Causes of Chronic Fatigue and How to Feel Like Yourself Again

Do you feel like you can't ever kick that feeling that you didn't get enough rest? No matter what you do, you're always tired, and it bleeds into other aspects of your life as well. When you feel tired, you might have less patience with your loved ones and get into arguments. You may experience brain fog, misplace things, are unable to stay on a task and then get upset with yourself. Can you see how chronic fatigue can massively deplete you and affect so many areas of your life? It's so important to get to the root of what's going on so you can start to feel better.  

What's Happening with Chronic Fatigue

In your body, the parasympathetic nervous system and sympathetic nervous system come into play with chronic fatigue. The first is rest and digest, while the second is that fight or flight state that you might have heard of before. You are either in one or the other. When stress happens, your body goes into fight or flight. 

When your body is engaged in this fight or flight mode, it's designed for survival and alertness. Of course, nowadays humans aren’t being chased by predators in the wild, but more likely experiencing stress in a business meeting or just in everyday life. Still: the same biological processes happen, sending distress signals to your hypothalamus, which sends hormones to your bloodstream. It’s actually fascinating how the body works that way.

When this switch is flipped, the parasympathetic system is supposed to tell your other system to chill out, and put it in rest and digest mode. Unfortunately, in chronic stress, this goes into a continuous loop, putting more stress on those adrenal glands.

Often, this is all blamed on high cortisol. Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands during situations when the body perceives that threat we were talking about before. That low grade chronic stress that most people experience weakens your body and especially your adrenal glands which can cause something called adrenal fatigue.

The Symptoms

So, what happens now that your body is in a chronic state of stress? Weight gain and constipation are symptoms that are noticeable. (That’s why some people gain weight when they are stressed even without eating more.) Other symptoms aren't things you can necessarily see or put your finger on.

The release of cortisol also suppresses your growth process, digestive system and reproductive system. Who would have known?

With chronic fatigue, you lose important nutrients like magnesium and vitamin C, and your immune system can be compromised. You can also experience an imbalance of blood sugar and hormone levels. 

These chronic stress reactions can manifest in a wide array of health conditions that we are looking to avoid.  

What You Can Do About Chronic Fatigue

Since many chronic fatigue symptoms brought on by chronic stress can't be seen, it's best to get tested. Having your cortisol levels tested can be the clue you need to create a proper ritual to fight off chronic stress and chase that chronic fatigue away.

You can incorporate adaptogens to set your body back to homeostasis. I like my Ashwagandha. Most importantly, focus on healthy eating, exercise, and rest to create more balance in your life.  

If you experience chronic fatigue and would like to brainstorm with me to see where things could be out of balance, feel free to reach out. When we find the root cause, you can nip it in the bud and feel more like yourself again.