Fatigue

Fatigue can creep up on the healthiest person. There is the simple fatigue which comes from being sick or not getting enough sleep. This is easily remedied with a couple of days of rest and good sleep. There are more difficult forms of fatigue. Chronic fatigue, the by-product of a chronic disease, may have no easy cure. It may require constant remedies of new routines and limited activity. Psychological fatigue is even trickier. It is often called "burn out". This can occur in a stressful job, a stressful relationship or a stressful general environment, like a war zone or a violent neighborhood.

 

The symptoms of fatigue are similar, despite different sources. Irritability, feeling like crying for no obvious reason, shutting down intellectually and/or socially. Untreated fatigue can worsen into immobilizing depression.

 

Contemporary urban life, as I see it, fosters fatigue. There is a social acceptance of working long hours and then partying wildly to maintain a social context. Regular alcohol consumption is socially acceptable. Using psychotropic drugs is considered commonplace.

 

I have had to deal with chronic fatigue for the last twenty years due to various disease conditions. During some of that time, I was working a high-pressure job in health care. I had to learn coping mechanisms to function. It was not easy.

 

Today I am very sensitive to my need to address fatigue in my daily life. It has become an integral part of my personal practice. My approach to addressing my fatigue is often misunderstood. Some people assume I am antisocial when I decline invitations. Others think I have surrendered to aging. "You're not that old!" is something I commonly hear when I try to explain that I need rest or cannot participate in an activity. It is a struggle at times to not equate my own fatigue with personal failure.

 

Accepting the reality of fatigue and learning to cope with it constructively is a passage of aging. This process requires sober acceptance of my mortality and physical limitations. This runs against the current media conditioning to remain forever youthful. There is little compassion in modern advertising, geared to inspire people of all ages to consume relentlessly.

 

The first step on the road to mindful living and compassionate living is applying mindful and compassionate reflection to my own situation. Attending to my own well being is essential to being a generous and caring human being.