Three Stages of Fatigue
It’s rare for people to go from feeling ok to feeling fatigued. The journey to exhaustion generally goes through three stages. Recognising and addressing fatigue in the early stages can reduce the risk on moving onto later stages.
Stage One – constantly on alert
· You feel constantly alarmed, even when they are not in stressful situations
· You may experience anxiety – constantly worrying about even trivial things
· Your immunity is low – you catch everything that’s going around
· Insomnia – poor sleep leads to more fatigue
At this stage your cortisol levels may be elevated.
Stage Two – feeling stressed and tired is constant
This stage is when cortisol becomes dominant. Cortisol is fat sparing, so quite often in this phase people feel they are gaining weight and/or can’t lose weight.
· Sleep problems start to escalate, often manifesting as waking through the night, waking up tired, or having trouble going to sleep
· Concentrating on a task becomes more and more difficult
· Energy crashes happen throughout the day
· Other changes to hormones and blood glucose levels can lead to other health problems
Stage Three – exhaustion
Completing even day to day tasks becomes a challenge.
In this stage cortisol levels are often low.
· Fatigue is overwhelming
· Anxiety and depression escalate
· People often have constant body aches and pains
· Immunity is low
Get Help Sooner Rather Than Later
Recognising the Stages of Fatigue is essential to making a recovery before you reach the exhaustion phase.The sooner you ask for help the sooner you will start to feel better.
Seek advice from an accredited and registered Naturopath – they will guide you through the changes needed to address your fatigue, as well as prescribing personalised herbs and nutritional supplements to help you feel better faster. Their professional advice is invaluable.