What the fuck is wrong with me

[sleepymcsleepface]

I’m unsure if there’s something wrong with me or not.

I’ve been horrifically exhausted recently. It probably started roughly a few months ago and has been getting worse ever since. I used to be fine with 8 hours of sleep a night (I would feel a bit tired but not exhausted) but now I’m getting even more sleep than that and I permanently feel so so tired. My typical schedule now is to come home from work or uni and nap for at least 3 hours. Then I wake up and get ready and go to bed and sleep through. I cannot go a day without napping or sleeping or else I can barely keep my eyes open and I just feel so drained and tired

i don’t understand why I’m so tired recently. I’m not stressed or anxious or depressed. Im not sleep deprived or over-slept, I’m not dieting or eating badly, I’m not otherwise unwell and I recently had a full blood test which was fine. I’ve had some other bizarre symptoms but this is the worst. I permanently feel like I’ve been hit by a car and I’m so tired. I even got the train home from uni and was so exhausted from doing that and walking 10 minutes to the house from the station that I was falling asleep as I was barely in the door.

anyone else ever had this? I recently met up with my friends and was so tired I could barely stay awake over lunch. I slept on the train home then again when I got home then I woke up and went to bed for the night because I was so exhausted. I’m really struggling with this and I can’t explain why but I have a horrible feeling something isn’t right with my body but I don’t know what/why. It’s just a gut instinct

Depression?

Exactly . They don’t do full panel test unless you push and then the levels for action are much higher than Europe . So excuse all of us that had to fight for years to get a correct diagnosis ( 5 years for me )

I’d ask for a test for iron deficiency without anemia. I have crohns so get the joys of both anemia and iron deficiency fairly regularly.

If your blood test came back with a normal HB level, this means you’re likely not anemic, but you can have iron deficiency in spite of that. To test this ask for a blood test checking your ferritin levels, transferritin saturation levels and folate levels. For reference - my last pregnancy my HB levels were normal. Low normal, but normal. By 32 weeks my ferritin was 6 (ideally should be above 30, but minimum above 15), my transferritin was I think 9/10% (should be above 15%) and my folate was less than 1.6. I was very iron deficient and had an urgent iron infusion within a day or two. And I felt absolutely appalling until a week or so after the infusion, after that despite being heavily pregnant I felt miles better. Worth ruling out if it’s not been checked already!

Go to a kinesiologist and have allergy/ intolerance testing. Both my kids had that skin issue and it was cat/dust-mite allergy alongside dairy intolerance.

Sound very much like hypothyroidism, and depending on the blood tests, this still might be the issue. You need to check exactly what bloods they did, and read up on it a bit. There are lots of ways in which the standard tests can be very misleading, and miss underlying thyroid issues.

Have you recently had a virus ? Eg Covid , glandular fever ( Epstein Barr Virus EBV ), flu ? In which case post viral syndromes/ME/Chronic fatigue are not uncommon and can wipe you out for ages . I have confirmed EBV years ago and suffered with extreme fatigue for about a year afterwards. When I had Covid it reactivated EBV though thankfully it lasted 6 months this time although I’m still behind my fitness levels over a year later . For me the exhaustion often came out of nowhere . It’s difficult to make people understand that it’s more than feeling just a bit tired . It is a crushing exhaustion .

I would definitely see your GP since there are other things to check out too. In the meantime be kind to yourself and don’t push yourself too hard - that can make things worse . They used to prescribe graded exercise therapy where you do a little more each day but that’s been discredited.

good luck with getting to the bottom of this and hope that you are able to navigate yourself through this s quickly as possible .

Thyroid.

All you can do is keep pushing for different tests/action from the GP. Nag them and keep nagging. Keep going back and telling them you don't feel any better.

Feel better soon and please keep us in the loop @sleepymcsleepface x

I don't know OP, but I have your exact same list of symptoms 😫. Always freezing, but hot at night, dermatitis on the face that is getting really bad, tired af all the time. Like you, my GP has said my thyroid is fine. I had issues with vit D and some anemia before, but that seems unrelated. Watching with interest, because I am always told there is nothing wrong with me yet there seems to be.

The weight gain might be due to being more sedate and moving less.

What happens if you DON'T nap?

Instead of napping, could you go for a brisk walk when you feel sleepy? This would get blood flowing, and warm you up and get more oxygen into your body. It's worth a try.

When I feel super tired and can't stay awake I go for a walk and it helps massively.

I'd also flag up investigating lupus if skin rashes are involved.

Just to add in a couple of things - definitely mention the skin rashes to GP too. There can be lots of reasons why this is happening so I’m not going to second guess this but to say that it’s miserable and should definitely be mentioned to GP - if GP can’t help a good dermatologist might be able to . For short term relief consider buying piriton ( not piriteze ) or fexofenadine over the counter - these are both good at helping with rashes although can make you drowsy . I get fexo as a part of my skin prescription and I Combine it with taking a piriton at night ( as suggested by the GP) but getting to the cause of it is also important ( mine is allergies ).
i also have a thyroid disease called Graves’ disease - which in a small number of cases inc me causes weight gain rather than massive weight loos . At the time of diagnosis I also suffered from acute thyroiditis . This made me feel pretty rubbish and exhausted - I had failed to notice that my thyroid was enlarged . Anyway that side of things is under control now and intend to know when things are out of kilter .

I really hope you get some solutions too . Best wishes

Did you have kidney function tests as part of your blood screening?

If you go on your NHS app you can see your test results on there and will literally be able to copy and paste it all over onto here for us to see (if you want to) this is so not normal though, I had the most energy of my life in my early 20s.

We don’t have that app with our results unfortunately, I’m not in England/wales so maybe that’s why x

i did get a printout of them but I’ve managed to lose it ah. I’ll try and get through to the GP today to ask for another

This sounds like long covid. Even if you haven’t knowingly had it you may want to at least discuss the possibility with a health professional. Join some long covid support groups online.

Thanks for all the replies I’m reading them all and I’m grateful for the help.

its the exact same today- it’s only 11 and I’m absolutely exhausted. I got the bus to uni this morning and slept on it then had to go and sleep in the library because I was so tired and didn’t even make it in to my class! I’m absolutely freezing and feel so shivery and horrible but probably just from being tired. I was up all night with the sweats and I was roasting hot and kept waking up with it so I think that’s disturbed my sleep and made me even more tired today

This is totally not normal. You need to keep going back to the docs, get referred, get scans, keep fighting. There's something really wrong here and you need to get to the bottom of it. Could you be epileptic?

I had critically low vitamin B levels last year. My liver function is fine. But - for some reason- my body won’t store it. I was flattened completely. Couldn’t function. I have monthly shots now. I feel alive again.

Do you take hormonal birth control?

By which I mean, it would show okay on some bloods if I’d eaten recently. But my body can’t store it at all. The key thing is keep pushing for answers. It’s grim having to go through this! I’m so sorry!

I would have suggested a thyroid issue, but you say you've been tested for that. I see other people have suggested vitamin D and would also suggest that. Only because last year after a bout of bronchitis my doctor suggested I take vitamin D and my energy levels increased, along with a sense of feeling mentally and physically stronger.

Have you looked at your diet? There might be something there that your body isn't coping with that's draining you.

If you have had an infection recently, it could be post viral fatigue. Mine is just coming to an end after 3 months of extreme fatigue, loss of appetite,shakiness and general weakness. Your GP needs to rule out other causes ( I had full blood test, ovarian cancer check, stomach cancer check, bowel cancer check - all normal).
There isn't a real cure, just rest and more rest until it improves.

To answer your question 'GordonShakespearedoesChristmas', I think it took me about 18 months, or possibly even a couple of years to recover, although I'm not 100% sure as it was a very long time ago (about 30 years!). I think it was a case of just gradually feeling better, but over what felt like a very long time, as feeling so exhausted all the time, everything seemed to take for ever. I do hope your daughter improves and gets back to normal given time.

When I've been depressed in the past all I do is sleep. I can't get enough even sleeping 24 hours it wasn't enough!!! Do you feel OK mentally?