The fatigue experienced when you have fibromyalgia goes beyond “normal tiredness,” according to a recent publication in the journal BMC – Musculoskeletal Disorders.
The researchers wanted to understand in greater 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 conceptual model of fibromyalgia fatigue, which includes the following:
An overwhelming feeling of tiredness
That is not improved by rest or sleep
It is not proportional to the effort that is made on a daily basis
Associated with a feeling of weakness and heaviness
Interferes with motivation and desire to carry out activities
Difficult to carry out long tasks
It prevents us from concentrating, thinking clearly and remembering things.
For those of us who live with this type of fatigue, this is 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 time and fatigue is one of the main complaints that doctors hear. This model provides definition for fatigue related to fibromyalgia, which helps distinguish it from other types of fatigue.
Many of us sick with fibromyalgia, we have experienced every level of fatigue of this new model, in different variations, and almost certainly we all have experience with doctors who often do not understand the weakness we feel due to fatigue.
This can be a frightening symptom, to the extent that sometimes it scares us to walk for fear of falling down to feel the legs so weak that it seems that they could not sustain us. And as this weakness comes and goes, sometimes it does not even seem to make much sense.
With a little luck, this new model could help us and our doctors better understand the fatigue related to fibromyalgia..
