Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – The Challenges That Await

Living with an illness is a daring act. For instance, chronic fatigue syndrome does not only reduce one’s physical activity, but also impairs one’s social life. Dealing with social issues as an offshoot of an illness is just one of the several incidents of having a disease. Your relation with people suffer, you get in danger of losing your job, people who do not know your condition get the wrong impression of you, and you get dismissed for being a nuisance. This misfortune can utterly make ones life miserable.

The severity of chronic fatigue syndrome is evident in that only five to ten percent (5-10%) of these cases are fully resolved while only eight to thirty percent (8-30%) are able to return to work. Symptoms usually worsen among five to twenty percent (5-20%) of the patients and any delay in the detection of the illness lower the chances of recovery. However, while the manifest difficulty in dealing with this illness is undoubtedly enormous, one should not simply stop living.

So what are the facts? One fact worth noting is that chronic fatigue syndrome can strike at absolutely anyone. It does not choose among any specific ethnic or racial demography. Rather, the record shows that people belonging to lower income groups tend to be the likely prey of chronic fatigue syndrome; the same way that more women than men are reported to be afflicted with this disease and most frequently, in those belonging to ages ranging from forty (40) to fifty-nine (59).

Another fact is that to date, there appears to be no widely accepted method in treating chronic fatigue syndrome which could ensure total recovery. More bluntly put, most patients do not totally recover from this illness despite treatment. While a fortunate few are able to successfully lead a normal life, still a good number are unable to independently look after their own welfare. Statistics shows that only one-half (1/2) of the group of people having chronic fatigue syndrome is able to get a job while almost two-thirds (2/3) are underemployed due to significant physical restrictions. Most of those who are working are on temporary sick leave or simply live on disability benefits while only one-fifth of those who are working are employed full-time. That would probably explain the depression that is commonly experienced by people afflicted with this illness, as well as associated mood disorders.

Without a doubt, the numbers are enough to further tell the story behind the lives of patients who have to deal with chronic fatigue syndrome every single day of their life. As if their suffering is not enough, they had to endure an even more disheartening social ridicule from people who, having little knowledge about the illness, brand it as some form of make believe to get attention or fake excuses to achieve benefits, be it financial or social. This burdensome psychosocial stigma frustrates the support that patients having this illness should be receiving from society. It only makes the load a lot heavier to carry when one experiences the severity of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Do You Have It?

Little knowledge is absolutely dangerous. In fact, it is even lethal to know so little about something. Either you end up doing what you should not be doing or you take for granted what you should be doing in the first place. Thus, your action or inaction could cause you your precious life, or lifestyle as the case may be.

What a shame that is, don’t you think? Take the case of people already exhibiting the varied symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome who mistakenly assumes that their body’s involuntary tremors are merely caused by ordinary stress and would simply go away by habitually taking time off from work. These assumptions are utterly incorrect, to say the least. It is, thus, important to know whether the illness you believe you have matches correctly to the kind you actually have.

The existence of chronic fatigue syndrome is difficult to determine because it usually starts just like any ordinary fatigue. Eventually though, it develops into an even chronic kind that could bother you for six months or more without exhibiting the usual conditions of an ordinary fatigue. Then you go to your physician regarding your significantly shortened memory or long concentration difficulties and he tells you, you’re just fine.

This erroneous finding is precisely due to the fact that the doctor does not recognize the known conditions that cause fatigue in cases of chronic fatigue syndrome. Further, some other symptoms for chronic fatigue syndrome would usually reveal themselves simultaneously or one after another. This includes having a recurring sore throat, softening of the lymph nodes (cervical or axillary), hypersensitivity, aching of the muscles and joints minus a manifest swelling (myalgia and arthralgia), a distinct and severe kind of headache that occurs in a pattern, and occasional lasting tiredness that is not alleviated by rest but, instead, worsens by more physical or mental exertion.

Chronic fatigue syndrome does not only affect a particular group of individuals. Rather, it significantly bothers a varied composition of males and females, young and adults alike, although it has been found to be prevalent in four of every a thousand people and to more women than men. It could be, however, that more women report about this illness than men do. Nonetheless, it gets in between you and your normal life. What’s even worse is it could lead to other emotional and psychological complications like depression. Further, it could threaten other aspects of your life such as your happiness and productivity.

Exact findings as to the precise cause of chronic fatigue syndrome have been hard to pin down. Chronic fatigue syndrome is a very complex disorder that usually occur consequent to a cold or viral infection. Many studies have ventured into the unknown causes of chronic fatigue syndrome and have come up with a combination of methodologies to alleviate its symptoms. Some attempts have been successful, while some not quite. However, what is crucial to these attempts has been the timely discovery of chronic fatigue syndrome at its onset.