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    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.

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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

jann1033

Senior Member
Messages
176
I can say that I've experienced all of those definitions at different points in the past 23 yrs.

Rapid Loss of Stamina perhaps RLOS could replace the term "fatigue" on this forum?
Yep, thats what they said when i took Physical therapy and collapsed into a chair with my entire body shaking after 100 paces lol(i was trying for 150 so i could get to my apartment from the car, didn't work ;).
 

Mij

Messages
2,353
@jann1033 no kidding I've experienced that too. I remember when I was out and only had 1/2 block to walk to get home, my legs were shaky, I was feeling out of breath and just couldn't take another step. Had to sit on someone's lawn until I could get up again.
 

jann1033

Senior Member
Messages
176
@jann1033 no kidding I've experienced that too. I remember when I was out and only had 1/2 block to walk to get home, my legs were shaky, I was feeling out of breath and just couldn't take another step. Had to sit on someone's lawn until I could get up again.
Lol the indignities of this illness!
I really think all the therapists thought i was going to collapse then and there, i wasnt so sure my self i wasnt lol. I had it happen to a lesser degree early on in the illness so i knew i just needed to lay down asap. Its always funny to me to see medical personal go from the " you are exaggerating things" to "holy crap, she's not!" in a matter of seconds. Can't say i didn't warn them(insert fiendish laugh here)
 

roxie60

Senior Member
Messages
1,791
Location
Central Illinois, USA
CAcfs,
That is EXACTLY how I feel. Mine starts out subtle and then becomes more intense. I have NO choice but to lay down. There is no "pushing myself through it". If I do not lay down, I feel as though I will drop to my knees. I feel like I am the only person on the planet who has this weird sensation. I don't have it 24/7. I have days that I am completely fine. But it always comes back. I have had POTS ruled out. I would just like to know what is causing this. I am being tested for Lyme through Igenex. I found a doctor who is a LLD and told me there are some people with only neuro symptoms. Thanks for your post and I know I'm not crazy
@Lee Ann. Would like to know if you got the I gene test and what your results were.
 
Messages
3,263
the only one i feel i dont really have is brain fog. i can't explain why i dont' suffer from this as so many of you do. all of you seem so alert to me - but i'm sure it takes a lot to get it all written down in as comprehensive a way as you guys seem to.
I don't seem to get brain fog either, @serenity. Often I feel so ill and have such a headache that I can't bear to think hard bout anything. But it doesn't seem to resemble the brain fog everyone else talks about.

I've always been puzzled by that difference too.
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
I don't seem to get brain fog either, @serenity. Often I feel so ill and have such a headache that I can't bear to think hard bout anything. But it doesn't seem to resemble the brain fog everyone else talks about.

I've always been puzzled by that difference too.
Interesting. My capacity to think, take decisions and solve problems fluctuates over the ours, days and weeks, sometimes I even feel "confused". An extenuating physical activity worsens this symptom considerably
 

Dr.Patient

There is no kinship like the one we share!
Messages
505
Location
USA
I looked at the poll choices, and my most severe problem is unbearable, crying, wanting to die type of fatigue/weakness.

Other symptoms like brain fog, sleep, headache, muscle pains, are there, sometimes, but not as bad. This unrelenting fatigue is killing me.

Are there others here like me?
 
Messages
54
for me it is the feeling of a horrible head flu that never goes away. that, along with CRUSHING fatigue and a very distinct leaden feeling. just walking to the kitchen is an ordeal, or sitting up. man, i just don't know how to simply get through the day. one moment at a time i guess.
 
Messages
23
In addition to the two types of fatigue that I checked in the poll (post exertional exhaustion and cognitive dysfunction or "brain fog") I also get the never ending feeling of being short of breath, wanting to sigh or breathe deeply. I can fill my lungs with air just fine. It's just that my heart rate will not slow down so I keep feeling out of breath, as if I had just run up a flight of stairs. Yesterday morning my heart rate was 139 just standing still long enough to take my blood pressure. The blood pressure monitor measures heart rate as well as blood pressure so that's why I know the exact number. I feel much better after taking my meds and resting with my legs elevated gets it back down below 100.

I'm pretty sure this is all related to my orthostatic problems (NMH/POTS, positive result on the tilt table test in 1995). Still, I thought I'd add my comments to this thread (haven't read all the other replies yet, hope this is not a repeat). This type of "fatigue" (assuming that it fits in the category) is much more difficult for me to cope with than feeling weak (e.g., flu-like symptoms) or feeling sleepy. I never get those type of fatigue symptoms unless I'm actively fighting a virus with obvious cold/flu symptoms.

Marjorie
Wow this was 6 years ago but I am replying anyway just in case lol. This is one of my biggest complaints because people think I am annoyed. They always ask me what I am upset about when I do the big sigh thing because I feel like I am it getting any oxygen. In fact when I see shows where people are running out of air they start to sweat, can't move from fatigue, sweat profusely and get dizzy. Finally they pass out and then die. I can't help but think we all go through a lot of those things.
 
Messages
23
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 I really feel like oxygen is huge.
 

tinacarroll27

Senior Member
Messages
254
Location
UK
For me Post-exertional Malaise is the worst, the slightest exertion and I feel myself getting worse. The brain fog I can live with, some days it is worse than other and especially if I don't get enough sleep but it is not the worse symptom. I don't feel like I have the flu all the time. I had the flu once but I feel that has gone. I have problems regulating my temperature but I doesn't feel like the flu and I do have muscle pain but again it doesn't feel like the flu. I never get Wired But Tired but I have the Feelings of heaviness in the limbs but I do have POTs and I think that causes that feeling, especially since it is accompanied by an increase in heart rate.
 
Messages
2
The sudden, out of nowhere exhaustion that sometimes hits me is so frustrating. When it happens I need to get home and lay down as fast as I can. Unfortunately I can rarely get a good night's sleep so I am constantly sleepy. For some reason I can usually fall asleep quickly because I am so tired but if I wake to use the bathroom I sometimes have a hard time falling back to sleep. In addition I found myself waking up earlier and earlier in the morning without being able to go back to sleep.

Once I quit working I was sleeping later and later. Now I'm waking up between 6:00 and 6:30 so I'm going to bed earlier and earlier. Unfortunately it is never restorative sleep :-(
 
Messages
47
Location
Los Angeles
I don't seem to get brain fog either, @serenity. Often I feel so ill and have such a headache that I can't bear to think hard bout anything. But it doesn't seem to resemble the brain fog everyone else talks about.

I've always been puzzled by that difference too.

Third this! Kind of glad to hear it really. But only because on occasion, which I've told various doctors this, they've decided I couldn't possibly have CFS/ME/FMS because they'd never seen anyone with the condition who didn't also have brain-fog. Which has led to endless hours of lying in bed wondering if maybe I do have it but am just not aware of it. So I asked the hub and he said 'No. Groaning, huffing, puffing, weeping, wincing, canceling things, suddenly having to lie down, pacing the floors at 4am, fits of anger against the world yes, but nothing noticeably different in the brain department.' Maybe it's one of the symptoms I have to look forward to. Yippee.