How do you NOT commit suicide with chronic fatigue?

Question

I'm going out of my mind and know one really understands (docs, parents, friends etc..). When I say something like, "Yeah I'll feel better one day...When I DIE!" They all think I'm joking or being sarcastic but seriously, that kind of thinking is all I have to hold onto. I've tried just about every antidepressant to no avail. What else is there? I really don't think I have the balls to kill myself but all I think about is death and how it can't get here soon enough. Can anyone, preferrably with some incurable chronic condition, give me some suggestions to keep sane?

Answer 1

Hold on to your hope and to those you love.  I can't speak to CFS but I can to suicidal solutions to pain.  In my case, that'd be bipolar depression that gets incredibly bad and sticks around for a very, very long time.  It is physically painful and absolutely exhausting not to mention emotionally and cognitively really messed up.  Mania ain't no picnic, either, so it's not the "temporary" depression problem a lot of ppl think.

Simplify and reprioritize.  Make the best of what you have.  See a neurologist.  There are anticonvulsants that are used for many illnesses besides epilepsy.  Fibro is one of them.  There are other head meds beyond antidepressants, too.  If you've already seen one, then see another and another until you find one who takes your CFS symptoms very seriously.  That right there is maybe most important.  I don't know if there's an answer there for you, but you owe it to yourself to travel all avenues.

Answer 2

i totally understand your greif.  im 35, and ever sinse i was 21, i had so much fatigue.  they put me on so many antidepressants..(thinking the fatigue was from depression..)..I recently found out i have MS...Which is accountable for my horrible fatigue.  It took years for this diagnoses! before the diagnoses, My family and friends said i was being dramatic on my fatigue.  I told them that this was no ordinary "fatigue"!..It was so different than the "i;m feeling tired today"....It is a horrible fatigue. Its undescribable!...14 yrs later i was diagnosed with MS.  My advise to you is to keep on pushing the issue to your doctor.  They need to do every test that they can to help you out!  Your doctor needs to dig very hard to find out whats going on....if there not willing to do it, you need a nother doctor.  you cant continue living like this...its not fair to you at all.

-mary

Answer 3

I have fibro and CFS too.  I've had episodes off and on for the last 13 years.  The worst was a year and a half ago and I was sleeping 12+ hours a day and wouldn't allow myself to drive at night because I was afraid of falling asleep... So I know how you feel.  I just tell myself that the better care I take of myself and the more optimistic and light hearted I am, the better I'll feel.  I've stopped caring about non-necessary things and really changed my priorities.  Family, good friends, staying healthy, and paying the bills are my true priorities.  I also try and pay a little more for convience.  I know it isn't so great for the environment, but I use paper plates and plastic silverware.  Before I made that change dishes would stack for days before I had the energy to do them.  Small changes like that have really helped me.

Other things that help are relaxing and herbal treatments.  I take baths and read when I can stay awake.  I try and watch comedies to keep my spirits up.  I've also tried to surround myself with people who I can count on to help during my worst days.  Try taking vitamin b12 to increase your energy level.  Ask your doctor first of course.  Good luck!

Answer 4

I have CFS as well, now for about 3 years. I know what you mean by saying that 'no one understands', as this disease is very difficult to understand for others. I find the term CFS misleading because there is much more to the disease then feeling very tired. And, even the tiredness is not something that others will understand, as it goes so much deeper then 'just being tired'.

Anyway, let me first tell you that about  6-10 % of the patients will recover.

Even though there is still no cure found, some people really do recover from CFS.

My story is that I also have been in a much worse condition then I am now. I am certainly not cured, and still have symptoms, but I feel a lot better then a year ago. I was at the point that I could not do anything and I felt very ill. Now, I work 24 hours a week! For me, that's a huge difference!

I feel that I slowly get my life back more and more.

I do not exactly know why it is that I slowly seem to get better. I don't have a cure or anything. But there are certain things that I know for sure did me well.

- First of all, I take a very close eye to my energy level and i take my health and body extremely serious. I try to do whatever I can, in being active, but I have learned to stop BEFORE i get too tired. Because if I stop on the moment that I get too tired, I'm already gone too far and i will fall back. Everything that costs me too much energy, I try to avoid. This includes some things out of my social life. Anything that takes too much energy, stay away from that. Especially when you are at the time in the disease that you are suffering heavy symptoms, things that would normally give energy, now only will cost you.

In the beginning I could only rest, rest and rest some more. Then I slowly became a bit more active, like having short walks. Again, I stopped before it really got too much.

- I try to eat healthy, and not too heavy. If I eat too much sugar or too much fat (or just too much food), I get very tired afterwards. So again, I keep a close eye on what effects things have on me. If I feel that it costs me too much energy, I avoid it.

- I know this one is very difficult, but I try to look at things from the positive side. I have noticed that being frustrated only cost me a lot of energy. So, even though it is hard, I try to accept the fact that I  am chronically ill, and make the best of it. Frustration, anger, it's all very normal. But if you hold on to that too much, it cost you so much precious energy!

I try to focus as much as I can on the things I can do, instead of the things I can't do. It may sound like a cliché, but it does work.

- Antidepressants are not doing any good, well, that's my opinion. To be honest, the day before yesterday I took a very small amount of Oxazepam, just to have a good night sleep. I hardly ever do that, and I thought "what the *beep*, let's go for it". The day after, I felt more sick. I felt a lot of nausea and as if my energy got sucked away. Hmm, not good!

I think you should go and find a doctor who could help you fighting the depression without antidepressants! Someone who is specialized in CFS and knows what he is talking about!

- I use melatonine to sleep better. It may not have the effect that some antidepressants or sleeping pills have, but it is a lot   more healthy and for me it works. It does me a lot better then the oxazepam :-) !

- I have acupuncture. It doesn't cure me but it has helped me to fight a lot of the symptoms.

Anyway, after telling you some things that have seemed to do good for me, now let's go back to you again.

Being so depressed as you are is horrible. This in itself will take so much energy from you that it makes it even more difficult to recover.

One of the things that seem to depress you is the lack of understanding among the people around you.

I really think that you should find yourself a good doctor, specialized in CFS, who get's you off the antidepressants but will help you to deal with the stress involved with this disease.

Allthough there is still not much known about CFS, there are slowly more studies, and more things doctors experiment with. In the Netherlands they are experimenting with giving carnitine, a supplement that has a good effect on some patients. I will add you the link of the site. An other reason why I add the link is that it has some info about CFS that you might want others around you to read, so they gain some more understanding from professionals.

An other site I will give you is one of someone who recovered from CFS. This website was highly inspiring to me, as at first I thought that there was no-one who recovered. And that is NOT true. You can recover from CFS.

I wish you all the best!!

http://www.recoveryfromcfs.org/chapter1....

http://www.cfscentrumamsterdam.nl/CFS%20...

Answer 5

CFS is very debilitating. What makes it harder is that there are few external symptoms that people can see. I had to take time off work because I felt like passing out if I stood for more than 5 minutes. My spouse said that I was just being lazy. The worst thing is when she would say somthing idiotic like, "yeah, I went to bed late last night and now I feel tired too..."

So you're not alone. There is no cure, but it can get better by itself over time. Also, at least for me, I can have good periods when I am pretty much symptom-free for a couple of months. It does come back with a vengeance, though.

What helps me is always going to bed at the same time and getting lots of rest, eating healthily, doing light exercise. Also, have you tried Citalopram? (may have different name where you live; google it). None of these things have cured my CFS, but they take the edge off it.

I am getting pretty tired of CFS too. The worst symptoms are the flu-like fever, the aches and pains and just feeling ill.