Lyme Files: Fatigue vs Tired

In the world outside of chronic illness there is no real difference between “fatigue” and “tired.” In the same way people who are (in general) jerks blame their jerkiness on having “OCD” or the way someone who feels a little stress claims to have had many “panic attacks” over situations. “Fatigue” tends to be the more dramatic or scholarly word for not having had enough sleep.

It’s not exactly true. There is a very painful difference between the two.

Fatigue vs. Tired

You can read more about this from a. . .you know. .a real place - Reuters. And this quick article called: Fatigued or just tired? There is a difference by Megan Rauscher. You can also read more on adrenal fatigue or adrenal insufficiency by going to my page about my ongoing Adrenal Fatigue.

Fatigue
Fatigue cannot be solved by a nap or sleeping. Fatigue feels totally different than being tired. Fatigue drains your energy to the extent that you are horribly aware how many pieces of energy it takes to live. You want to sleep – you feel so sleepy and tried and I even struggled to keep my eyes open – but you won’t sleep. Your body doesn’t need sleep because the fight is still going on inside.

It's actually painful.

Fatigue in my case is a symptom of my body having fought infection or an organ not working right that I don’t have the ability to function normally. It’s needing $100 to pay a bill and only having $50. You just aren’t going to make it.

Fatigue makes you aware how much energy it takes to digest food, to breath, to live. I have been so fatigued I voluntarily stopped breathing just for a break from the effort. I remember I would not eat because digestion was just out of the question.

I remember one time my Mom made me eggs and I was sitting there and I just gave up and told her between the joint of my jaw hurting and the effort, I couldn’t finish. She offered to blend it so I could drink it. I actually laughed a bit because it’s ridiculous – I didn’t have the ability to chew and swallow because I was so tired. Seemed pretty ridiculous.

Athletes understand “muscle fatigue” over “tired.” A bodybuilder or marathon runner probably has worked a muscle to fatigue or failure in order to make it stronger. Or when someone has really done a number on a muscle or went all out during a sporting event and needs to chill for a while the body gets repaired and working right – that’s fatigue. The system not having enough in it to do everything it has to do.

My fatigue was brought on by a failure of my organs to produce the chemical and good stuff to keep me going. The adrenal glands normally are the biggest indicator of this, though the thyroid and other organs also play a role. In my case, my adrenals glands were failing.

Oh, and my body was under attack and trying to fight off and clean out infection from my body.

Tired
The biggest thing happen in the world around me was people having children. So, naturally, they voice their experience with it. I am unsure how often they visited other sick people – someone puking from chemo or a child in a burn unit – and said, “You think this is bad? What until you have kids. People without kids don’t get it.”

These people were tired. They are tired. I know what that feels like. Once I didn’t sleep for three days straight. I was sitting bolt upright staring at the wall. So, I know what tired feels like. Once, when I was detoxing from a parasite, it actually got in the way of the chemicals that allowed you to go into the first stage of sleep. I would get there and wake up.

I understand tired.

Tired can be cured, though. If you took a nap or got back on a routine of going to bed at the right time and sleeping, it’s easy to get over. People who are always tired normally always don’t get enough sleep.