or coffee with friend(very rare) im holding my chin with palm of my hand. and also i woult say -something is attached on back of my head ant is sucking hell out from me fatique. and i wont even mention awake feeling dizzy and stay that way like from 3am till i get up around 7-8am(ok i mentioned:)). the last one is killing me.
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
A very interesting point has been raised here with regard to driving.
I'm well aware I will probably get shot down, but I do have very strong feelings about road safety and the responsibility of drivers to be fully in charge of ALL their faculties when driving.
Quite bluntly, I do not think that anybody with ME should be allowed to drive.
Folk with ME have reduced physical and mental capacity and slow reactions.
Folk with ME are a serious danger on the roads - to themselves and others.

But mention this to a driver with ME ?
(Oh, I couldn't possibly manage without my car!)

It'll be like telling a drunk they're unfit to drive...
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
Hi Peggy Sue - totally off topic i know but i agree that driving with M.E is a hazardous affair that should be considered seriously by the driver with M.E (DWME)
But (sorry there had to be one) i live in a very remote rural area - up a bridal path inbetween fields and woodland. I am relatively housebound - i cant physically drive more than a few miles due to brain fog etc caused by concentration. But if i didnt ever drive my car i would leave the house even less frequently! my nearest shop/town/life is 3 miles away. no public transport. Most of the time i only go out when taken - this is hideously restrictive. I cant drive the 30 minutes to the train station so cant go anywhere alone ever. Once approx every two weeks i drive to town. Alone. Carefully and meet up with a friend for lunch or a quick look in the charity shops beofre heading back to the prison of my home.

Once or twice a month i drive the 3 miles to town to take my daughter to ballet - its touhg if i never ever take her and hard for my husband to do all the running around as well as all the working for money, shopping etc etc.

Even if we had a bus i couldnt use it as i cant walk around twon much and need to park more or less outside the shop. So i hope you will reconsider your position that no one should ever be a DWME.

What about the mildly affected? how can they work and schlepp about on public transport? I was only mildly affected when i learnt to drive and was perfectly safe so long as i knew my own boundaries (no driving alone at night, frequent stops if motorway driving (cant imagine ever being able to do that again!)

All the best, Justy.
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
Sorry.
On the grounds of safety and responsibility, I simply cannot condone it any more than I would ever condone drunk driving.
You are putting other folk's lives at risk, not just your own.
Moving from your remote rural area to somewhere you can manage without driving is your only option.
I have never driven - I am far too nervous, I would be a serious danger on the roads. (driving at 20mph or under; never, ever taking a right turn, but doing 3 lefts instead - I could not stop in the middle of a road at a junction with traffic coming up behind me.)
So, I have always had to live my life within the restrictions of being a non-driver. It is perfectly possible.
You simply have to make sure you live where you can use public transport to get to your work, and where you can get to local shops easily. If it means taking a lower paid job, so be it.

Currently, I can walk to my local shops about twice a week. I cannot manage buses into town, (too much standing around and sensory overload) so apart from those wee walks, I am housebound unless I am chauffeured.

I'm sorry to sound so harsh - your comments, Justy are the ones I've heard from every single driver - that they absolutely MUST drive.
But how would you feel about it if it were your daughter killed by a driver who had put "relief from their own boredom" before your daughter's life?
 

anna8

Senior Member
Messages
122
Hi just and peggy-sue,
Funny you should mention driving, I've just renewed my driving insurance, there was a question of why are you unemployed?
Have you got any medical conditions? Now what do you say as technical I do not have a medical condition in the eyes of the medical profession!
I don't think I could cope without a car,I find it to be my life line as I live on my own. I hate asking people for anything although I do have to give into it sometimes!
I think we all have different degree of symptom..
 

anna8

Senior Member
Messages
122
Hi peggy-sue,
I like your honesty,and in someway you are right but like any illness people have different degree of symptoms,
I,ve been driving for over 20 years touch wood not one accident..
I hope this makes you feel a bit better about taking your wee walk near me! lol
,
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
Well peggu DSue, perhaps you have the luxury of being able to move somewhere else. Do you suggest i leave my husband and children to live next to a shop, becuase you are not comfortable with me driving. I would not and do not drive further than i am able. I am a very competent driver. i drive on small country lanes, never on motorways. I drive very sensibly and dont speed. If i dont feel well enough to drive, i do not drive. I dont have any friends or realtions to help. I am totally dependant on my husband. Its hard enough being so inafntilised, without being told you cant drive. I have struggled to overcome agoraphobia, brought on by years of medical neglect - if ic an drive more i will.

I'm certainly safer than all the 80 -90 year old farmers round here!
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
Justy, :oops: I'm really sorry you've been the (very responsible) person who was honest and open enough to reply to my point and make your position known - and I'm afraid that's the reason I have ended up "attacking" you - please, please don't take it personally, I do not expect you to up sticks and move - your point about the ancient farmers is a very valid one indeed! I hope too, that any other drivers on your roads are well aware of ancient farmers and drive carefully for the sakes of all.
I most certainly do NOT expect PWME to be able to "just up sticks and move"!
I'm also sorry I didn't apologise and explain that all sooner.
I've started a thread on the driving thing, which is what I should have done in the first place.
Sometimes, I have to grab a thought while I'm having it, or it will vanish forever.
 

John H Wolfe

Senior Member
Messages
220
Location
London
Wired but tired and heavy limbs are transient/cyclical (and linked to each other) for me, whereas the others are pretty much 'always there in the background' to some extent (this seems dependent on whether I'm in relapse/remission e.g. in the wake of a viral infection)
 

Wifi123

Senior Member
Messages
159
Have always believed that my ME/CFS symptoms of above are extreme and are caused by electromagnetic radiation and fields from wireless technology and electric technology through the smart grid network.
 
Messages
236
Location
Medford NJ
wow- guess that's brain fog. I just tried to vote and was told I already did! I hope my brain was alert enuf to give the right answers! LOL[/quote

Lately my crashes occur every 4 to 5 days. I have cut way back on activity. I dont get tired I get emotional "fits". . I will be my happy calm sane self. I wake up and the way i feel I know -- I get like uncontrollable sobbing. I have used alka seltzer gold and baking soda which calms me down a little. I have a clonazepam rx for sleep . Tried one in the morning once and it did absolutely nothing. These" attacks" have been getting worse. I went to the University of Penn in Philadelphia today with my husband to give me credibility. I was a community pharmacist, for 23 years , have no history of mental illness, but it was suggested I see a psychiatrist,and a neurology workup ,was normal- I wish they would do more invasive testing besides just "bloodwork" but I guess it is all about money. even though I explained to the doctor as did my husband that I had seen 2 phychologist and released- I was planning to get an mri and an eeg but it is difficult to make and keep doctors appointments.. I went to cognitive therapy to mainly deal with the grief of losing my career, seeing friends, not having much extended family support or understanding. I have been or ssri, amitryptyline, lyrica gaba ect to no avail.
Does anyone else get like this? I think it is some kind of lactate buildup- neurotoxins which I accumulate when I use my muscles. I have no history of depression, but I am afraid I am losing my mind
 

jann1033

Senior Member
Messages
176
I used to get flu like constantly. After year 10 major crash i started pacing and rarely get it now but the whole illness changed after 10 years so not sure why, pacing or just disease process. Now i have sore throat aches but not much nausea/vomiting like yrs 1-9.
 

jann1033

Senior Member
Messages
176
No offense to Cort, but I never have anything to do with any research that uses the word fatigue.
I know those doctors are on the wrong track and I won't assist their research.

I say I do not have fatigue. I have an energy and oxygen problem.
It does cause all of those symptoms however, which change over time.
Yes, fatigue is not the right word. I prefer stamina,(not a whole lot better) simply due to fatigue=sleepy or normal tiredness which has nothing to do with what i have.
 

roxie60

Senior Member
Messages
1,791
Location
Central Illinois, USA
Whatever the he'll you want to call it it sucks and interfere s with functioning. I try to push through and it gets worse. Can't make any sense of it. I decided to try and visit family for the holidays. I am busting my butt it takes so much effort just to do basic tasks. It takes 5 good days to get out of town, use 5 take one.
 

jann1033

Senior Member
Messages
176
I dont see what i call the "suffocating fatigue " listed either. Its when i have such a hard time breathing cause just moving my chest muscles to breath, requires too much energy.

It feels differently than the others but i agree, i dont really understand why some are lumped in with"fatigue" and if i could just remember what the catagories i just read are i'd tell you which lol