Fatigue is dangerous as the statistics say that 20% of road accidents take place because the person who is driving is fatigued. Furthermore, approximately 20% of Americans complain that fatigue hinders their normal life.
What exactly is fatigue?
Fatigue makes an individual feel extremely tired or weak which makes it difficult for an individual to do daily activities. It is a feeling of lack of energy that hugely affects one’s daily life hindering the completion of normal tasks.
Fatigue is a symptom that affects different individuals in different kinds of ways giving rise to conditions that hugely differ from one person to another. Some people under the effects of chronic fatigue may feel immensely tired. The only thing that they do in such situations of fatigue is sleep a lot. Often fatigue may be accompanied by body pain and also initiate a feeling of defeat making people think as if they have lost control over their lives.
Are you suffering from severe fatigue?
Severe fatigue or chronic fatigue which is also medically termed CFS is a situation of long-drawn fatigue. Continued fatigue often surfaces with other related symptoms apart from tiredness, such as
- Persistent sore throats
- Muscle pain
- Pain in the joints all over the body
- Soft lymph nodes
- New and unknown kinds of headaches
- Impaired memory
- Loss of concentration
What are the causes of severe fatigue/chronic fatigue?
Severe physical fatigue may be the result of a prolonged day at work characterised by stress, immense hard work and a hectic schedule with a strict deadline.
On the other hand, a lot different from physical fatigue is emotional fatigue which is often a lot more serious and chronic. Emotional fatigue more often than not surfaces at its apex early in the morning and as the day progresses the level of fatigue continues to reduce with a reduction in the feeling of tiredness.
Some significant factors that cause physical fatigue are:
- In case an individual is unable to get an ample amount of sleep then suffering from fatigue is a common situation.
- Individuals suffering from chronic health problems are more prone to feel tired and experience severe fatigue.
- Lack of enough physical exercise and an unhealthy physical condition often result in chronic fatigue.
- Obesity is yet another immensely significant cause that not only gives rise to chronic fatigue but also makes individuals feel acutely tired hindering their overall performance and day-to-day activity.
- Certain over-the-counter medicines may often lead to severe fatigue as a potential side effect of the drugs. These include some of the commonly prescribed drugs for blood pressure and antihistamines as well.
- There are a few other causes as well that may also be responsible for causing stress and fatigue. These involve extreme temperature conditions, having to wait for long hours and immense traffic as well which give rise to a tired feeling.
What causes emotional fatigue?
There are particular causes responsible for giving rise to emotional fatigue as well. These are:
- More than anything else, anxiety and depression are two of the most acutely responsible factors that lead to emotional fatigue.
- Often individuals try to extend their abilities and capacities to a level beyond the extent that they can manage to achieve. This can often lead to failure which initiates fatigue.
- Hiding one’s emotions is another potential factor that causes chronic fatigue of the emotional kind making the individual feel tired regularly.
- In case there is a huge life change taking place, individuals may start feeling tired and suffer from fatigue.
- In the contemporary age, given the tight work schedules and strict deadlines, workplace stress is one of the key factors that result in chronic fatigue of an emotional nature.
Some of the effective ways of killing chronic fatigue/severe fatigue
While treating severe fatigue or chronic fatigue, doctors proceed with their treatment in a way as if they were real-life detectives. The doctors try to find out as many details and information as possible about the fatigue symptoms that a patient is experiencing. They also refer to their entire medical history to trace any such potential prior illness that may be the reason for the present symptoms of fatigue. This is necessary as such an approach helps to gain a sound knowledge of various possibilities that may be responsible and would be necessary for further exploration.
Often physicians uncover prior situations when the individual has been suffering from physical conditions like depression, anemia, diabetes or thyroid imbalance all of which are potent enough to lead to both severe fatigue and chronic fatigue in case they re-surface.
When there are no prior sources found, and then the doctor may suggest the fatigued patient follow a few steps. Here’s a list of some of the possible steps that he may suggest for reducing fatigue,
- Gradual and daily exercise to do away with the tired feeling and fatigue
- Start practicing meditation and deep breathing which are effective techniques that aim at doing away with stress and fatigue.
- Practice healthy eating and sleeping habits for increasing metabolism which will help reduce fatigue.