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Extreme fatigue...

footscrazy

footscrazy

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Over the pastmonth I have been experiencing extreme fatigue. I understand this could be a symptom of many things but I'm really coming to my wits end as I have been to the doctor several times and still no answers, so any advice would be appreciated.

6 weeks ago I quit meth and having quit several times, I'm very familiar with the tiredness and apathy which accompanies that. However I don't believe my current fatigue is related to that - mainly because it started after I had recovered from the meth withdrawal, it's been going on so long, it's getting worse, and also, I quit meth this time after a relapse of just a month - before that I was clean for 4 months. Unfortunately as my doctor knows my history the conversation tends to get as far as meth withdrawal and stops there. I suppose it doesn't really matter as any energy-giving tips will help regardless.

Anyway, lately I just find myself completely physically exhausted all the time. It is an absolute lack of energy in my muscles rather than being sleepy. I work on a computer, and I find it literally exhausting to hold my body upright, and have to work leaning on my desk to support myself. I also have constant muscle pain in my calves and lately strong pain at the back of my neck which is getting worse. I don't think it is psychological as my mindstate has been good, though getting worse lately as I'm getting upset at being so useless.

I have been eating healthily (trying to increase fruit and vegies) and going for walks/runs even though it's the last thing I feel like doing. Caffeine and alcohol also both seem to increase the tiredness 10fold. I am not sure whether to force myself to keep going out/working, or to spend all day lying on the couch. I just got back from a holiday that I basically spent in the hotel, too tired to get out, and on New Years I had to sleep at a party at 1am as I was utterly exhausted and felt I didn't even have the energy to leave. This is really affecting my life, any advice at all is greatly appreciated. I have had a test for glandular fever that came back negative.
 
theirs been studies shown if you miss a lot of sleep, you need to "catch up" on it like ur mind still needs all that sleep back
 
^^ I have heard of sleep debt, but I have been sleeping a lot recently and would think I would have caught up by now. Also, it is more a physical muscle exhaustion than feeling sleepy.
 
thats the word iwas lookin for sorry i cant be more help i myself have sleeping problems and have been up all night.. i too feal extremely fatigued at time
 
My guess would be adrenal fatigue. Stimulants such as meth stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and thus totally drain and exhaust the adrenal glands. Rejuvenating them apparently takes a long time, like a few years. A good way to start is by taking supplements that support them, namely vitamin B5 and B6. Might as well take a full B-100 supplement to cover all your bases.

And I can't recommend enough... fasting. Do whatever your comfortable with; a juice fast, water fast, or the happy medium, the Master Cleanse. Do at least 7 days. This kind of 'resets' your body's systems, helps eliminate toxins, gives your GI system a rest (can't hurt), and makes you feel light and energetic after day 3 (counterintuitive but true).

And even though you really don't want to, the more you exercise, the better you'll feel.

Glad to see you're eating healthfully. Remember to cut sugar and processed foods out for now.

Happy recovery!
 
You can do tests for adrenal fatigue and hypothyroidism and should be done before trying the more hardcore supplements as they will do more damage then good otherwise.
 
Thanks for the replies. I do take a multivitamin so hopefully that'd contain enough of the B vitamins etc. I'm going to try and improve my diet even more now, and continue the exercise. Hopefully things start to improve.
 
^ Thanks, I'll definitely look into it! I know someone else who is recovering from meth addiction who swears by yoga, and I'm also a huge fan of meditation, so I think it could work well for me :).
 
Please do try it :D I had wanted to do yoga before but I was simply overwhelmed with all the information/books/poses out there.....the 5 Tibetan Rites was simple, easy, and something I could really focus on. Excited for you to feel better =D
 
I did your 5 tibetan rites maria for the first time just then, is it supposed to hurt a little bit while you are doing it? [first time mind you] not actual ouch pain but stretching and feelings of hmm....how to explain it..... unlocking?
 
^^^Hello. Yes, I did feel that the very first time. It didnt exactly hurt, more of like owww muscles stretching and just an over-all feeling of slight soreness afterwards. (my body was super stagnant and I hadn't stretched nor exercised in ages when I started!) It will disappear after a while .:) Good job!
 
As mentioned above, getting your adrenals and thyroid glands checked is an excellent place to start.
No offense, but those who mention yoga/meditation/excercise have absolutely no idea what REAL fatigue is. These things are, at best, a mild antidepressant, and can even be counterproductive by masking symptoms that the OP's body is trying to communicate.
A malfunctioning CNS is usually a symptom of a physical illness. Your drug use really complicates things, however, you are more qualified than anyone else to judge what symptoms are due to withdrawal and what aren't.
I would definitely visit an endocrinologist if I were you, and ask for a complete thyroid/adrenal/even pituitary checkup. If everything checks out OK, try an elimination diet. It's too complicated to explain in detail, but food intolerances are probably the leading cause of chronic fatigue.
Be mindful of other physical symptoms that may seem unrelated to your fatigue. Sinusitis? Constipation/diarrhea? Weight loss/gain? Migraines? Stomach upset?
Good luck with your search for answers.
 
alfaromeo1979 said:
As mentioned above, getting your adrenals and thyroid glands checked is an excellent place to start.
No offense, but those who mention yoga/meditation/excercise have absolutely no idea what REAL fatigue is. These things are, at best, a mild antidepressant, and can even be counterproductive by masking symptoms that the OP's body is trying to communicate.
A malfunctioning CNS is usually a symptom of a physical illness. Your drug use really complicates things, however, you are more qualified than anyone else to judge what symptoms are due to withdrawal and what aren't.
I would definitely visit an endocrinologist if I were you, and ask for a complete thyroid/adrenal/even pituitary checkup. If everything checks out OK, try an elimination diet. It's too complicated to explain in detail, but food intolerances are probably the leading cause of chronic fatigue.
Be mindful of other physical symptoms that may seem unrelated to your fatigue. Sinusitis? Constipation/diarrhea? Weight loss/gain? Migraines? Stomach upset?
Good luck with your search for answers.
Click to expand...
thyroid for sure....
 
I was suffering from the same thing, too. So I went to get my thyroid checked and now I am on thyroid medication. It helps just a little. What really helped me was going to a chiropractor. Turned out on my x-rays my pelvic bone was tilted by 4 centimeters which was huge! My chiropractor told me she had never seen such a displacement as that. After a couple of treatments I felt fantastic from head to toe!
If you want to look into it, be sure to find a chiropractor that does NOT say "were you hurt in an accident" as their first question. Look for a clinic that specializes in making your whole body feel better. Your muscles might feel tired and weak all the time because the nerves are not able to send and receive signals. This happens when our spine is out of alignment and squeezes nerves, reducing the nervous flow. Try it out!
 
Thyroid tests could be useful, but they don't check the thyroid-adrenal-pituitary axis. For that you'd need to get your pituitary tested as well. Ask your doctor to refer you to an endocrinologist because of your extreme fatigue. The initial testing for seeing an endo will cover all the hormone basics. If you can't wait for a referral and you have the money, you could look into a private lab to get it done.

In the mean time, adrenal support is probably called for. Nettle seed is the best but I don't think it's commercially available. I'd take a combo of nettle leaf, alfalfa leaf, and oatstraw all steeped as a tea in a sealed 1 quart (1L) jar overnight. By morning it'll be dark and rich. Drink this all day. If you use google to lookup "nutritive tonics" and "adrenals" this will give you more ideas. You can also try looking up the term "adrenal trophorestoratives". It's another model to explain adrenal fatigue.

Just something to keep in mind, the term "adrenal fatigue" is not scientific. What modern medicine thinks of as adrenal fatigue is called Addison's, and what the natural healthcare world calls it are two different things. Nonetheless, it represents a constellation of symptoms that are treatable.

Due to your background in drug use I'd call it an endocrine issue, combined with deep depletion of the body.

The other common reason for extreme CFS is usually viral, like lyme's disease or ebstein-barr... but the description of your health history doesn't seem to match that.

The thing about sleep debt is not true. If you miss two days of sleep, your body does not need two days to recover. Most people bounce back within their normal sleep cycle plus a couple of hours. Chronic fatigue is due to deep depletion, infection, or metabolic disorder.
 
A lot of good information has been relayed in this thread about possible thyroid/pituitary issues. I would like to propose another possibility to add to the blood tests.

I know you had mentioned that you have experience with fatigue from methamphetamine withdrawal. One reason for this is depletion of BDNF which can cause depression, fatigue and neurodegenerative effects. Was this particular usage perhaps longer than others or with higher doses? Did you taper using any other drugs? BDNF is able to maintain neuronal exitation via the prevention of GABAergic signaling. When Exitotoxicity occurs as a result of NDMA/AMPA receptor oversaturation it can lead to negative effects on the central nervous system and effect BDNF and neurotransmitter levels. In some cases usage of benzodiazepines (GABAergic) or ketamine (NDMA agonist) can lead to BDNF levels not returning to normal. If you have been using these to taper or after quitting meth, I'd get a blood test for depletion.
 
I am hesitant to recommend more drugs to recover from a drug induced problem, and obviously as everyone else has said, exercise, eating right, getting your hormone levels checked, etc, all take priority.

BUT that said, if you need to get yourself back to a frame of mind to start taking action to build a positive life, it has been my experience that careful and managed use of some of the more benign nootropics and cognitive enhancers can work wonders, although you have to be very strict with yourself especially if you have a tendencies to addiction and habituation.

I would recommend once you have got your hormone levels checked and taken steps to correct this, and if you keep just moving forward, making yourself do the things you usually do but not really feeling the zest for life that you (hopefully) once had, you can go the substance route, carefully. What I recommend is plotting out before starting this a few changes you want to make to your life during this time (for example, a consistent exercise routine, a better job, some new friends, whatever other good habits you want to work in) so that you have something to work towards. Then, depending on how many substances you are willing to take, I would look at Modafinil, NSI-189 and Phenibut in various combinations.

What I did recently to drag myself out of a few months of lethargy was begin taking NSI-189 every day (this is an experimental anti-depressant theorised to reverse hippocampal atrophy caused by stress, apathy and probably substance use), Modafinil and Phenibut. I have listed them probably in order of potential risk with NSI-189 being not habit forming or probably particularly dangerous but Phenibut being quite potentially abusable. What I did was take NSI-189 near every day, Modafinil Mondays, Tuesdays, and maybe one or 2 other days until Friday, and Phenibut Monday to ease my way back in to the week then maybe one or 2 days that week.

During this time in addtion to achieving most of the aforementioned pre-planned goals I was able to just generally develop a much more positive attitude to the world which persisted even up to a month afterwards (ie, now, basically, although I am considering beginning another few-week cycle following some recent life stresses).



Although I have mentioned my approach which is not for everyone, I think Modafinil is a highly under-appreciated substance for those with depression or persistent unexplained fatigue, it is one of the cleanest stimulants in my view with minimal if any side effects, definite and persistent motivation-enhancement and mood enhancement, and I have read anecdotally of it improving the lives of people with ME and other far more debilitating fatigue-disorders. I don't think it should be a long term thing but if you take it with a plan and stick to the plan I think it has great potential. The other additions I just threw in as I am something of a nootropics junkie and I judged these would be complementary, I think they have been but I would not like to say you will experience the same thing definitely.

I will add a brief disclaimer that I have no experience with Meth abuse and I am only an armchair drug-scientist/doctor (read: not actually a real scientist or doctor) so take my comments with a grain of salt, and if anyone comes out to tell me how wrong I am, you should probably trust their judgement better than mine.
 
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