Fatigue is experienced when you have fibromyalgia goes beyond “normal fatigue,” according to a recent publication in the journal BMC – Musculoskeletal Disorders.
The researchers wanted to understand in more detail the fatigue that occurs in fibromyalgia and the impact it has on our lives. After conducting a series of interviews, they analyzed the results and developed a fibromyalgia fatigue model, which includes the following:
A feeling of fatigue
not relieved by rest or sleep
is not commensurate with the efforts made on a daily basis
associated with a feeling of weakness and heaviness
interferes with motivation and the desire to perform the activities
hinder perform long tasks
It prevents us from concentrating, thinking clearly and remembering things.
For those of us who live with this type of fatigue, it’s nothing new. However, it seems that this model is a good step forward. The medical world does not have a correct understanding of the different types of fatigue and needs appropriate language to describe them. Everyone feels tired at some point and fatigue is one of the top complaints doctors hear. This model provides a definition of fibromyalgia-related fatigue, which helps to distinguish it from other types of fatigue.
Many of us with fibromyalgia have experienced all levels of fatigue in this new pattern, in different variations, and certainly almost all have experience with doctors who often do not understand the weakness we feel in due to fatigue. This can be a scary symptom, as sometimes it frightens us to walk for fear of falling to feel the legs so weak it seems they can’t hold us. And as this weakness comes and goes, sometimes it doesn’t even seem to make much sense.
Hopefully, this new model could help us and our doctors better understand fibromyalgia-related fatigue.
