I'm a 21 year old male, 5'10'', 145 lbs.
For the last 9 months, I’ve been getting extreme, debilitating fatigue that completely prevents me from doing work.
It is scary how bad the fatigue can get. When the fatigue is severe, my whole body feels heavy, but especially my head. It’s like my mind is in a dense haze. When I try to do anything, it’s like I’m struggling against a wall of brain fog and confusion. It feels strenuous to even form thoughts about anything. I remember that when I was sitting in the shower, it felt like too much effort to even think with words, so I just sat with my mind completely silent. I would literally forget what I was doing in the middle of doing it. It was like my mind was resisting everything I tried to do; I would make a little bit of progress on a task, but then my brain would stop letting me focus, and then I would have to spend the next few minutes struggling to get back to it. (I know that a lot of this sounds like depression, but trust me, it’s not). It feels so unpleasant to have this fatigue. It causes extreme anxiety and irritability; it’s like my brain won’t just let me be calm. I don’t feel like myself at all when I have this.
When the fatigue is mild, it is still almost completely debilitating; it feels like I’m energetic and excited and motivated to do programming (I’m a game programmer), but when I try to get started, my brain won’t let me do it. There is a feeling of “resistance” whenever I try to focus and do mental tasks. It feels like my brain is constantly trying to get out of doing it. I WANT to do it, but every action I do on the computer feels strenuous and hard to do. Eventually the “resistance” just keeps building up until it feels impossible to keep going. I can spend 30 minutes vigorously thinking about what I want to do in my game, but actually doing it feels nearly impossible.
The fatigue makes everything feel different; it makes me feel less like a human:
For example, a regular person gets “feelings” from almost everything. I’m not talking about emotions; I mean the feelings that you get from any situation, that you can’t really put into words. Imagine that you’re on a coast, looking at the ocean, and there’s a sunset; or you’re in a cozy chair, drinking a cup of tea. You can explain what gives you a feeling, but you can’t really describe the feeling itself. I think these feelings are important for feeling like a human and having a personality.
The fatigue makes it literally impossible for me to feel these things. Everything is just objects. It makes me feel so cold and serious and empty.
I was on Prednisone for 2 weeks (no time to explain why).
Prednisone works almost perfectly to stop this fatigue;
When I’m on Prednisone, I’m getting feelings from literally everything. I feel almost identical to how I felt before the fatigue started. When I’m programming, it feels so soothing instead of stressful. I’m genuinely content with what I’m doing; everything feels so warm and cozy. I feel intense calmness all the time (Imagine Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. That is what I feel like).
I’m sure that what I’m describing is what a normal person feels like. Prednisone makes me feel back to normal. I don’t know yet if I can feel this way without it.
The fatigue never truly 100% goes away. I get “attacks” of fatigue that happen suddenly, and the severity fluctuates a lot when I have them. Sometimes it goes away suddenly, and other times it goes away gradually, or gets worse and then gets better.
Even on my best days the fatigue makes me literally 10 times slower than I remember being before I had it.
When I’m on Prednisone, at some points I literally feel exactly the same as when I was 12; it’s not just that I have more energy, it makes everything feel different. I get feelings that I can’t get without it.
When the fatigue is very mild, I can tell that I still have it because it feels different when I think about anything, or do mental tasks. My mind feels like a coat hanger. My thinking feels thin and cold and rigid. It feels completely inhuman.
When the fatigue is severe, sometimes there’s a physical feeling of “tightness” and “tugging” in my head.
This image is from a song on YouTube called Lost on the Moon:
Look at the Forum for CFS for more likely replies. Myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a condition where you have long-term disabling tiredness (fatigue). Most people with also have one or more other symptoms such as muscular pains, joint pains, disturbed sleep patterns, poor concentration or headaches. The cause is not known.
First of all sorry about what youre going through. As someone who struggles with severe anxiety now because of health issues, i would start by suggesting you really seek therapy in some form. Anxiety and depression can be debilitating. My anxiety has manifested panic attacks, fatigue, weakness, all sorts of physical symptoms. Its true when they say stress, depression and anxiety can actually physically harm you. Second, you should visit your pcp, maybe even before therapy as they would probably put you on some sort of ssri like Zoloft or something similar to help with your depression. Also, low vitamin d levels cab cause fatigue and depression and anxiety so if youre not getting sun or enough of it this could also be causing problems. Vitamin D low enough can wreck havoc on our bodies.
The symptoms of my fatigue are a lot different than CFS, so I don't think I have that.
I looked everywhere on patient.info and I wasn't able to find a general "fatigue" community, so I think this is the most appropriate place to post this.
I wanted to see if anyone has heard about, or experienced, this specific type of neurological effect, where you're literally incapable of feeling the atmosphere of things.
Trust me, I don't have depression. I can be excited and engaged with something, like a song, but still not be able to feel the "atmosphere" of it.
I talked to my doctor about this, and we currently think that this fatigue is caused by some type of underlying inflammation in my body.
He thinks that something in my diet was having an effect on this, so about 10 days ago I started an all-meat elimination diet.
This fatigue was actually 100% gone for the first 3 days, but then it came back. I thought the diet wasn't working, which is why I made this post. The fatigue is 100% gone now. Since my symptoms are generally a lot less now than they were 4 months ago, it makes me think that the underlying problem that causes this fatigue CAN be reduced over time; I just need to focus on fighting inflammation. I'm going to get on the Lion diet, which is just grass-fed beef, salt and water. It is supposed to be the ultimate anti-inflammatory elimination diet. I will focus on social interaction, exercise and sleep at the same time. I think if I do all of this, I can eradicate the underlying problem that causes this fatigue in less than 2 weeks.
Yep, my Vitamin D was at a 15, I'm of African descent, so my level need to be between 70-100. I'm currently at 46 so I'm still have all the symptoms, just not as intense.
Hi, just read through your post and wanted to check how you're doing and if your diet worked? I have something to what you described. It's really difficult.
How is the reduction in meat working for the fatigue? I stumbled across this forum and am now considering trying to cut out red meat to see if that helps me.
Try exercising and get more rest.