CFS and worry/anxiety
In my own experience, when I’ve had something on my mind; I’m worried or anxious about some forthcoming event, or something that’s happened, I feel more fatigued than I would normally do. This has led me to believe that mental strain outweighs physical strain when it comes to triggering Chronic Fatigue symptoms.
If you were anxious for half and hour, then the next day you went out for a half an hour bike ride, I’m willing to bet that the anxious half an hour would result in a greater amount of fatigue than the bike ride would. Ok, both depend on the person, and a lot of other variables, but I think it’s a fair comment in general terms.
I read an article recently that talks of these “stressor” factors and how you must remove them:
“In order to recover you have got to do several things.
The first is that you must remove the stressor factor or factors, because it is quite clearly impossible to get better if you are still allowing your immune system to, metaphorically, continue to bang its head on a wall.”
Source: http://www.me-cfs-treatment.com/triggerfactors.htm
So basically, stop worrying, stop getting anxious, and don’t let things play on your mind … If only it was that easy!
Anxiety for me has always been a big pain in the proverbial. I remember when I was younger having anxious moments before going to school, before I went to football training, before I played a game on a Sunday, and when I was trying to sleep at night.
Is Chronic Fatigue an acllumulative effect of worry, anxiety and self-deprecating thoughts over a long period time?
Anyway, I read an apt quote the other day defining anxiety as:
‘Not trusting the flow and process of life.’
If you suffer from anxiety, or you have suffered from anxiety in the past, I think you might find this statement very accurate. Looking at when I got anxious in my younger years mentioned above, most of it was because I was would not let the process of life do its thing. Instead, I would try to predict each event, and run each scenario through my mind to see how it might play out.
A good statement to say to yourself when you’re anxious is therefore:
‘I love and approve of myself, and I trust the process of life. I am safe.’
