No client has ever come to see me simply because they felt tired and yet almost every single client of mine suffers with some sort of fatigue. We live in a society where the harder you push yourself, the more impressive you are perceived. No one questions the cost of this constant drive for ambition. Why do we not recognise that being tired all the time is simply not okay?
The spectrum of how fatigued someone feels is very broad. Occasionally feeling a bit tired is fine and very manageable. What happens when that tips into feeling tired most days which can easily escalate into feeling exhausted all the time?
Sadly, fatigue isn’t well recognised as a reason to slow down, to take your foot off the accelerator or ask for help. Instead, as you begin to get brain fog, sleepless nights and become less able to manage your load, you simply drive yourself harder to try to keep up with your life as you know it.
Taking time out often feels like it isn’t an option…and that’s where the trouble can really begin. Chronic long term stress and exhaustion can result in your body literally shutting down to try and conserve whatever little energy you have. At this point, day to day activities are a struggle and the exhaustion doesn't lift with rest. This is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Waiting until you hit this point is detrimental to your body and not easy to recover from. It is not an illness of ‘the lazy’. In fact, CFS often strikes down the most driven individuals who have burnt themselves to the ground whilst fighting off environmental toxins, viruses and other stressors along the way.
Functional medicine testing can help by taking a close look at your cellular energy and stress pathways as well as your nutritional status to help pinpoint why you are tired and help put you back on the road to recovery.
If you read this post and think ‘I am tired a lot of the time but I am managing’…STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING...read it again.
Get in touch to see how nutritional therapy can help you.