I am so tired all the time I can't stand this.

[.Tom]

Even just typing right now it's like my level of wakefulness is just not there.

I'm 17 and have spent like probably the last 3 or 4 years trying to fix this but nobody seems to believe me.

So here is how I feel and have tried describing to people, even though it's much worse than any words can describe:

tired
fatigued
decreased wakefulness
decreased alertness
decreased level of consciousness
fog over everything
out of it

It gets so frustrating trying to describe it, like people can't even imagine how it feels, so they can't comprehend it.

I've tried SSRIs, absolute crap that make me fat and chemically castrate me (or as they put it "sexual dysfunction").
I've tried Provigil, it's just like caffeine, which also doesn't help.

Also, I don't know if this happens with any of you, but sometimes at night I'll get an energy boost and actually feel "normal".

This only lasts for a few hours and then I'm back to being tired.

I hate this and I almost don't see the point of living. I dropped out of school in 10th grade and can't work or anything.

It's nice to know there's other people out there who can relate.

Also, sorry if my words are slurred or something, I'm so out of it right now (as always).

[dukey]

SSRIs are dangerous unproven drugs. There's basically no science at all behind the need for them. Large numbers of people also become deranged and kill themselves whilst on antidepressants. There was a study done by the people that make prozac that found out that people are 10 times more likely to kill themselves whilst taking prozac than the other anti depressants.

A study recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry exposed the fact that Prozac creates obsessive and intense, violent suicidal thoughts in patients who take the drug. According to the study, these bizarre and extremely dangerous self-destructive thoughts occurred in 3.5 percent of persons on the drug.

Martin H. Teicher, et al, "Emergence of Intense Suicidal Preoccupation During Fluoxetine Treatment," The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 147, No. 2, (February 1990) pp. 207-210.

There drugs won't fix your fatigue.

Have you been blood tested for everything the doctors can possibly think of ? You seen any specialists ?
Also, when did you first come ill ? Did anything change in your life ? Any vaccines ? Medication ? Trips to the dentist ? Any amalgam fillings ? You should explore all of these possibilities. The sad reality is, if you are diagnosed with CFS, if you body can't fix itself on your own, it's up to you to find out what's gone wrong.

[StarDust]

Hey tom, I'm in the same situation as you, I'm 20 though.

you can email me for anything

btw where do you live?

all the best

[.Tom]

Thanks for the replies. I'm feeling some hope now.

And I live in Texas.

That's a good idea about getting blood tested for stuff. I am actually going to make an appointment possibly for an endocrinologist to test for thyroid issues. My family doctor is a complete moron who says stuff like eat healthy and get good rest. And I have to refrain from assaulting him and his ignorance.

But yeah I don't really know what to test for besides thyroid maybe blood sugar, cortisol, insulin, diabetes I don't know lol. I want a thorough test I just hope the specialist knows all the stuff to test for.

[.Tom]

Now that you mention it, you're right about my health.

I eat a lot of goldfish, oreos, puddings, jellos, and cokes. Pretty much all prepackaged stuff.

However, I do eat at fast food once a day. But I don't mean like McDonalds. I mean like a good chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-a or a smoothie from smoothie king.

Even though that's probably not that healthy, it's probably a little better than ONLY prepackaged stuff.

But the thing is that I've tried eating a balanced diet but the fatigue is still there.

But it can't be helping how bad I eat so I'm gonna start with at least a healthy breakfast from now on instead of skipping like every meal.

I'm definitely gonna see a doctor though to see if there's something medically wrong.

[Chronicfatiguetreatments]

hi tom, i agree with stardust about the ssri's. If you dont have despression, or anxiety, they probaly wont help. They might help if you have insomnia.
But i personally had a bad reaction to them, i felt worse while i was on them.
People dont understand chronic fatigue so, you might just have to take them for a few months to prove to your family and dr's that you arent just depressed.

Thats how it worked for me unfortunately, but good luck with that. And definately get a full physical and lab work up.
Make sure they test your thyroid levels.

[StarDust]

hey dukey, I disagree with you, I think its silly to think that CFS can be due to bad eating habits. By getting good eating habits, you might get from 20% to 21% just like a normal person would get from 99 to 100, but it won't cure you, except if your CFS is due to food allergy. And for all the xtra energy it costs and the extra money, personally I don't think it's worth it if you do it just for the energy it may give you. There is clearly something serious wrong with CFS people other than what they eat.

[.Tom]

I agree stardust. That's why it's so frustrating when someone like a doctor tells you to eat better. Not because it's bad advice but because it doesn't help very much.

[rdm]

Tom here is my advise. I'm 26 years old and I graduate from college in one semester. I have lived with CFS for about 2 years. I earn about a 3.4 GPA in a very challenging program. Ok my advise- Stop searching for a cure, its not out there. Work hard and come to terms that you have this problem. You're going to have to work a lot harder than most people, realize that now. Every time you start to feel hopeless just put it out of your mind, because you're powerless. There's nothing you can do, so you got to keep moving forward and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Its hard, but you can do it.Stop thinking about the past, because its not there anymore. Be optimistic about the future, think about how much stronger you will be once you overcome this. I'm guessing there will be a cure in your lifetime. You're 17. You have a lot of living to do, and you can still live with this condition. Also, I have learned the harder I work and distract myself the better I feel through out the day. Sitting and thinking about it is probably the worst thing one can do. I don't take any medication unless I'm studying. I take small doses of Ritalin( the very lowest dose) which helps, but it also makes me crash very hard after about 3 hours. That 3 hour window really helps me get my studying done. Hope that helps, and remember you're not the only one going through this. Billions of people worldwide are suffering from chronic medical problems.

"all I've undergone
I will keep on

underneath it all
we feel so small
the heavens fall
but still we crawl

all I've undergone
I will keep on"

[rdm]

Your conspiracies are pretty far fetched.

First the H1N1 is a flu vaccine which has been around for years. They make a new flu vaccine every year, this was a modified version. Meaning they don't have to go through the FDA process again.

FDA and the medical field only wants the best for the people. The drug companies ARE trying to make money, but can you blame them? drugs take 11 years to get passed by the FDA, IF THEY GET PASSED. I heard it takes 11 more years just to break even from the money they spend on research.

http://www.hiv.va.gov/vahiv?page=treat-05-08

Also, the example you gave about Vioxx is true. However, mistakes are made and people suffer from them, but that doesn't mean the system is broken. Problems happen.

My advise is good. if in fact he does have CFS. Why bother searching for a cure if there is no cure.However, he defiantly needs to rule out everything else first.

[dukey]

FDA and the medical field only wants the best for the people.

LOL Yeah I am sure.

In the UK adverse drug reactions kill 10,000 a year and hospitalise 1 MILLION people, which is 1/60th of the entire UK population.

The health minister Dawn Primarolo confirmed to the organisation that 6.5% of hospital admissions are a result of an adverse reaction. Total admissions in 2006 were 16 million, which means that 1,040,000 patients were there as a result of the drugs they were prescribed.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/ ... andalcohol

Recently in the UK there was a news story about the fact big pharma was killing nearly 2000 old people every year, with anti-psychotic which is 90% of cases weren't needed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8356423.stm

It's time people stopped looking for pills for the magic answer to everything.

[StarDust]

remember how lobotomy was approved like half a century ago? In 50 years people will look back at SSRIs and think of how primitive and savage it was, just we we do now about lobotomy. The fact is psychiatry is a very subjective science and therefore you can make statistic studies say anything you want. You can't just observe the effects of the drug, you have to ask the patient how he thinks he feels.

And by the way, swine flu vaccine is all about money and economics, you really think the government care about the health of individual people? They don't give a damn about you, all they want is to keep their population at work, so that the country's economic don't suffer.

[neil25]

yeah i can relate about the diet, i drastically changed my diet cut out sugar, dairy, wheat and generally all processed food. i got to be honest it made the most tiny difference and i was putting so much planning and energy on keeping a good diet, it wasn't beneficial. i just eat as healthy as i can now but i do eat sugar and bad foods once in a while, i don't think changing the diet is going to make a significant improvement in people with cfs. there is still something else which is fundementally wrong with the body. i still get the awful spaced out feeling, headaches, neck pain, extreme fatigue, joint pain even when i eat healthy.

sometimes i feel so helpless with this illness, lately ive been feeling terrible and its been making me really sucicidal i hate the feeling its definitley the worst effect of cfs. went for a walk and was very on edge contemplating jumping in front of a bus. when im back home now it just makes me think how stupid i was but at the time i was almost ready to do it. i suppose i have accepted this illness as i listen to my body but it doesnt change the fact that i barely have much of a life.

[StarDust]

Tom, you say you've spent the last few years trying to fix it, what have you done exactly? What was your path to ending up taking ssri? And what did they make you take exactly and for how long? I red that SSRIs shouldn't be given before at least adult age.

I really wonder why doctors, especially psy are so eager to prescribe this crap, I'm not a conspiracy theory fan, but really, there is something wrong here.

good luck man

[neil25]

can anyone tell me what ssri is?