How To Fight Fatigue From Depression

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.

Healthy Sleep Habits Are An Excellent Way To Alleviate Depression And Fatigue There Are Plenty Of Ways You Can Do That:

• limit screen time before bed
• avoid alcohol and caffeine close to bedtime
• exercise regularly
• limit your naps during the day
• wake up and go to sleep at the same time every day
• create a comfortable, sleep-promoting environment in your bedroom
• eat a healthy, balanced diet

Exercise it seems like the answer to any question about improving your health. While it may require a little more motivation to exercise when you suffer from depression fatigue, its something you definitely want to practice.

Were not saying you need to hit the CrossFit gym and take up marathon running. In fact, research has shown that just 20 minutes of low to moderate-intensity exercise helps to relieve fatigue and depression.

There are some excellent low to moderate-intensity exercises you can do that include movement and deep breathing, which can help relieve depression.

At Bold Health We Offer Several Different Options To Help You Beat Depression And Fatigue

• Individual therapy: Youll meet with your designated clinician regularly. Youll learn powerful skills and tools to cope with current and future challenges.

• Group therapy: Group therapy is a powerful depression treatment in San Diego. Youll meet with your clinician and a group of peers who are experiencing similar things as you to discuss challenges, triumphs, and struggles. The support and motivation you receive in group therapy will empower you to make the changes you need to feel more like yourself.

• Medication management: Not everyone requires medication management. But because our comprehensive team of clinicians includes experienced psychiatrists, if you and your therapist think medication could help you overcome depression fatigue, we can help.
• Intensive outpatient program: One of the most effective treatments in battling depression fatigue is our depression IOP in San Diego. Within our IOP, youll meet with your clinician in groups and have the option of medication management.

Over the course of ten weeks, youll get the support and strategies you need in our depression IOP in San Diego. Because it is a more rigorous treatment schedule than individual therapy, this intensive program is a proven way to help you feel better faster.

You May Like: How Long Does Radiation Fatigue Last

Try It: Mediterranean Diet

• Get your starch with whole grains, starchy vegetables, and legumes.
• Fill up on plenty of fruits and veggies.
• Focus on eating fatty fish, like salmon or albacore tuna, in place of red meat.
• Add in healthy fats, like raw nuts and olive oil.
• Enjoy sweets and wine in moderation.

The Mediterranean diet is more about what youâre adding in: fresh fruits and vegetables, protein-rich legumes, and fatty fish and olive oil .

One small 2017 study with 67 people who were clinically depressed, some being treated with medication, looked at dietâs role in the participantsâ mental health. Researchers found that after 12 weeks of eating a modified Mediterranean diet, the participantsâ symptoms were significantly better.

In a 2016 study with 11,800 people, researchers found that those who followed the Mediterranean lifestyle closest were 50 percent less likely to develop depression than those who didnât follow the diet as well.

And in 2018, a study in older adults found that following a Mediterranean diet was related to the absence of depression.

Also Check: Can Adrenal Fatigue Be Reversed

Take In Some Sunlight

Exposure to daylight, particularly in the morning, is known to improve night-time sleep, so try to spend some time in natural light every day.

A lack of daylight can be a particular factor in depression in the winter months, when the sun sets so early, affecting circadian rhythms, Dr Davies confirms.

I keep a SAD lamp on my desk so I can top up my light levels on days when its hard to get outside.

Recommended Reading: Does Low White Blood Count Cause Fatigue

Eating Well For Mental Health

Consuming fewer processed foods can lead to better brain and emotional health.

From a young age, were taught that eating well helps us look and feel our physical best. What were not always told is that good nutrition significantly affects our mental health, too. A healthy, well-balanced diet can help us think clearly and feel more alert. It can also improve concentration and attention span.

Conversely, an inadequate diet can lead to fatigue, impaired decision-making, and can slow down reaction time. In fact, a poor diet can actually aggravate, and may even lead to, stress and depression.

One of the biggest health impairments is societys reliance on processed foods. These foods are high in flours and sugar and train the brain to crave more of them, rather than nutrient-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables.

A lot of the processed foods we eat are highly addictive and stimulate the dopamine centers in our brain, which are associated with pleasure and reward. In order to stop craving unhealthy foods, youve got to stop eating those foods. You actually start to change the physiology in the brain when you pull added sugars and refined carbohydrates from your diet.

Also Check: Symptoms Shortness Of Breath Fatigue

Dehydration And Inadequate Nutrition

Staying hydrated and getting proper nutrition is important for keeping your energy levels up. Research shows that a lack of fluid intake is associated with increased sleeplessness, fatigue, and irritability.

Not getting enough calories in your diet can also leave you feeling tired all the time, as can eating too many refined carbohydrates or not getting enough protein. Allergies to foods such as wheat, peanuts, or dairy may also contribute to tiredness.

Also Check: Extreme Fatigue Muscle Weakness Joint Pain

Stress Versus Mental Exhaustion

Stress is a term that refers to anything that temporarily taxes a persons mental, physical, and emotional resources. Our bodies respond to both good and bad stress in similar ways. Ideally, were able to quickly resolve stressors and return our bodies to a state of balance. Long-term stress leads to mental exhaustion not the other way around.

How To Fight Depression Fatigue

Fatigue may linger even after other depression symptoms improve. These strategies can help you boost your energy and conquer depression fatigue.

Living with major depression can be challenging when you’re also dealing with fatigue, a common depression symptom. Not only can fatigue disrupt your daily routine, it can also make it harder to take the steps needed to get depression under control.

Major depression causes a total lack of energy that doctors call anergia, says Stephen Geisler, MD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Hofstra North ShoreLIJ School of Medicine in Long Island, N.Y. This lack of energy can lead to mental, emotional, and physical fatigue thats difficult to treat.

Left untreated, fatigue can contribute to longer and more severe depression, according to a research review published in 2014 in the journal Depression and Anxiety. Its also one of the main causes of disability in depression, says Dr. Geisler. For these reasons, taking steps to conquer fatigue is an important aspect of depression treatment.

How Is Depression Fatigue Treated?

Depression fatigue may be linked to poor sleep, lack of activity, or commonly used antidepressant medications called SSRIs and SNRIs. Even after other depression symptoms have responded to treatment, fatigue is likely to linger.

Helpful Lifestyle Changes Can Fight Depression Fatigue

You can also make healthy lifestyle choices that may help reduce fatigue:

You May Like: Can Allergies Cause Extreme Fatigue

Sleepiness Fatigue Or Depression Mental Health Awareness Month Part 2

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Project Sleep believes that mental health and sleep health are closely intertwined. We are excited to share interesting connections between sleep and mental health.

Why am I always so tired?

When your energy feels off, it can be hard to know whats wrong and what to do about it. Feeling sluggish could be a sign of many things including anemia, thyroid issues, a sleep disorder, diabetes, depression, nutritional deficiencies, and so on. You may also wonder, Will this go away or should I talk to a doctor about it?

In everyday life, we use various terms interchangeably feeling tired, exhausted, sleepy, fatigued, sluggish, weighed down, foggy, burnt out, like a zombie, or low-energy. But these terms may have different meanings.

For example, at Project Sleep, we often hear from people with sleep disorders who faced excessive sleepiness for many years before finding an accurate diagnosis of sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or idiopathic hypersomnia. Even when an individual mentions sleepiness to a healthcare provider, it may be easily confused for depression or fatigue.

Sleepiness, fatigue, and depression can all be invisible, sneak into a persons life, and be difficult to explain to loved ones or doctors.

How To Fight Depression And Fatigue

When youre utterly exhausted and experience other symptoms of depression, it is hard to muster the energy to turn things around. It makes sense to need to wait for depression to lift before making changes. However, depression fatigue wont stop on its own.

You can, however, work with your energy level. Think of this as a gradual, yet powerful, process. Below, youll find proven strategies to help both depression and fatigue. You dont have to do everything at once. Start with one or two items that feel possible , do them consistently, and add onto them over time.

These strategies help end depression fatigue. Where do you want to begin?

Depression fatigue is crushing. You dont have to let it keep you down, though. Use strategies to deal with both fatigue and depression, and youll recover energy and improve your mood.

Recommended Reading: Can Kidney Stones Cause Fatigue

About Upmc Western Behavioral Health

UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital is the hub of UPMC Behavioral Health, a network of community-based programs providing specialized mental health and addiction care for children, adolescents, adults, and seniors. Our mission is to provide comprehensive, compassionate care to people of all ages with mental health conditions. UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital is a nationally recognized leader in mental health clinical care, research, and education. It is one of the nations foremost university-based psychiatric care facilities through its integration with the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. We are here to help at every stage of your care and recovery.

Tags

The Number One Tip To Help With Depression Fatigue: Professional Help

Fighting depression and fatigue on your own is extremely challenging, especially when you dont have a lot of motivation or energy to do so. Fatigue and depression negatively impact your relationships, work and school performance, and physical health.

With the proper depression treatment in San Diego, you can begin feeling more like yourself faster. At BOLD Health, we use science-backed therapy approaches in an individualized treatment approach explicitly curated for you.

Our team of clinicians takes a BOLD approach to not only understand your symptoms well gain a genuine understanding of who you are as a person and what brought you to seek depression treatment in San Diego.

You May Like: What Is Chronic Fatigue A Sign Of

Fatigue In Diabetes: A Vicious Cycle

Fatigue is a frequently encountered symptom in the general practice management of diabetes. Fatigue may be the presenting symptom of diabetes, or it may present as one of a constellation of complaints. It may even persist after glycemic control is achieved. All of these clinical situations, irrespective of causality or association, may be grouped together as DFS. Fatigue has been reported to be prevalent in patients with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes . Its association with inflammation, body mass index, insulin treatment, and depression has also been studied . The lack of correlation between fatigue on the one hand and hyperglycemia and glycemic variability on the other is also known . The unique features of fatigue in persons with diabetes have also been recognized, prompting the development of disease-specific diagnostic tools , as opposed to generic ones .

Diabetes and fatigue seem to have a bidirectional relationship, both feeding and worsening each other, thereby creating a vicious cycle of DFS . This relationship is strengthened by biochemical, psychological, and lifestyle factors.

Small Steps Big Impact

If a person feels sustained, intense, feelings of sadness or loss of interest in activities, they may have clinical depression. People also refer to this condition as major depressive disorder.

However, there are small steps you can take to help you gain more agency in your life and improve your sense of well-being.

Read on to learn how to incorporate these strategies in a way that makes sense for you.

Also Check: Large Anti Fatigue Mats For Kitchen

Depression Also Affects Your Ability To Sleep

Adults should sleep seven hours a day or more, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For people with depression, that task may be challenging.

“People with depression often have trouble falling asleep or difficulty staying asleep, or both,” says Dimitriu. People with depression may experience less slow wave or deep sleep, according to a September 2014 review in the journal Sleep Science. The end result? Sleep feels “less restful and restorative,” says Ricke.

Plus, people who are depressed can engage in “maladaptive behaviors that contribute to poor sleep,” says Ricke. For instance, depression-related fatigue can lead to someone taking a nap, which will only make falling asleep in the evening harder, she says.

Dimitriu and Ricke note that staying active may be hard for someone with depression, but resisting the temptation to stay on the couch can go a long way in fact, getting some physical activity each day may even help you sleep better at night.

Do The Opposite Of What The Depression Voice Suggests

The automatic, unhelpful voice in your head may talk you out of self-help. However, if you can learn to recognize it, you can learn to work through it.

If you believe an event wont be fun or worth your time, say to yourself, You might be right, but itll be better than just sitting here another night. You may soon see the automatic thought isnt always helpful.

Read Also: How To Recover From Compassion Fatigue

How Do You Assess The Symptoms Of Fatigue In Mdd

Dr. Fava: First, I want to confirm that the patient actually has a diagnosis of MDD. There may be some patients who complain of many symptoms of fatigue but do not have MDD, or there may be some patients with comorbid illnesses that include some depressive symptoms and fatigue, but are not truly MDD. Second, it is really important to differentiate between symptoms of fatigue that have been caused by the drugs we are using to treat the MDD in contrast to symptoms that are present as residual symptoms of MDD.

I begin my assessment by obtaining a careful, detailed history of all of the symptoms that existed prior to the initiation of treatment, followed by identifying any symptoms that have persisted despite treatment, and then I ask about any new symptoms that have emerged during treatment. Treatment-emergent symptoms may or may not be caused by the medications we are using, but it is important to differentiate whether these symptom are new or were preexisting to the treatment. Obviously, it is also important to explore whether the residual symptoms are more or less severe than they were before treatment commenced.

patients with residual fatigue are more likely to get depressed again despite continued prophylactic treatment. There is a much greater likelihood that patients with MDD who have residual symptoms like fatigue will also have work, school, and/or social difficulties.

What Medical Conditions Cause Fatigue

Hundreds of conditions and disorders lead to fatigue. Some of the most common causes of fatigue include:

• Disease and infection: Cancer, kidney disease and multiple sclerosis are just a few diseases that cause fatigue. Fatigue can also be a sign of infections such as mononucleosis, HIV and flu.
• Mental health conditions: Fatigue from depression or anxiety may make it difficult or impossible to perform daily activities.
• Autoimmune disorders: Fatigue is a symptom of many autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
• Hormonal imbalances: Problems with your endocrine system can lead to exhaustion. Hypothyroidism is a common cause of fatigue.
• Chronic conditions:Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia cause severe, long-lasting fatigue.
• Heart and lung problems: Fatigue is a common symptom of cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome , chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , emphysema and congestive heart failure.
• Deficiencies:Anemia and other vitamin deficiencies are often responsible for fatigue. Dehydration can cause fatigue because the body needs plenty of fluids to function.
• Weight problems and eating disorders:Anorexia, bulimia, obesity or being underweight can lead to fatigue and a range of other symptoms.

Don’t Miss: Causes Of Extreme Tiredness And Fatigue