Why do I feel so terrible?

[WarriorPrincess24]

Every day this week I've woken up after 8+ hours sleep each night and I feel terrible all day. Groggy, tired, heavy eyes, aching, have no energy and I generally feel like absolute crap! It's hard to explain, I don't feel like I have a bug or a virus. I feel completely drained and exhausted, my body just feels awful. Everytime I move its at a snails pace because I just feel so weak. I usually have anxiety but I can manage it it lately but the dread and doom I feel at the moment is off the scale. I've been miserable, short tempered, and just horrible. I did have a phase like this before and my doctor did some.bloods but ultimately wasn't interested in the results. Anyone know what could be going on? Even walking up the stairs I feel like my bones are gonna snap.

Just to add I was actually diagnosed by GP with fibromyalgia however I'm sceptical of this diagnosis. I feel like it's just an excuse to explain away symptoms when they can't find anything else.

In the past when I’ve had episodes of feeling like this it’s been: low iron, low vitamin D and perimenopause (not all together!).

Do you get migraines/ silent migraines? I feel like this around the time I'm about to have one.

Thanks I'm not peri because I'm 32 so I guess would h a little early for that? I had my bloods done a couple months ago and had a ferratin of 20, iron on blood was fine and I had vitamin D of 35 but my GP said I didn't need treatment.

I get headaches but I can usually managed them with painkillers so I'm not sure they are migraines.

You're ferritin is too low. I feel the same at that level. Only once I get past 70 do I feel better. Although my optimum is 120!

Just because you're 32 does not mean it's not peri-menopause or that you don't have a hormonal imbalance.

ferratin of 20

This is extremely low OP and will probably be making you feel exhausted. My ferritin was 8 when I was tested a couple of months ago and I've been exhausted and drained all winter. I put it down to other things, but the 'normal' range for ferritin is between 10-300 and the lower end of that is extremely low and likely to be impacting your life. You almost certainly need to be taking iron supplements to get your ferritin (which is iron stored in the body) up to a higher level. Speak to your GP.

Same symptoms as me and I have long Covid.
Could be a different post viral illness or something else entirely but there are way more people out there with long covid than everyone realises. Current known figures are 2 million people in the UK.

I was referred to endocrinology for having low cortisol levels not sure if this has impacted it, it was terrible low I suppose b cause I had to wait 8 months for the app.

Your ferritin is very low. I’d go back to the doctor about that.

Your vit D is also low. Start taking a high dose of vit D asap.

Yes I've struggled with ferratin since I had my son, it was 8 in January 2023 and I had iron supplement, I was retested and it was at 13 and they said it was normal and then I was retested a few months ago and it was 20 and the doctor said that's fine now!

All these things together that you mention OP could point to hypothyroidism developing, you should get that checked. Along with it often comes low ferritin, folate, Vit D, Vit B12, exhaustion, low cortisol first thing...the list goes on.

20 might be okay for some people (and as I said above, the normal range is extremely broad), but for many people 20 is still going to be impacting on their life. My GP said to me that the goal is to get mine up to around 80 in the next six months (it's a slow process ...) and then keep going so that eventually we get it up to around 150. I would keep going with the iron supplements, if I were you, and see if it helps. It's a relatively easy thing to fix, after all.