I wake up feeling fine for about 2 hours, and then I'm usually too tired to go about my day without taking a 2 hour nap.
I do have anxiety, major anxiety, actually, and for that I take Zoloft and Wellbutrin. Wellbutrin helps somewhat. I take Zoloft at night and I think Zoloft is the reason I am restless. I just began taking the drugs a few months ago, but the fatigue has been with me for about TEN YEARS now. I can't stand it.
I have gotten numerous tests done and have concluded at this time that the problem is not physical. I don't know if it's getting worse, or if the increasing pressure and stress in my life is making the problem more evident.
Every journal entry I look at from the past says "fatigue is the problem, take care of it" "get tested for anemia asap" "seek doc, fatigue, asap" etc.. it's hard to believe it's still a major problem in my life.
I feel very indifferent and depressed about it. I "want" to do work and get on with my day, but I feel too exhausted and while I do push myself to work and stay up most of the time (only sleep about 6-8 hours a day), I am extremely clumsy and nearly always get into "holy **** I could of died just now" situations.. especially when driving.
I don't use any drugs including caffeine unless I need to, besides those mentioned above.
I'm thinking of asking my doctor for amphetamine but I doubt that will be possible with an anxiety diagnosis, and I personally don't think stimulants would work that well for me. Amphetamine is great, but I need a long term solution. Caffeine makes me jittery and extremely paranoid, to the point where I become delusional (literally).
This sounds like me, except i was not fatigued for ten years. My diagnosis (finaly! after running all over the place) was, in fact, Anxiety/Depression. I have been on Wellbutrin, but it didn't work for me. Is it possible that you need another antidepressant?
My theory is that there is no such thing as chronic fatigue - that there is a cause for it (whether chemical or psychological) somewhere, and that the proper course of action is medication or theropy. But I am not a doctor or god, so I can't be sure.
Anyway - my story is that I am doing a lot better, but realize there is a long way to go. Therapy has helped me unbelievably. The medication helps me maintain a normal lifestyle. Have you seen a psychiatrist yet? Is he the one that perscribed the Wellbutrin? I know that the first GP that I went to was thinking about perscribing AD's (it sems that research indicates that AD's help chronic fatigue), but it took a psychiatrist to tell me why I needed them.
You're in NY too? Some people tell me that stress in this city causes fatigue :P
Anyway, I am on wellbutrin and Zoloft. The Wellbutrin helped me tremendously early on. But I recently got sick.. some sort of major headache (with no fever), and I've been extremely drowsy ever since. It's as if my meds were replaced with placebos overnight.
I took on a new job and went from 0 to 100 worries within about a week, so I know I have reasons to be stressed, but my drowsiness these days is beyond belief.
What exactly in therapy helped you the most? What kind of technique(s)?
SSRIs may lift the fatigue. I am taking 100mg zoloft a day.. doc wants to up it to 200mg/day. That might work, but we both agreed to hold off due to the sexual side effects.
I dunno about SSRIs, but serotonin in general plays a big part with "mental fatigue," in my experience. Almost as if the fatigue is always there, but I seem to concentrate on it, and need something to stop my mind from thinking and to remain focused on what I'm doing. Failure to do so results in me feeling more and more tired, and I end up taking naps, which mess up my sleep cycle and melatonin levels and that leads to worse fatigue, and the cycle eats into itself.
Ah, I'm rambling.. because I'm too tired to work, but I feel I can't take a nap unless I finish some work. I feel if I sleep I'm being lazy/wasting time, and maybe subconsciously I think that by coming in and talking I am being productive. The mind.. how it tricks itself. Sigh.
