There are some things that you need to avoid if you suffer from constant tiredness. Chronic fatigue affects all aspects of life and the way to manage it and cope with it varies from person to person. But, it’s clear that certain things do affect it more. Here are 8 recommendations for staying on top of total exhaustion:
- Eating Processed Food – Your best bet is to try to eat a whole foods diet. Whether you chose to eat a meat-based diet or a plant-based diet (both of which show promise in helping people deal with chronic health conditions) is up to you, but both diets have one thing in common. They ask you not to eat processed food such as white sugar, white flour, cakes, cookies, chips and so forth. If it has chemicals and is just a snack food void of nutrition, avoid it – whether it’s liquid or solid and whether it says “health food” or not.
- Staying Up Too Late – Sleep can be a huge problem for people with CFS. You are tired all the time, but sleeping can still be a problem. You either sleep too much or cannot sleep at all even during exhaustion. Keeping a regular sleep cycle can help with this slightly.
- Overusing Caffeine and Other Stimulants – It’s tempting to medicate yourself with lots of caffeine or other drugs, but your best bet is not to do that. Using caffeine or prescribed stimulants may be helpful on days you really need to do things, but it will not work long term as you’ll need more and more of it.
- Self-Medicating – Due to your feelings about your condition it can be tempting to use other drugs, including illicit or illegal drugs. Please do not do this, for obvious reasons but mostly because it will not help your condition anyway. Your body will have to deal with the elimination of these substances and if it is already under pressure you may amplify the situation
- Negative People – This may seem like strange advice but once you have a chronic health condition, negative people seem to come out of the woodwork and grow on vines. They are everywhere, giving you unwanted advice. And worse – they may even accuse you of faking it. Let these types of people off with a couple of warnings but the third time, you need to just let them go.
- Self-Diagnosis – Even if you have all the symptoms you may learn about from Google, or any reports, don’t try to self-diagnose. Seek medical attention if you can so that you can find out for sure. You could have other underlying issues too such as hypothyroidism for example.
- Isolation – Try to avoid isolating yourself. It can be very tempting because you feel as if you’re not very reliable and can’t do as much as you used to do. Even if you can’t go anywhere, you can invite people to come over. When they truly understand your condition, you can still lie in your bed and watch TV with them. Connection with other humans is one of our basic human needs. How else do we get the energy we need? Sometimes just having another person present can help you feel energetic!
- Exercise – This may be a shock to learn, but some people with chronic fatigue should avoid intentional exercise outside of the type of exercise you need to do to maintain muscle tone and flexibility. This is because the body may react to this as additional stress.
It can be difficult to avoid these things without assistance. You may want to seek help from a variety of sources – from medical professionals, to support groups, to family and friends, to help you cope and manage your symptoms. Alternative healthcare professionals may be able to assist by helping to find blocks in the energy system of the body.