Don’t you also hate it when, despite knowing how badly you struggle with fatigue, someone who doesn’t is always delighted to tell you, “Yeah, I’m tired too?”
Me too, and I’ll explain why. I fully understand that everyone is entitled to feel tired, it’s a way of life. I also understand that everyone has different levels when it comes to how much tiredness their body can take. However, if you’re a person who is tired because they went to bed two hours before their alarm, or a person who is tired because they were binge-watching “Grey’s Anatomy” for two days solid without going to bed (I salute your dedication by the way, just saying!), then your tiredness level and my tiredness level aren’t really the same now, are they? In my opinion, people who sit there claiming that their tiredness from burning the candle at both ends is the same as tiredness from illness are pretty much insulting every single chronically ill person out there. Obviously with strangers, it’s slightly different as we can’t expect them to carry their crystal balls with them everywhere they go. But, when it comes to our loved ones who know our situations and who know how fatigue affects our minds and bodies, that’s when, personally, it makes it seem that my feelings are less worthy.
So, how is chronic illness tiredness different than “regular tiredness?” Well, seeing as everyone responds differently to fatigue, I will answer that question based on my own personal experience. Tiredness due to my multiple chronic illnesses is a level of fatigue which involves me sitting on the toilet crying my eyes out because I am so tired. It’s when I have hardly been able to move around my house due to lack of energy, yet I’m still sitting on the sofa yawning my head off, and an extreme bout of nausea because I am just so tired. It’s being unable to have a conversation because exhaustion has sucked all of the energy out of my body; therefore opening my mouth would use up a lot of the limited supply of energy I currently have to work with because, you guessed it, I am just so tired.
What are we so tired?.There’s several reasons. We can’t get to sleep cuz insomnia is common. We can’t stay asleep. And because our body is constantly fight with itself trying to deal with daily varying levels of pain and other symptoms of our illnesses.
Unlike healthy people, getting an early night doesn’t fix my problem. Doing less activity doesn’t fix my problem.Getting more sleep at nighttime doesn’t fix my problem (and that’s if I can even get to sleep!).Despite being absolutely mentally and physically exhausted, I can’t sleep, even though I would love to (and nearly do) fall asleep wherever my head lands.It’s debilitating. It’s exhausting. It comes with the territory of multiple chronic illnesses (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc.)
So if someone you know with chronic pain, especially moderate to severe chronic pain, and the say that they are tired. They are likely exhausted on, or more more likely off their feet unable to do much We don’t like to complain but when we do, it’s gotta be big.. So please don’t respond with a flippant “Me too!” What you are dealing with is quite possibly very different from what someone with chronic pain is dealing with.
Fibromyalgia 
You must be logged in to post a comment.