Chronic fatigue

[puporing]

On 25/11/2022 at 9:14 AM, Ulax said:

Any one have any perspectives on dealing with chronic fatigue/ catatonia?

 

I feel as though there may be some kind of trade off happening when you're more "spiritually gifted"/inclined. It seems as though some of us are meant to be "monks" if you know what I mean..

As much as I wanted to do more my body just isn't cooperating. It's pretty frustrating.

Edited November 29, 2022 by puporing

[Michael569]

@preventingdiabetes yes he literally went 100% vegan over a period of maybe 48 hours (mostly out of sheer desperation) and he reported first symptoms diseapeared in about 2-3 days? (Ok, not exactly overnight ?) 

I have no idea what happened. We have many theories raging from dairy intolerance to histamine issues but it might have also been fully psychological in some weird way.

So far his symptoms haven't come back but it's only been about 2 months so hard to say of this was a permanent solution 

[thisintegrated]

Give up, and embrace it.  It's not without its upsides.

It does suck, but at least I never have to work another day in my life??

I can spend more time here on the forum??

 

Actually in theory it's amazing for anyone who just wants to meditate in a stage Green cave their whole life, too bad some of us with CFS struggle with even that, lol.

 

Amphetamine helps?

Edited November 29, 2022 by thisintegrated

[Topspin715]

On 11/26/2022 at 1:49 PM, Leo Gura said:

It's something I just have to learn to live with. From what I have understood, it's just part of my genetics.

I've dealt with mystery illnesses for past decade and I would like to caution you against this kind of reductionist thinking.  Even if it's true that it has a purely deterministic genetic cause (very possible), there always might be ways to heal, cure, compensate, hack your system to at least a better state.  Prepare for the worst but accept that things always might get better or you can find some mixture of layered treatments that might help. 

 

I've unfortunately become intimately acquainted with the deep flaws and corruptions of modern biological thinking, western medicine and the experts that practice it.   Merely believing it is 'possible' to improve, no matter how likely the odds, makes things much better to deal with because you aren't being poisoned with a fatalistic black pill.

 

Holistic Bio-psycho-social model of medicine is the way to go and the future of western medicine I think but medicine is so rigid and siloed that it will take a long time to get there. 

[RendHeaven]

On 11/26/2022 at 9:06 PM, Leo Gura said:

Not exclusively, but mostly.

@Leo Gura Seems you've locked into the optimal human diet! Reminder that beef > chicken.

[Topspin715]

On 11/29/2022 at 11:41 AM, Tahuti said:

Leo is going to be Leo hahahaha

When dealing with mystery illnesses, it's easy and very natural to fall into the trap that your fate is sealed.  It is important to be as practical as you can and adapt to your unfortunate reality but always remain open to the possibility that you can find some way to improve your situation.  It may not be worth it to try everything that promises or even just purports to be helpful but you can achieve a lot with an open mind and trial and error experimentation that people might never have though possible.

 

My struggles have forced me to see the world in many more pixels and detail which is a silver lining even though I would never wish them on another person. 

[the_void_of_chaos]

“Become aware of your physical being, the body, total awareness of the body.
Maintain a perpetual flow of awareness of the physical body.
Be sure that you are aware of the physical body, not of any part in particular, but awareness of the body as a whole.
The more aware you are of your physical body, the steadier the mind becomes.”

Excerpt From
Meditations from the Tantras
Saraswati, Swami Satyananda

I suffer from chronic fatigue as well and this meditation helps me deal with it. Basically, I just sit on a chair and do my work or watch lecture and become aware of the body as a whole...*as a whole* is the important part. If I have stiff shoulder, that means I'm not paying enough attention to that area and just relax and continue being aware. It slows my breathing and makes it more uniform. Helps me, might help you too. Although for me it takes ~30 minutes to notice the effect.

Also, try to sleep well...might as well use some melatonin for a good sleep.

Edited November 30, 2022 by the_void_of_chaos

[Topspin715]

On 11/30/2022 at 11:13 PM, Tahuti said:

Keep in mind that you want to derive a 'solution'. Otherwise, such chronic treatments for your chronic illinesses will just multiply. 

Chronic illnesses by nature don't have an easy or obvious solution.  While its not impossible to find a solution to any chronic problem, this suggestion seems unhelpful in my opinion as it puts the focus on the frustrating and elusive aspect of chronic illness which will close you off rather than keep you open.  Some chronic illnesses don't even have easy or obvious or adequate treatments.  Your focus determines your reality.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Topspin715

[Federico del pueblo]

@Ulax I have no idea of catatonia.

Though chronic fatigue is something I've done a lot of research about.

It's very difficult, if you're dealing with an actual chronic fatigue syndrome than it's only normal to take years to recover from it.

I saw your other thread about trauma and psychotherapy. If you're indeed still dealing with a lot of trauma than this is probably where a big chunk of the solution is to be found.

Trauma affects the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is one of the most important regulatory systems in the body, in fact it's involved in the regulation of all other bodily systems.

Unprocessed trauma leads to unhealthy levels of chronic stress which can create a maladaptive stress response in the ANS. This is when your ANS is permanently malfunctioning with the consequence that a lot of other bodily systems don't function normally anymore. This also can affect the energy production of your mitochondria which would logically leave you with decreased energy.

My very skilled doctor also explained to me that there's another process in the brain in which - as a consequence of the chronic stress from trauma and other sources - your brain downregulates its own energy supply (in the neocortex, your thinking area) which can explain some of the mental fatigue.

You can research the free info material of the optimum health clinic in London, there are some free videos that explain their model of understanding of chronic fatigue syndrome and similar syndromes. They also have a program called "The RESET program" that specifically talks about overcoming trauma and the relation of trauma, the nervous system and chronic fatigue.

A few more observations.

Most people with chronic fatigue follow an approach of trying out everything in the hopes of getting lucky. But this often fails.

Of course you must try out whether certain things affect you positively, but it takes more than that. You must build a holistic understanding of your illness. You must constantly be doing ALL the things that are known to promote health.

Or you split up recovery in different stages of which the first stage is overcoming the majority of your trauma. Once you've achieved that it becomes easier to also do all the other good things like perfect diet, enough sleep, supplements/naturopathic treatments etc.

Another very important point that almost always gets overlooked is respecting your energy limits.

People typically go from 100% to maybe 30% energy when they get ill with chronic fatigue. Then they reduce their exertion from 110 % (they were already doing too much before the illness) to maybe 40 %.

But that's still too much, even if it's a lot less exertion. You have to lower your exertion to 25% in order to recover, you must do less than you can.

Check out a YouTube channel called "CFS unravelled". The guy also has a very holistic understanding of CFS, just like the optimum health clinic. You'll find many recovery interviews there.

Also ignore all the advice with pills and energy drinks and caffeine and so on. That won't do anything for you, you just get a short burst of energy and then crash, which is just further stress on your nervous system.