Psychological fatigue is a state when the physical strength seems to be there, the body is rested, but the person cannot do anything. He simply doesn't have the psychological strength.
This can manifest itself in the following symptoms: laziness, apathy, irritability.
When a person starts a task, he begins to experience a strong aversion to it, although at the level of reason he understands that this task is necessary and useful.
This feeling should not be confused with emotional burnout, although certain parallels can be drawn. Both are associated with overvoltage.
Causes of drowsiness and chronic fatigue
The modern frantic pace of life, especially in megacities, forces some to strive forward with any strength, to achieve everything planned, despite the exhaustion of the body, manifested in increased drowsiness and fatigue.
What causes chronic fatigue, what is missing in the body, the reasons that provoke loss of strength and excessive craving for sleep are presented below.
Oxygen deficiency in the room may be a factor provoking the development of the described disorder. Because the feeling of drowsiness directly depends on the amount of oxygen “cocktail” inhaled. The less O2 an individual inhales, the less oxygen is transported through the blood to the cells of the body. Most organs do not suffer much from its deficiency, but brain cells are quite sensitive to the deficiency of such an important chemical element and react even with a slight decrease in O2 content in the blood. Therefore, lack of oxygen may be the main cause of increased drowsiness and constant fatigue. Yawning is considered the first sign of hypoxia. Often, to eliminate drowsiness and fatigue, it is enough just to regularly ventilate the room where a person spends most of the day. In addition, it is necessary to spend more time in the fresh air.
Observing your own condition, you can often notice the appearance of drowsiness in cloudy weather before or during rain, when the atmospheric air pressure is below average. This occurs due to the body’s response to the “whims” of nature by lowering the heart rate and blood pressure. The result of a slow heartbeat is a decrease in the amount of oxygen transported by the blood. Here the mechanism of drowsiness is similar to the previous one.
However, natural disasters do not affect everyone. There is a subset of people who enjoy rainy weather and do not experience symptoms of decreased oxygen supply. In principle, a healthy human body should not be affected by changes in weather and should not respond by changing its mental or physiological state.
The causes of chronic fatigue should also be sought in disruption of the functioning of the body due to the presence of any ailments.
The causes of drowsiness and chronic fatigue can be caused by constantly being in a stressful situation. Stress is a common cause of fatigue due to increased production of the hormone cortisol. Its excess leads to a feeling of constant fatigue and even exhaustion.
Drinking large amounts of coffee every day can have the opposite effect instead of energizing you. Therefore, you should try to drink no more than two cups of this aromatic drink.
A constant feeling of tiredness, drowsiness, and fatigue may indicate the presence of various serious ailments. Therefore, if you notice this feeling, which occurs even with slight mental or physical stress, you should immediately undergo a comprehensive examination.
For example, often increased fatigue and a moderate decrease in mental performance are practically the only manifestations of hepatitis C, which doctors call the gentle killer due to the absence of symptoms and the severity of the consequences.
Also, fatigue that occurs after simple work or fatigue due to walking at a light pace may indicate hidden heart diseases, such as myocarditis, acute heart failure.
Due to sleep apnea, a person experiences increased drowsiness and fatigue. An individual suffering from such a disorder may not even be aware of its presence.
In the human body, the thyroid gland is an organ responsible for all processes occurring in it, and in particular for the condition of muscle tissue, nervous system, blood, and bones. Therefore, due to insufficiency of its function (hypothyroidism), lethargy, apathy, mood swings, and loss of strength occur.
Lung disease, in particular obstructive pathology of lung tissue, infections of the urinary system (urethritis, pyelonephritis, cystitis), seasonal vitamin deficiency, anemia are also common causes of poor health, lethargy, and a feeling of loss of strength.
Not all the causes of chronic fatigue and poor health were given above, since each human body is individual. Therefore, in case of any “problem” in the functioning of the body, it is recommended to immediately seek professional medical help from specialists.
More often, constant fatigue, increased drowsiness, apathy, loss of strength, indifference to everything that happens, and low performance are noted by many responsible, energetic, business-minded and successful individuals. Experts are convinced that the majority of successful people simply do not pay the necessary attention to their health and well-being, thereby provoking a decrease in the body’s resistance to various infectious processes and stress factors, which in turn reduces the level of production of serotonin, the hormone of joy.
Chronic fatigue, what is missing in the body?
When serotonin is produced in sufficient quantities for the body, a person will be in a good mood, feel cheerful and energized, and can easily withstand any stress. An individual in whose body serotonin is normal is always cheerful, happy, and enjoys communicative interactions with people around him and life in general.
When the level of this neurotransmitter decreases, a person experiences apathy, lethargy, depressed mood, and loss of strength. All this gives rise to a feeling of constant fatigue and drowsiness. Also, the listed manifestations may be accompanied by unregulated gluttony or, conversely, a complete lack of appetite. In addition, a lack of serotonin affects the intimate life of an individual and is manifested by a lack of intimate desire.
Take a multivitamin
A feeling of constant fatigue and weakness can also be caused by vitamin and mineral “starvation,” especially if we are talking about a lack of vitamins A, vitamins B and E, iron, iodine, zinc, selenium and magnesium. And, according to scientists, those people whose diet does not have enough protein get tired faster! So be careful with strict diets.
Alexey Kovalkov
nutritionist, presenter of the programs “Food with and without rules”, “Family Size”
Vitamins and minerals are involved in the absorption of other nutrients and the regulation of all vital functions of the body. Sleep disturbances, nervousness, depression and irritability can be signs of a lack of B vitamins. Muscle weakness is a sign of a lack of vitamin A.
Symptoms of chronic fatigue
Chronic fatigue symptoms and treatment are characterized by variety. In this case, fatigue is the main symptom of the syndrome. A distinctive feature of fatigue in this disorder is its stability and constancy. A person suffering from the described illness gets out of bed in the morning already tired. Lethargy and loss of strength are observed even after rest. There is also a slowdown in coordination of movements, discomfort in the muscles, frequent depression, memory loss, dizziness, pain in the chest and throat, nervous excitability followed by anxiety.
Chronic fatigue symptoms and its treatment are poorly understood today, but despite this, this syndrome can be identified in the early stages of development. If you notice in yourself or a loved one such symptoms as weakness, lethargy, fatigue, decreased concentration, irritability, aggressiveness, unstable emotional state, apathy, loss of strength, you need to undergo an examination, since these signs may indicate the development of chronic fatigue syndrome, which may be a consequence of more serious diseases.
In addition to the listed manifestations, patients may also experience the following symptoms: headaches, sleep disturbance (excessive drowsiness or, conversely, insomnia), decreased performance, pain in the spine and joint algia. People who smoke can increase the number of cigarettes they smoke per day.
Chronic fatigue can provoke a person to increase the consumption of alcoholic beverages. People who feel a constant loss of strength try to find salvation from apathy, lethargy and fatigue in alcohol. At the same time, not understanding that alcohol-containing liquids not only do not eliminate fatigue, but also aggravate the condition.
To understand how to deal with chronic fatigue, or what vitamins should be taken for chronic fatigue, you must first make sure that the described illness is present. To this end, below are the most typical manifestations of chronic fatigue syndrome. In the first turn, there should be either a constant feeling of fatigue, or a periodic feeling of loss of strength, which is observed for six months and does not go away after rest. Also, the subject's increased fatigue should not be caused by any serious illness.
Minor manifestations of the described condition include:
- chills or slight fever;
- nasopharyngitis;
- inflammation of the cervical or axillary lymph nodes;
— weakness of unknown etiology, discomfort or pain in the muscles;
- prolonged fatigue after physical exercise, which has not previously been observed in similar situations;
- migrating algia in the joints;
- extensive headache.
A number of neuropsychological symptoms can also be identified, such as irritability, intolerance to bright light (photophobia), forgetfulness, absent-mindedness, apathy, temporal and spatial disorientation, and sleep disturbances.
Objective symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome include low-grade fever, non-exudative pharyngitis, inflammation and enlargement of the axillary or cervical lymph nodes.
Heart diseases
Prolonged episodes of weakness that appear suddenly may indicate a potential heart attack. The heart attack itself is rarely accompanied by a feeling of fatigue, but when the heart muscle works intermittently, you will feel it. Pay attention to breathing, shortness of breath, appetite, whether or not there is a painful feeling in the chest.
With such a set of problems, go to a cardiologist. He will do an electrocardiogram, prescribe an ultrasound of the heart or an echocardiogram. To prevent the development of symptoms, doctors advise going on a low-fat diet and engaging in light physical activity, such as swimming or yoga.
Signs of chronic fatigue
When a person seems to “fall off his feet” during the day due to overwork, and at night suffers from insomnia, gets irritated over trifles, and notices memory impairment, it’s time to sound the alarm. In this case, we cannot exclude a rather “young” but already very common disorder – chronic fatigue syndrome. Back in the early seventies, few people knew about this disease, which is so widespread today. Its occurrence is directly related to the rapid acceleration of the pace of life and the increase in psychological stress on people.
Hence the question of chronic fatigue, what to do, becomes quite relevant. To understand the possible steps to solve the problem that has arisen and determine what medications and vitamins need to be taken for chronic fatigue, you should first become familiar with the first signs of the syndrome being described. Among which, in the first place, are high fatigue, the presence of constant weakness, lethargy, loss of strength, loss of energy, apathy. If such a condition is observed for a long time, then cognitive impairment will appear in the future.
Signs of chronic fatigue. This condition leads to a significant decrease in concentration, performance, memory, intellectual and creative activity. A person suffering from constant fatigue needs to expend incredible effort to solve difficult problems. Then there is insomnia, restlessness, tremors of the limbs, anxiety, unreasonable fears, muscle agia, joint pain and headaches, low-grade fever, appetite disturbance, diarrhea or constipation. Persistent headaches and pulsation in the temporal region are among the first manifestations of overstrain of the nervous system. People suffering from constant fatigue have decreased immunity, which manifests itself in frequent colds and relapses of previously suffered illnesses. They are also more likely to experience depression, anxiety, bad mood, and dark thoughts. Such people are characterized by excessive temper.
American scientists, studying more than 2000 cases of the syndrome in question, discovered the following patterns of its distribution. First of all, chronic fatigue syndrome affects people who are at their most working age, that is, from 26 to 45 years. Women, due to their emotionality and easy suggestibility, suffer from chronic fatigue several times more often than the stronger half. American scientists primarily included people involved in business, journalism, and dispatchers in the risk group, that is, those whose work is associated with daily stress. They also included people living in environmentally unsafe regions in this group.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is observed more often in people who, due to the nature of their work, have to constantly change their daily routine and spend a significant part of the daylight hours in rooms where artificial lighting predominates. In addition, they revealed a direct relationship between the onset of the syndrome and disturbances in human biorhythms.
Bowel diseases
When the intestines do not digest the protein of cereals (gluten), a person does not receive the necessary nutrients because of this. After eating flour, severe bloating, joint problems and a feeling of fatigue appear - this is called celiac disease or celiac disease.
Go to a gastroenterologist and sign up for an endoscopic examination. The doctor will suggest a strict but effective diet.
Treatment of chronic fatigue
Today's medicine has had little success in treating chronic fatigue. Previously, the treatment of chronic fatigue involved immunoglobulin G preparations. Today, the pathogenetic route of therapy is no longer used due to the large number of complications.
How to treat chronic fatigue in modern conditions?
Today, many techniques are successfully used based on cleansing the body, introducing special drugs to normalize the functioning of the nervous system, activate brain activity, restore the functionality of the gastrointestinal tract, immune and endocrine systems.
Psychological rehabilitation also plays a significant role in the treatment of this condition. In addition, the decisive factor in the fight against increased fatigue is an integrated approach, since all of the listed methods individually will be less effective. Therefore, most doctors are convinced that treating chronic fatigue at home is inappropriate, since it is quite difficult to provide the patient with complete rest at home.
So, how to deal with chronic fatigue comprehensively? Complex therapy includes:
- a combination of proper rest and sleep with a gentle regime of physical activity;
— group psychotherapy, autogenic training and other methods of restoring emotional mood and mental state;
— vitaminization of the body;
- walking promenades in the fresh air, which should last at least several hours;
— often used in the treatment of chronic fatigue are psychotropic drugs that relieve stress, anxiety, anxiety, for example, Mazepam;
— various methods of physiotherapy: hydrotherapy, color therapy, breathing exercises, massage.
Hydrotherapy or hydrotherapy involves the external use of water in the form of douches, wraps, baths, showers, rubdowns. Cold water increases hormonal activity and muscle tone, strengthens blood vessels, and stimulates the cardiovascular system. Therefore, if you feel very tired, for example at work, it is recommended to wash your face and wet your ears with cold water. At home, you should use a contrast shower daily, warm baths with essential oils, the effect of which is aimed at improving mood, relieving fatigue, relaxation, and calm. At home, you can take a full shower. Hydrotherapy differs from other treatment methods in its accessibility, safety and simplicity.
Color therapy or chromotherapy involves exposing the human body to colored light for a therapeutic effect. The colors that surround people in everyday life affect energy levels. For example, green relieves stress and helps to calm down, while red energizes and stimulates mental activity. Often, excessive stay in a dark and gloomy room is the cause of bad mood and increased fatigue.
Therefore, if the apartment or office is made in dark colors, if the question arises: “chronic fatigue, what to do,” and there is no opportunity to change the environment, then even simply opening the windows and opening the curtains that prevent the penetration of sunlight will help. It is also recommended to surround yourself with objects in green, blue and purple shades.
Breathing exercises are a fairly effective way to achieve relaxation, activate energy processes, and eliminate drowsiness.
Massage is also considered an effective method aimed at relieving muscle tension, relaxation, improving blood circulation, normalizing sleep and mental state.
Without drugs?
However, overwork is not a sore throat: only medications will never get rid of it. You will also have to adjust your own habits and behavior, radically change your work and rest routine: ensure normal sleep, avoid stress, play sports, or walk at a brisk pace for at least an hour and a half a day.
Unable to change your habits, the established order of life?
This means you need to go to classes with a psychotherapist, master auto-training - there are many correction methods today.
Sedentary lifestyle
The human body is oriented toward movement, so sedentary work affects well-being.
To relieve stress, use the free minutes at work for a short exercise. Buy a large exercise ball and use it as a chair sometimes (especially if you work from home). During your lunch break, stretch your muscles by walking up the stairs. Physical activity brings hormones into balance, releases endorphins, and normalizes sleep.
Dehydration
Chronic dehydration is a latent process that is not immediately noticeable. You may crave sweets, have difficulty falling asleep, often wake up in the middle of the night, or suffer from dizziness. Even a small drop in the volume of water in the body by 1.5% leads to severe weakness.
To get rid of this, you need to drink more. From 1.5 to 2.5 liters according to weight. Try to drink water whenever you feel thirsty.
Circadian rhythm disturbance
Circadian rhythms control mental activity at night and during the day. The suprachiasmatic nucleus in the brain is responsible for them, which synchronizes hormones. For most people, this core stimulates activity at the beginning of the day, a decline in energy in the afternoon, and sleepiness in the evening.
Rhythm disturbances cause daytime fatigue, which will not depend on how much you sleep at night.
The volume of rays hitting the retina stimulates the adjustment of the internal clock: the rhythms become confused if we receive little light in the morning and a lot at night. As a result, we find ourselves sluggish during the day.
If you feel this way, then try to reconfigure your biological rhythms. Spend at least an hour outside during the day, and in the evening turn off all gadgets at 10 p.m. Give up energy drinks, start playing sports that will ensure quality sleep.
Wrong diet
Fast food, processed foods, and alcohol lead to a feeling of weakness - because the daily diet affects hormones, mood and sleep.
Fatigue often appears after eating, so study your menu in more detail. Do not eat flour, sweets, products made from refined flour with simple carbohydrates, do not drink coffee.
Load up on green vegetables, chicken eggs, fish, seeds, and nuts. These products are rich in vitamin B, selenium, zinc, and also include healthy fatty acids.
