Anyone else just feel exhausted?

[RCD_VET]

I'm super curious...is there anyone else that just feels exhausted all the time? I'm not on any meds (yet) so it's not a side effect - although that concerns me as my doctor wants to subscribe me something next visit as we dive more into this all. I wake up exhausted. No motivation to do anything. I feel like it would be perfectly OK to just stay in bed all day. The pandora's box has been opened recently and everything seems to be falling out now. This is all really new to me so I'm hoping I'm not just being lazy in my "old age." Since opening up about things that happened so long ago, it feels like things are falling apart. This area is one that really bugs me as I have typically been a go-getter and willing to do anything to see results.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

Yeah. In fact I was wondering about posting about this same exact issue yesterday.
I went online to see if constant fatigue could be related to PTSD and it can be. The symptoms of PTSD (heightened awareness, heightened sensitivity, dissociation, etc) all cost physical energy. Which could explain the fatigue.

Of course it could also be related to other things or be a mix of things. If you´re under more mental pressure, or PTSD is flaring up, it´s possible you will be more fatigued. I´ve been extremely tired due to the circumstances and also due to lack of light in the winter, which is exacerbating it. You´re not lazy. I´m turning 30 and have the energy of an 87 year old.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I agree with @Rad, I was also wondering if you are experiencing depression? I have all three issues of feeling exhausted all of the time, the seasonal affective disorder with the grey clouds and shorter days and the PTSD, I hope for you that once you begin to start taking your meds you may feel a lift in it all.

 

[Deleted member 541]

Most likely depression. Know it’s hard, but you would really help yourself by getting up early and have a scheduled day. Keep busy with things to do.

 

[Friday]

Yep.

I have a few different kinds.

Adrenaline Crash - Used to just be the emergency is over & everyone is whole (or not) so it's time to slide boneless to the floor and shake / sleep myself out. (Or avoid the icky feeling parts of it by liberal applications of booze & sex, and sleeping tangled up with someone until the next emergency.) But with panic attacks and flashbacks this no longer requires a real emergency, much less the emergency being over, and I never really know when it's going to strike. Unless I've been running symptom hot for a long time, which means it's going to be pretty much daily. Bonelessness & shaking & exhaustion :wtf:

SleepDep (I wake up tired and go to bed wide awake) - Give me the opportunity and I'll sleep for a week. Except I can't. Because various reasons (insomnia, nightmares, responsibility, what-have-you) but f*ck me running, I would like to sleep for a week. I'm always exhausted. Always. OMFG. So. Damn. Tired. Even when I do get decent sleep all it does is knock the sharp edges off of the sleep dep, not fully sort it. Tired. So. Damn. Tired. (Did I say that already? Sorry, haven't been sleeping a lot lately.) I'll sleep when I'm dead. Okay. Let's move it.

Depression - OMFG. Depression is a new thing for me, this go 'round. The first time PTSD kicked my ass it was rage. This time it appears that a side effect of keeping a short leash on my anger is all that energy just sorta severs my spinal cord and I am flat out, staring at a wall as if it's the most fascinating thing I've ever seen, sleeping 20+ hours a day (why get out of bed except to take a piss and drink something? I mean seriously), sleeping 20+ hours a day (yes! I'm awake! I'm -yawn- OMG I need to lay down before I fall down, who the f*ck drugged me I can't... Stay... Awaaaaaaake....Zzzzzzzz). As well as several other equally charming examples of "This is completely f*cked, give me my goddamned rage back, at least that comes with the energy to change it."

Food = Fuel - Cough. Come to find if you're only eating once or twice a week and not living crisis to crisis? Your body objects. And sits it's ass down and pouts. And refuses to divert energy to your muscles &/or brain :whistling: Who knew?!

Illness - So this one isn't really PTSD, except that I've gotten really bad at realizing when I'm sick. Because I'm so used to feeling crap all the time. To the point I've had to be hospitalized for illnesses that -if I'd recognized them earlier- I'd be fine. So I've learned to look for physiological causes from time to time / just check and make sure I'm not exhausted because I'm sick, instead of exhausted because of PTSD & life BS.

***

All of these things "feel" different. Although the effect is largely the same (I'm freaking exhausted!). Figuring out where my exhaustion is coming from? Pretty key in applyin the right tools.

 

[bento]

Yes, absolutely. After an insanely long wait, I got a sleep study done and found out I have
apnea and got one of those weird little machines. Hoping that helps cause poor sleep is
a huge issue in feeling exhausted.

But w/PTSD it makes sense to be exhausted. Being on high alert alone is exhausting. Couple
that with any deficits in self care, and you've got a potent combo that will make you
feel 100 years old. I find sugar, processed food and coffee (I don't drink it responsibly ;))
add to that effect considerably.

I've gone to quite a few 12 step meetings and I remember talking to someone I admired
about some of his routines and he said that he exercised, made sleep a priority, ate really
well, had some sort of spirituality program (think he was Buddhist) and was social. He did
some variation of those things daily He said that if he backed off on any one of these things,
he started to wobble. That really stuck with me.

I think there is some overlap between addiction recovery and PTSD, in that they both share
less than ideal habitual thinking that is hard to overcome. Being our healthiest makes
challenging these habitual thoughts and subsequent bodily reactions just that much easier
(not that it's ever easy) which I think, I hope, can help lessen that exhaustion.

 

[EveHarrington]

Yes, it’s pretty common with ptsd from what I gather. We use up more adrenaline, and that causes fatigue. Or at least that’s what a doctor told me.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Unless I've been running symptom hot for a long time, which means it's going to be pretty much daily. Bonelessness & shaking & exhaustion :wtf:

Thank you for sharing this one, because I am just starting to calm down a little after a bout with this and depression. It helped me to hear you say this because I recognized it in myself.

Being our healthiest makes
challenging these habitual thoughts and subsequent bodily reactions just that much easier
(not that it's ever easy) which I think, I hope, can help lessen that exhaustion.

Because I am just now beginning to feel more calm and peaceful, I am working on the be healthier part of it and what you said makes so much sense. I had not thought about the addiction aspect in thinking processes being so similar to the PTSD,

 

[ladee]

Yes, but right now, mine is because I am completely off any rough routine I had because I am moving to another place.... The good things that have happened far outweigh the exhaustion, but I have hit the wall twice.. today being one of them... and @bento, I asked myself that same question today about addiction... I have been clean for many years... but I know if I am not rested... have myself scattered in too many directions... trying to keep PTSD symptoms at bay, and I just get to the point I can't put one foot in front of the other.... Even caught my purse on fire today from not being able to just think ... long story... it was funny after the fire was out tho...
I do not have a rigid routine because I would get bored, but there are certain things I have to do every day or I'm headed for a melt down...
Food.... good food, not that nasty stuff at fast food places.... is so necessary.... and some quite time , maybe just lie down for 30 minutes... it helps...
But hopefully you will get some meds for depression, as when I am depressed that is all I want to do is sleep.... and I have PTSD, along with a lot of other things can just keep us exhausted... I am looking forward to being completely moved in a few days, and then I will have to spend time adjusting, and processing.... and keeping the Stepford Wife neighbors out of my energy field.... sometimes just being around negative people make me feel exhausted...
Hope you get help soon.... when we are sleep deprived, for any reason, everything else just seems to go to hell.... so hope you are feeling better soon...

 

[Freida]

Every freeking moment. For too many years (decades) I ran on coffee and sheer willpower. Then I got a diagnosis and started therapy and ...big surprise -- got even more tired. My docs had been after me for about 5 years to take some major time off and I wouldn't do it. I had to much going on -- y'know how that goes! I finally came to an impasse and went out on disability and have been off work for the last 3 1/2 months and it was the best thing I have ever done. I go to the doctors, and I lay on the couch and that's been my life. And it has been AWESOME!

I never thought that I would be able to just lay around, but I have. day after day. Me - the super overachiever - now my biggest accomplishment of the day is taking a shower before heading to the shrinks. And it's ok.

I don't feel depressed, but I think that's because they finally got it thru my thick head that my body has been pretty much destroyed by the ptsd and the fibro and the only thing that is going to save me is rest. Over the last couple weeks I've started to feel a bit more human, but I'm still not doing much of anything. Docs all agree that I am looking at a couple more months at least because I have a lot more healing to do from the damage I have done to my body over the years trying to outrun the PTSD.

My symptoms haven't really decreased, but my response to them is changing. Can't sleep? No biggie- no where to go. Hyper vigilance outa control. No biggie - don't leave the house. and so on. The hope is that I will give my physcial self time to rest while my mental/emotional self keeps working at chipping away at the mess that is me. And yes, I'm still always tired. But its not the brain numbing oh dear god I'm gonna die type tired it was before.

 

[mumstheword]

I'm pretty chronic with it, but it's lifted somewhat, of late.
I started on glutathione, Rhadiola, royal jelly, really good eating. Doing yoga, hardcore sweating dancing, lots of rest, reading, art forms, trauma diarying, getting support, and it's lifting. I suggest before you go get meds or something, get all your blood nutrient levels tested to eliminate deficiencies, and explore adaptagens before committing to drugs as they are gentler and less addictive.

I did SAMe instead of anti-Ds and it worked just as well with no addictiveness or other bad effects.

 

[RCD_VET]

Thanks for all the replies! Tons of great info here.

Depression - OMFG. Depression is a new thing for me, this go 'round. The first time PTSD kicked my ass it was rage. This time it appears that a side effect of keeping a short leash on my anger is all that energy just sorta severs my spinal cord and I am flat out, staring at a wall as if it's the most fascinating thing I've ever seen, sleeping 20+ hours a day (why get out of bed except to take a piss and drink something? I mean seriously), sleeping 20+ hours a day (yes! I'm awake! I'm -yawn- OMG I need to lay down before I fall down, who the f*ck drugged me I can't... Stay... Awaaaaaaake....Zzzzzzzz). As well as several other equally charming examples of "This is completely f*cked, give me my goddamned rage back, at least that comes with the energy to change it."

Ok...this made me laugh! It's true but you made it sound hilarious! From this description I'm.assuming I'm dealing with some depression too. This describes exactly how I feel!

I suggest before you go get meds or something, get all your blood nutrient levels tested to eliminate deficiencies, and explore adaptagens before committing to drugs as they are gentler and less addictive.

I did SAMe instead of anti-Ds and it worked just as well with no addictiveness or other bad effects.

My doctor sent me for blood work but I'm not sure what he was testing for. He said it needed done before going to a psychologist because they would want the bloodwork too. I would LOVE something natural. Every medication I've looked at seems to have side effects that are similar to PTSD symptoms or seem like the side effect would be just as bad.