A Well of Refreshments

• Depression and ongoing grief can weight so heavily on the mind and emotions that physical exhaustion manifests
• Too much alcohol consumption, the abuse or over-use of many prescription drugs, and the use of illegal drugs can all cause severe burnout
• Allergies such as those that cause asthma-like symptoms and hay fever can cause the "wet towel folded inside the head" feeling
• Anemia such as an iron deficiency
• Insomnia, narcolepsy, and obstructive sleep apnea all rob you of your needed sleep, leading to exhaustion
• Continuous pain
• Hypothyroidism

There are several illnesses and diseases that can cause exhaustion, too:

• Serious and lingering infections including AIDS, a heart infection (bacterial endocarditis), parasitic infections, mononucleosis, and tuberculosis
• Major debilitating diseases like congestive heart failure, cancer, kidney failure, or chronic liver disease
• Addison's disease
• Diabetes
• Anorexia, malnutrition, or other eating disorders
• Arthritis, even pre-adult juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
• Lupus or other autoimmune diseases

Then there is CFS, or chronic fatigue syndrome. This can be tricky to recognize, for it starts off seeming like the flu, but then lingers for half a year or longer. A doctor will always try to see if there is anything else that is possibly causing your exhaustion before she'll diagnose CFS. CFS is very difficult to treat, for there's not much known to make much of a difference with it, not even getting extra and consistent rest and sleep.

You are likely to have CFS if:

• You're having mental energy problems like memory loss, low ability to concentrate, or confusion.
• You have a constant sore throat.
• The lymph nodes in your underarms or neck are constantly tender.
• You have persistent muscle or joint pain with no obvious cause.
• You consistently get "strange" headaches.
• No matter how much sleep you get, you wake up feeling as if you barely got one or two hours' worth.

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