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.