How Are Cfs And Depression Diagnosed
Your doctor can diagnose either condition. Theyâll start with a complete physical exam and medical history. Theyâll ask you about your symptoms, when they started, when they happen, and what seems to make them worse or better.
Youâll get a diagnosis of CFS if you have sleep problems and at least 6 months of extreme fatigue that doesnât get better with bed rest and worsens after any physical or mental activity. Youâll also have one of the following symptoms: memory or concentration problems, or dizziness or faintness when you stand up.
Youâll get a diagnosis of depression if you have had symptoms for at least 2 weeks. If youâve had symptoms for 2 years or more, youâll get a diagnosis of persistent depression.
Lab tests.Blood or urine tests help rule out other illnesses that cause fatigue, like anemia, diabetes, or thyroid disease. People with CFS may have high levels of certain hormones that could show up on a blood test. A blood test can check for levels of certain inflammatory cells. CFS is associated with higher levels of T cells and lower levels of B cells, while depression is associated with fewer T cells, but more B cells.
Sleep study. You can be tested to see when your sleep is disturbed. CFS causes more problems during non-REM sleep, or periods of lighter sleep. Depression causes more problems during phases of deep, or REM, sleep.
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Being Overweight Or Underweight
Overweight increases the risk of fatigue by increasing the risk of conditions that have fatigue as a common symptom, such as diabetes or sleep apnea.
Carrying more weight and experiencing joint or muscle pain can lead to or exacerbate fatigue.
Similarly, people with underweight may tire easily, depending on the cause of their condition. Eating disorders, cancer, chronic diseases, and an overactive thyroid can all cause weight loss, as well as excessive tiredness and fatigue.
Prioritize Getting Good Sleep
Since depression may be causing you to have disordered sleeping habits, it can be helpful to develop better sleep habits.
Sleep hygiene pretty much just means good sleeping habits. Here are some ways of implementing sleep hygiene:
- Be consistent with sleep and wake times. Try going to bed at roughly the same time each night and getting up at the same time each morning. This way, your body becomes accustomed to a certain routine that optimizes healthy sleeping.
- Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, relaxing, and at a comfortable temperature. You can experiment with different room temperatures or try out a white noise machine. With patience, you might discover the best room environment to promote sleep.
- Remove TVs, computers, and smartphones from the bedroom. This may seem like an impossible task sometimes, but avoiding harsh blue light will help you fall asleep faster.
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What Is Pots And Why Does It Cause Fatigue
POTS is a group of symptoms resulting from dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. This branch of the nervous system regulates functions we dont consciously control like sweating and blood circulation.
In people with POTS, more blood collects in the lower body when standing upright. The heart beats faster to pump it up to the brain, but with little success. The causes of POTS are unknown, but the problem is thought to lie in the communication breakdown between the brain and the cardiovascular system.
POTS-related fatigue is physical in nature and the mechanism behind it is not fully understood. It may have several causes, including your body working harder to move the blood.
How Can I Manage Fatigue Myself
You should make sure you have good quality sleep to help you manage fatigue. Ensure you go to bed at the same time each night and stick to healthy sleep habits.
Eating a healthy diet and doing regular physical activity will also help improve your sleep and lessen fatigue. Eat small, frequent meals throughout the day with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Avoid junk food, and try to avoid alcohol and caffeine since these may affect your sleep.
Other ways to help lessen fatigue, include:
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Diagnosing Depression And Fatigue
To make a depression diagnosis, your doctor will ask you about your medical history and give you a questionnaire that assesses depression. They may use other methods, such as blood tests or X-rays, to make sure another disorder isnt causing your symptoms.
Before diagnosing you with chronic fatigue syndrome, your doctor will run several tests to rule out other conditions that can cause similar symptoms. These may include restless leg syndrome, diabetes, or depression.
Physical Versus Mental Exhaustion
If youve ever left the gym feeling exhausted but exhilarated, youve felt the difference between mental and physical exhaustion. Physical fatigue, like mental exhaustion, comes from prolonged stress but from stress on the body. This could be due to not getting enough sleep, an illness, or other physical strain.
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A Vitamin Or Nutrient Deficiency
A vitamin deficiency, such as not getting enough vitamin D or vitamin B12, could cause you to feel severely tired, per the Cleveland Clinic. Dehydration can have the same effect.
You could also feel suddenly exhausted if you’ve recently started a high-protein diet. It’s not the protein itself making you tired, but the lack of carbohydrates. Severely restricting carbs causes your body to enter ketosis, where it breaks down fat for energy, per the Mayo Clinic. The side effects of ketosis include fatigue as well as headache, weakness and bad breath.
These side effects are usually temporary, but if ketosis is causing your sudden energy crash, you may want to add more fiber-rich, complex carbohydrates to your diet, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains like oatmeal and brown rice. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend carbs make up 45 to 65 percent of your total daily calories.
Similarly, skipping meals or following a very low-calorie diet could sap your energy. Keep in mind that people assigned female at birth should avoid eating fewer than 1,200 calories per day, and people assigned male at birth should eat at least 1,500 calories per day, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
Stress Causes Fatigue By Disrupting Your Circadian Rhythm And Sleep
One of the most potent ways that stress causes fatigue is by impacting our sleep and circadian rhythm . Weve all had the experience of being stressed out by something going on in our lives and how that affects our sleep. Think racing thoughts keeping you up all night. Not very fun.
It is known that stress can disturb circadian rhythm. In turn, disrupted circadian rhythm results in all sorts of other issues:
Stress causes fatigue by directly impacting on sleep in many ways , :
- It prolongs sleep latency , which leads to chronic sleep deprivation
- It greatly decreases the amount of slow wave sleep
- It can impact the emotional states you experience during sleep and dreaming, and can cause nightmares. This can lead to a vicious cycle where whats happening during sleep is actually stressing you out even more instead of being a time when you are recovering from stress.
Loss of sleep is often regarded as the mother of all health issues. So the effects of stress on sleep should be a big concern of yours. This is perhaps the most common way that stress causes fatigue.
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Simple Strategies For Fighting Back Against Fatigue And Depression
There are many things you can do by yourself or with the help of a therapist to combat fatigue alongside depression. Even small tasks throughout the day may not seem like much but will make a huge difference in coping with these symptoms. A few examples are:
- Make a to-do list of small, yet productive tasks to keep you busy and out of bed throughout your day: These could even be just going to the shop to buy groceries, light cleaning, light studying sessions or revision or just taking time out to pamper or treat yourself.
- Partake in light exercise: This could be doing a few minutes of an exercise video in your home, yoga, a stroll in your local park or even around your home by yourself or with a friend or loved one.
- Try to keep yourself busy, but do not overdo it: This may become overwhelming for you, but remember to take it easy, do not be too hard on yourself and remember to balance everything to suit you and your needs. Have a comfortable balance of productivity and recreation. Small steps are still progress forward, no matter how small.
- Fixing your sleeping pattern: This one proved most difficult for me as I have always had trouble sleeping throughout my life. Yet I found even going to bed that extra hour earlier, drinking a herbal tea before bed and working on it a little each day, it has helped my sleeping pattern and helped with problems of fatigue.
Shift Work Sleep Disorder
Shift work can wreak havoc on your bodys 24-hour internal clock, or circadian rhythm. When you work nights or rotate shifts, your body doesnt know when to be awake and when to sleep, which causes fatigue.
Daylight is often a cue to be awake. If you must sleep during the day, try to make your sleeping area as dark, cool, and quiet as possible. If you must work at night, keep your workplace brightly lit. Try to work night shifts all in a row and avoid frequently rotating shifts. Stay away from caffeine, and stick to a regular sleep-wake schedule as much as possible on days off.
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Why Does Anxiety Disorder Make You So Tired
Anxiety disorder is a complex beast that affects more than just your emotions. Its seen primarily as an mood disorder, and while that is certainly true, anxiety has a strong mental and physiological component as well. This week, well explore one of the questions everyone with anxiety has asked themselves at some point: why does anxiety disorder make you so tired?
Behavioral Changes And Self
In addition to talk therapy, medication, or the combination of these interventions, behavioral changes such as establishing a healthier diet and exercise routine can help combat symptoms of depression . Strategies that also help improve self-care include the following mindfulness-based interventions include :
- Mindfulness-based group meetings
- Day- or week-long mindfulness retreats
- Mindfulness meditation
- Daily audio-guided mindfulness practice at home
- Stress adaptation through daily mindful practices
- Mindfulness home exercises
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Does Depression Make You Tired Depression Fatigue Explained
by Dr. Griffith | Oct 14, 2022 | Depression |
IN THIS ARTICLE
Whats the Link Between Depression and Fatigue?
Stress
How to Cope with Depression Fatigue
Therapy
Medication
Behavioral Changes and Self-Care
Furthermore, clinicians may not always recognize low energy levels, fatigue, or the reduced ability to concentrate as symptoms of depression because these issues are also associated with other psychiatric and medical disorders.
Gaining a better understanding of the link between depression and fatigue can help facilitate an accurate diagnosis and direct the treatment plan. This article discusses depression fatigue and beneficial management approaches that target this issue.
What Is Muscle Weakness A Sign Of
Muscle weakness is a very common complaint but there is a huge range of possible causes. People feel tiredness or reduced strength in their muscles.
Are you suffering from muscle weakness? Well, you might think its a symptom of your anxiety. Well, anxiety is one of the common causes of muscle weakness.
Nervousness or being afraid can cause your body to feel weak and tired. Daily psychological stress can also cause your body muscles to weaken and eventually lead to muscle loss.
Muscle weakness can be a sign of lack of exercise or aging. Muscle injury or pregnancy can also lead to muscle weakness.
There are many medical causes for muscle weakness. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases can also eventually lead to muscle weakness. Other possible causes of muscle weakness include stroke, cancer, depression, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis.
Muscle weakness at a very young age is a sign of either congenital muscle disorders or malnutrition.
If you feel fatigued or tired or you feel like your body has become very weak, its best to discuss your symptoms with your doctor.
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Fatigue And Depression: When Is Tiredness A Warning Sign
3 Minute Read
Sleep is an important part of overall health, but for many, it does not come easily. Millions of Americans report feeling fatigue a feeling of tiredness or exhaustion.
Many different factors, ranging from poor sleep to health conditions, can cause fatigue. Its also a common symptom of mental health conditions, such as depression.
Being fatigued doesnt mean youre depressed, but fatigue can be a warning sign. Learn more about the link between the conditions.
Your B12 Levels Are Low
Vitamin B12 is found in animal products, so vegans and vegetarians are most at risk for being deficient, as well as people with gastrointestinal issues, who may have difficulty absorbing the vitamin, and people on heartburn and reflux medications. The important vitamin is needed in order to make red blood cells and DNA and plays a major role in nerve function and mood. B12 helps to maintain the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells, which make it possible for cells to communicate.
But when levels are low, this communication becomes compromised, which can lead to neurological changes. B12 is also involved in the production of serotonin and other neurotransmitters that regulate mood, so low levels could cause changes in the nervous system.
One study in the journal BMC Psychiatry followed 115 people with depression for six months and found that those with higher levels of B12 had a greater chance of recovery from depression, leading scientists to believe there is an association between B12 and mental health. Low levels of B12 have even been linked to .
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Symptoms Of Fatigue In Inflammatory Arthritis
Just like there are many causes of fatigue, there are also many symptoms that may indicate what you have is inflammatory arthritis-related fatigue. Its very subjective and not quantifiable with a lab or measurable outcome, which is why fatigue can feel so frustrating and overwhelming, says Dr. Cohen. You cant quantify it, but you know its not normal.
Heres a look at some of the key symptoms to discuss with your health care team:
Extreme tiredness
Dr. Khattri says that while symptoms of fatigue and feeling tired do overlap, fatigue is often at the extreme end. You feel like you have no control.
With normal tired you know sleep can fix it, says CreakyJoints community member Lel. Fatigue decides when its over youre just a helpless bystander.
Change in energy levels
While some patients wake up feeling fatigue, others experience sudden, overwhelming changes in energy levels and simply hit a wall.
RA fatigue stops me in my tracks. I feel myself fading out suddenly, then I have to rest . It feels like sandbags dropped on me, says CreakyJoints community member Kristina H. It hits me around the same time every day, or sometimes I wake up knowing its going to be a low energy day.
Increase in flares
Poor sleep
Research shows that poor sleep can make the symptoms of fatigue worse, increasing sensitivity to pain, irritability, and making it that much harder to concentrate, says Dr. Cohen.
Brain fog
Reasons Depression Makes You Tired
Fatigue can be one of the first symptoms of depression, and one of the most noticeable. Those with depression might find themselves thinking things like Im tired of being tired, or I just want to sleep the day away. Are you wondering why depression makes you tired? Were here to explore several reasons why those with depression might be experiencing this.
The nature of the disease
Depression affects the neurotransmitters in the brain that control how awake and alert individuals feel. In our experience, it is very rare that fatigue is NOT one of the main symptoms of someone suffering from depression. Feeling excessively tired should be a warning sign that there is an imbalance of chemicals in the brain that needs to be addressed by a mental health professional.
Sleeping patterns
Depression can disrupt sleeping patterns at night, causing greater levels of fatigue during the day. It takes depressed people longer to fall asleep as well, which results in them sleeping for less time than their non-depressive counterparts. A good nights rest has many restorative properties for brain function, and when sleep is light, interrupted, or insufficiently long, restorative processes can be interrupted, and even halted. Sufficient rest is a key factor of managing a mental illness.
Medications
Fatigue can be a side effect of several antidepressant medications. Talk to your doctor if you feel your medications could be contributing to your fatigue.
Stress
Seeking Help
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Cause Of Polymyalgia Rheumatica
Polymyalgia rheumatica produces inflammation and swelling in the larger joints of the body, such as the shoulders and hips, and in the tissues around these joints. The inflammation is due to the immune system attacking the membranes lining the joint , but the reason for this is unknown. Genetics and environmental factors are believed to play a role.
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What Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome is also called myalgic encephalomyelitis. CFS causes extreme fatigue that has no clear cause.
CFS makes you extremely tired. Even a full nightâs sleep doesnât help. Your fatigue may be worse for a whole day after any type of exercise or activity. Youâre too wiped out to do almost anything: take a shower, go to work, cook dinner, do the laundry, or go to the supermarket. You might be unable to get out of bed for any reason. You could have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.
CFS often causes pain. You could have muscle aches, joint pain, or headaches. Itâs also common to have blurry vision or see spots, and to have memory or concentration lapses. You may feel foggy or unable to remember details.
CFS can cause these symptoms, too:
- Irregular heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
CFS has no known cause. Possible causes include a hormone imbalance, infection with the Epstein-Barr virus or other viruses, the common yeast infection, Candida albicans, or an overactive immune system. Your genes might play a role in CFS too, because it often affects people in the same family.
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