Living with Fatigue: How to Save Your Energy for the Things That Matter

Some people think they’re tired. Then there are people with fatigue from a chronic disease, which takes exhaustion to a new level.

“The outside of your body is not working, and you can barely move, but everything else is functioning—like your brain—and you want to get up and run, but you can't,” says Gina Cavalier, 51, a Los Angeles–based mind-and-body-wellness business owner who lives with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Gina’s fatigue comes along with many different physical and emotional frustrations: muscle aches, a sore throat, brain fog, embarrassment, guilt, shame, and loneliness.

Fatigue can be attributed to ME/CFS, or it can be a symptom of another health condition or disease, or the cause can be unknown. No matter the cause, if you live with fatigue, you may need to develop some coping mechanisms to make it through the day.