Chronic fatigue syndrome - CFS

Definition:

"Chronic fatigue syndrome refers to severe, continued tiredness that is not relieved by rest and is not directly caused by other medical conditions."

Basically, it's a condition where you're tired all the time.  Where you have no energy, and find day to day tasks like chores and very basic exercising to be extremely hard a fatiguing.

In extreme instances, as I experienced earlier, it can make your limbs, usually targeting the arms, weak and lead-like, as though the very thought of lifting your arm sounds like an unbearable task.  This can also be referred to as leaden paralysis.

When I was dealing with this, I felt like some had wrapped arm weights all up and down my arm, and no matter how much I shook them, they remained on and weighed me down something terrible.  As I'm typing this, the symptoms have lessened, but I still feel like it's a bit of chore to move my arms, but thankfully not so much my fingers for the actually typing.  Still sucks since I'm about to do a weeks worth of backed up dishes.

Over-all, my chronic depression has been a big part of the reason I suffer so badly from CFS, and why I tend to have the 'heavy-limb' symptom occur from time to time.

The main symptom of CFS is extreme tiredness (fatigue), which is:

• New
• Lasts at least 6 months
• Not relieved by bed rest
• Severe enough to keep you from participating in certain activities

Other symptoms include:

• Feeling extremely tired for more than 24 hours after exercise that would normally be considered easy
• Feeling unrefreshed after sleeping for a proper amount of time
• Forgetfulness
• Concentration problems
• Confusion
• Joint pain but no swelling or redness
• Headaches that differ from those you have had in the past
• Irritability
• Mild fever (101 degrees F or less)
• Muscle aches (myalgias)
• Muscle weakness, all over or multiple locations, not explained by any known disorder
• Sore throat
• Sore lymph nodes in the neck or under the arms

 Treatments generally include therapy of various degrees, diet changes, and/or medication prescriptions.  At the moment, I am on depression medication, have been for about 4 years now, but beyond that, have no money to purchase any food that was be deemed even somewhat healthy, and have no health insurance to receive any therapy.

However, if you feel like you suffer from a good handful of the symptoms listed above and aren't stuck in a situation like myself, go to the doctor.  See what they can do for you, there's never a reason to deal with a condition like this when there are possible treatments out there that can work for you.

OCD and Perfectionism

Both are things I have lived with and have been getting increasingly more prominent in my life.  I would venture to say that my chronic depression is a key to why that's happening, but that's an entirely different topic that could likely take pages to get through.

My Pictures - Kinda Organized, Could Be Better

While I wouldn't say I have OCD to the extreme, there are a few things I have to do no matter what.  Organization is probably the biggest offender.  I have to organize things, I can't not.  Whether it's items in my wishlist on Gaia Online by price in my quest thread, or how exactly my crops are planted in Rune Factory frontier, or how the DVDs I own are ordered, things have to have an order to them.  Usually, it only applies to things that have multiples of them, and is not necessarily connected to cleanliness.  My desk can be an absolute mess, but as long as I have the important items I use often in their specific places amongst the mess, my OCD is satisfied.

I'd also classify my pet peeves into my OCD.  My two biggest pet peeves are people smacking their gum, and people chewing just about any food with their mouths open.  I actually came close to outright yelling at a girl in my college class across the table from me because she was chewing her gum in the most annoying manner possible.  I managed to take a deep breath and ask her nicely to put her gum in the garbage, and she was nice enough to comply, but I know I would've gotten mean if it had continued.  I just can't stand people smacking their gum, makes them seem stupid and ditzy.

As for people chewing with their mouths open, it's everywhere.  My boyfriend 5 feet from me on the computer does it all the time, people I'm talking with on skype while playing League of Legends do it, heck, people I pass in public do it.  More than once, when my friends on skype do it, I'll just stop whatever conversation is happening with 'Who the hell is chewing?!'  Usually they realize what they're doing and stop, apologize, and mute their microphone until their done eating, or chewing at least.  Those that haven't stopped, thought it would be funny to annoy me and keep on chewing loudly, if not purposely, have had the skype call dropped on them and been dropped from my life.  I fucking hate it, don't keep doing it like an ass.

Perfectionism, while tied into organizing and my OCD, applies to almost everything else in my life.  If I'm writing a paper, I have to do it with a pen, and if I make an error, I will crumple the paper up and re-write it until it's clean and polished looking.  I'll only resort to white-out if I'm incredibly tired or very pressed for time.

Most of the time, being a perfectionist helps whenever I have a job, being that I get the job done thoroughly and correct the first time, although it might take a smidge longer than most others.  Many employers love me for it, but I think they have a hard time believing I can do as I say until I am put into action.

In the end, I believe both traits both make my life better in some aspects, but worse in others.  I do wonderful work, can write spectacularly, but generally friends are put off to such things.  I get irritated easily if something is out of place, or someone screws something up I had 'perfect', and I may snap at them for such actions unnecessarily.