Chronic Fatigue:

Defeating Permanent Fatigue and Starting the Day with Renewed Strength

(Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Tiredness, Burnout)

Reproduction, translation, further processing or similar actions for commercial purposes as well as resale or other publications are not permitted without the written consent of the author.

Copyright © 2018 - Luke Eisenberg

All rights reserved.

Chronic Fatigue: Defeating Permanent Fatigue and Starting the Day with Renewed Strength

Common disease chronic fatigue?

When is fatigue pathological?

Chronic fatigue - When exhaustion becomes a problem

Differentiation from similar clinical pictures

Self-test: Is your fatigue chronic?

Symptoms of chronic fatigue

Reasons of chronic fatigue

Chronic fatigue and its effects on everyday life

Treatment and therapy

Sleep well again: The best tips for a restful sleep

1. Healthy Sleep Tip: Make yourself comfortable

2. Healthy Sleep Tip: A question of timing

3. Healthy Sleep Tip: Of rituals and red light

4. Healthy Sleep Tip: This bed is reserved

5. Healthy Sleep Tip: Meditation against stress

6. Healthy Sleep Tip: Healthy Sleep Tip: Higher, faster, further

7. Healthy Sleep Tip: enjoyment instead of excess

8. Healthy Sleep Tip: Say "No" to drugs

9. Healthy Sleep Tip: Caffeine blocking hour

10. Healthy Sleep Tip: Powernap instead of hibernation

11. Healthy Sleep Tip: Let the sun shine in your heart

12. Healthy Sleep Tip: Shut down!

13. Healthy Sleep Tip: Dress Code

14. Healthy Sleep Tip: With sex into deep sleep

15. Healthy Sleep Tip: Water is good!

16. Healthy Sleep Tip: Technical helpers

17. Healthy Sleep Tip: Professional help

Conclusion

Chronic Fatigue: Defeating Permanent Fatigue and Starting the Day with Renewed Strength

You probably know the feeling of returning home from a long day's work with the desire to get comfortable on the sofa. Even as the host of an exuberant celebration, you have certainly felt quite exhausted. After such situations, there is really nothing better than to close your eyes and relax. As strenuous as the day was, it is always a bit of relief to have managed everything. You know what you have achieved and can enjoy your well-deserved break. But imagine that this tiredness persists. Instead of the pride of having mastered a challenge, it is hopelessness to find your way out of the depths on your own. If friends and family also react with incomprehension, the constant tiredness becomes a hard endurance test and can have serious consequences.

Chronic fatigue is no longer a rare phenomenon. Due to the increasing number of people affected, scientists recognized the diagnosis as an independent disease. However, the limitation to other complaints is not always clear, as there are many parallels. Self-awareness is, however, one of the most important steps to break out of the vicious circle. But also relatives are not easy to deal with chronic fatigue.

Whether you are affected yourself or accompany a sick person on his path of suffering, this e-book gives you a detailed insight into the symptoms of chronic fatigue. You will also receive valuable tips on how to deal with the complaints.

Common disease chronic fatigue?

No one can get rid of occasional fatigue. The feeling of exhaustion after strenuous physical or mental work is a normal protective mechanism of the human being. If the normal energy reserves are depleted by above-average activity, the organism shows that it needs a break. However, if you are no longer able to replenish your energy reserves, the condition remains unchanged.

In the ever more hectic everyday life there is often little time to regenerate. The profession demands constant accessibility, status symbols gain in importance. As a result, we are increasingly comparing ourselves with our fellow human beings, our quest for success is never ending. At the same time, it is important to us that social contacts are not neglected. But if you also try to reconcile family and career every day, you know that it is almost essential to set priorities. The inner conflict between professional and private life explains why chronic fatigue affects women in particular.

The complaints develop into a vicious circle in which the consequence of suffering simultaneously causes further suffering. This illustrates that everyday commitments cause stress. Coping leads to exhaustion. However, the expectations of others do not allow for a time-out. One tries to defy the lack of drive, while fears of failure intensify the stress. As you can see, a spiral is created which can be spun continuously.

Does our everyday life make us sick? Years ago, only a few people could imagine something under a burnout. Meanwhile, the mental breakdown threatens to become a widespread disease. According to a report by the Munich Institute for Solution-Oriented Thinking, the number of working days in 2011 on which employees reported themselves mentally ill for psychological reasons was an incredible 59 million. Compared to the results of 1996, the sum had increased by 80%. Experts and health insurance companies estimate burnout patients at around 13 million throughout Germany. At the very least, it is assumed that one in five people felt that they could no longer meet their expectations (source: TK Health Report & KKH Alliance & WHO & Stress Report Germany 2012).

However, it is not only in professional life that the overload occurs. Even children and adolescents have symptoms, albeit not as drastic as adults. At a young age, the overly high standards are usually expressed by a drop in performance and resignation at school. Rarely do delays in mental development appear to exist.

Generally speaking, the statistics do not show any specific age group affected by chronic fatigue. In principle, every person can suffer from the symptoms. Even elderly people are not immune to fatigue. Although symptoms at retirement age are probably due to organic causes, researchers believe that psychological strain is the main trigger. It has been estimated that 2-7 out of 100,000 people nationwide suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome. However, scientists find it difficult to give exact figures. Countless causes complicate a clear diagnosis. In addition, tiredness is always a subjective feeling and cannot be measured on a uniform scale.

What exactly is fatigue? And how long is the state of exhaustion considered normal? Are you already chronically ill if the work grows over your head on some days? Learn more in the next chapter.

When is fatigue pathological?

Fatigue - a natural human instinct

In order to answer the question of this chapter, we will start a short excursion to China. According to Chinese natural philosophy, everything that exists has a contrast - including the human organism. In order to recall our performance during the day, we have to give our body just as much rest in order to recover from what we have experienced.

Tiredness is an innate instinct of man, comparable to hunger, thirst or fear. These basic needs have always protected us from danger and show us the limits of our actions. Like any living being, man has an internal clock - the so-called circadian rhythm. It describes the times of day when our organs function most effectively. For example, you may be aware of the controversial topic in nutritional science, whether eating late is associated with weight gain due to limited digestion. However, this innate regularity becomes even more evident with regard to our sleeping habits. It is undisputed that people are active during the day and rest at night.

Many environmental influences speak for this rhythm. Unlike other mammals, our eyes are not accustomed to the darkness, we need sunlight to produce the vital vitamin D. We are not accustomed to the darkness. However, our natural day and night life is increasingly out of balance due to technical progress. Computer and television screens emit blue light that is very close to daylight. Do you know that too? Actually, you wanted to sleep already put, but after you have looked into your mailbox again, the tiredness has passed. For a restful sleep, researchers therefore advise at least one hour before bedtime not to consume any more electronic media.

Of course, there are also other causes that cause a temporary state of exhaustion, but in no way are they associated with chronic fatigue syndrome. If you suffer from an infection, your immune system needs a lot of rest. Not only mental and physical work has to be done, but your body has to devote some of its energy to killing the bacteria.

On the other hand, however, lack of exercise also strengthens mattness. Treat your body to too much recovery, reduce your metabolism and make your body sluggish. As you can see, fatigue in the true sense of the word is a completely normal, even vital body reaction. But only as long as it fades away after a recovery phase and does not restrict the daily routine.

Chronic fatigue - When exhaustion becomes a problem

In contrast to isolated periods of inertia, chronic fatigue sufferers have the feeling of not recovering from drowsiness despite sufficient sleep. The dullness considerably affects the everyday life of the suffering. In the meantime, chronic fatigue manifests itself both in physical pain and in a psychological low. While the body's natural desire for a rest can often be explained by the work done, pathological fatigue usually occurs for no reason.

Generally speaking, there are three different types of fatigue:

1. Physical (physical) fatigue: slackness in relation to the limbs; the feeling of being unable to keep the eyes open; the need to lie down; desire for sleep; activities are carried out more slowly; frequent occurrences of heavy physical work.

2. Affective (emotional) fatigue: depressive moods; desires for loneliness, withdrawal from the social environment; little urge for exercise or activity; listlessness; things that used to be fun lose their attraction; resignation.

3. Cognitive (mental) fatigue: reduced ability to think; indecisiveness; difficulty in concentrating; mental absence; forgetfulness; insufficient ability to assess consequences.

A study with healthy and cancer patients showed a clear difference in perception between these three classifications regarding the type of fatigue. While the majority of healthy respondents most commonly associated fatigue with physical symptoms, the most common symptoms of cognitive fatigue are found in the sick. This result is interesting because one would have to assume that physically ill people would also experience a dullness on the body.

It is controversial when exactly chronic fatigue can be diagnosed. Medical doctors give the phenomenon the character of a nervous disease. Others do not recognises the symptoms as an independent disease due to the numerous parallels with other health problems and the subjectivity of sensations. Since 1988, however, researchers have been trying to establish classifications. If an avoidable patient has a certain number of listed criteria, he or she is considered chronically tired. According to this checklist, two aspects have to be verifiable. On the one hand, chronic fatigue can only be diagnosed if other physical and psychological causes can be excluded. In addition, the minimum duration must be at least six months.

Initially, symptoms were only attributed the characteristics of cognitive fatigue. It was only later that the symptoms were supplemented by affective and somatoform (i. e. painful sensations) phenomena. In addition, there are some physical limitations which could also be associated with other clinical pictures and therefore only have to be partially satisfied. However, the most significant reduction in quality of life is due to physical suffering and psychological dissatisfaction.

Differentiation from similar clinical pictures

Due to the unspecific symptoms, chronic fatigue has many faces. Correspondingly, all sorts of designations for continuous inertia exist. Using the triggers, however, it is also possible to differentiate between different types of dullness.

For example, if you speak of fatigue syndrome, the symptoms are preceded by a physical illness such as cancer. A particularly common subspecies is the chronic fatigue syndrome. Unlike Fatigue Syndrome, mental suffering is also blamed for this phenomenon.

In addition, complications occur that are typical of three other diseases:

- Multiple chemical sensitivity, also known as environmental disease

- Fibromyalgia

- And the colon irritable

are considered by many doctors to be inseparable from chronic fatigue syndrome.

People suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity tend to have similar, almost identical symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. Above all, somatic complaints cause the patients to seek medical attention. The nickname environmental disease derives from the conviction of these patients that external factors are responsible for their suffering. This idea can develop into a downright pedantic apportionment of blame. The question discussed in the previous chapter, whether our everyday life makes us ill, affirmed those affected without objections. Your concern does not seem to be completely unfounded either. In the meantime, the harmfulness of nuclear power plants and the disposal of radioactive materials has been scientifically proven. Meanwhile, artificial additives are causing more and more allergies in the food industry. Whether these interventions in our natural environment cause fatigue remains questionable.

The resemblance to chronic fatigue syndrome in fibromyalgia is particularly apparent. The most striking complaint is a tearing muscle pain, which is why this disorder has a rheumatic character. Especially in the mornings, those affected feel stiff and worn out. Sleep disturbances cause fatigue that persists throughout the day. There is also forgetfulness, pain and mental exhaustion with minimal effort. Despite medical examinations, it is usually not possible to clarify exactly what causes the symptoms.

The colon irritable causes stinging, cramp-like abdominal pain in patients with diarrhoea and irritable bowel syndrome. It is a psychosomatic disease of the gastrointestinal tract. This means that unprocessed psychological conflicts lead to physical discomfort. In it, the colon shows irritable strong parallels to chronic fatigue syndrome.

In summary, the following criteria are decisive for the scientific assumption that these three diseases are associated with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Many of the symptoms occur at the same time or even pass into each other:

- Mostly women are affected

- Frequency suggests genetic condition

- Weather sensitivity, especially acute in the dark season

- Psychological stress or infections as a trigger

Self-test: Is your fatigue chronic?

More and more people are asking themselves whether their dullness is still normal or already morbid. With a precise diagnosis, doctors are also difficult to diagnose, as I said, but there are some signs of an increased risk. Especially if you can answer yes to several of the questions listed below, you should seek help. You will also find out who to contact in the following.

Note: This test is for guidance only and indicates the general signs of chronic fatigue. It does not replace a medical diagnosis!

- For half a year now, I have been feeling tired all the time.

- I can remember the beginning of my inertia quite well and also give a very precise time.

- My fatigue appeared suddenly and without warning.

- Some acquaintances have already asked me why I have been withdrawing so much lately.

- For some inexplicable reasons I often feel sad and depressed.

- I'm bored with activities that used to be fun.

- I find it hard to concentrate or remember things.

- Sometimes I have a tinnitus and dizziness. Sometimes things blur in front of my eyes.

- Often I long to go to sleep.

- In the past few months I have suffered from an infection.

- Although I give my body enough sleep and recovery, my tiredness is still going on.

- I'm having trouble falling asleep.

- In addition to my listlessness, I am plagued by flu-like symptoms such as elevated body temperature, migraine headaches, muscle pulling, pharyngitis and swollen lymph nodes.

Symptoms of chronic fatigue

Although many of the symptoms are already mentioned in the above chapters, they are clearly listed below:

- Fatigue, lack of drive

- Cold symptoms such as headaches and sore throats

- Muscle or joint pain

- Concentration difficulties, forgetfulness

- Tribulation

- Inner restlessness, panic attacks and anxiety disorders

- Resignation, loss of interest

- Slight aggressiveness towards others

- Restless sleep

- Moderate fever

- Swollen, painful lymph nodes

- Burning mucous membranes

- Pharyngitis

- Increasing susceptibility to infections

- Blurred vision and ear noises

The sudden