Common Signs and Symptoms
Not everyone suffering with a chronic exhaustive condition has been formally diagnosed. You may be unsure whether this term applies to you or which symptoms are connected with these diagnosis. If the list is familiar, but you have managed to ‘push through’ so far, now is a perfect time to take action to avoid any further deterioration in your health, and to find your way to the health and happiness you dream of.
The following symptoms checklist has been developed by The Chrysalis Effect, based on years of working with thousands of people like you, living with chronic exhaustion and/or pain. It is a useful way of exploring whether your experiences might indicate either the early warning signs, or the presence of a chronic exhaustive condition.
🌿 Headaches increasing in number and severity
🌿 Migraine with vomiting
🌿 Vertigo
🌿 Feeling stressed with normal workload
🌿 Panic attacks
🌿 Feeling overwhelmed
🌿 Anxiety
🌿 A busy racing mind
🌿 Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
🌿 Pins and needles in face
🌿 Dizzy feeling in head
🌿 Palpitations
🌿 Sleep problems
🌿 Waking exhausted
🌿 Sudden bouts of total exhaustion often before doing something you don’t enjoy
🌿 Fuzzy head poor concentration
🌿 Short term memory problems poor recall
🌿 ‘Jangly’ or ‘juddery’ feeling inside body
🌿 Struggle to cope with noise
🌿 Low mood
🌿 Tearful
🌿 Reaction to caffeine
🌿 Poor tolerance to alcohol
Understanding a chronic exhaustion diagnosis
These symptoms are so many and varied that we are often told that they are unconnected, or even, 'All in your head'. This is the view of the medical model, which views you as a malfunctioning physical machine and focuses on diagnosing the broken part in one of your broken systems. Your experiences, feelings and relationships are seen as irrelevant, and treatments focus on eliminating or masking the surface symptoms, not removing the underlying causes.
The good news is that your symptoms make perfect sense, when we look at you as a whole person. All of your complex physical systems interact with each other, as well as with your mind, environment, personal relationships, beliefs and values. In this light, you can understand your set of symptoms as ways in which your body is trying to tell you what is out of balance in your life.
It is this bio-psycho-social approach to your health and wellbeing that makes trauma-informed wellbeing coaching such a powerful approach to supporting recovery.
Whatever the label, CFS, fibromyalgia, ME, long Covid, post-viral fatigue, they all point to the same truth: your system has been overwhelmed, physically and emotionally. The causes aren't outside you, but in what you've been living through, sometimes for decades or even a lifetime.
In my work I see the same patterns in clients of feeling:
🌿 driven
🌿 never enough
🌿 burdened with responsibility
🌿 unable to meet, or even recognise your needs
These patterns and their origins are described powerfully in Gabor Maté’s books, When the Body Says No, and The Myth of Normal.
The good news is that this is not your fault, but you have the power to change the factors that are overwhelming you.
You are not responsible for your illness, but you are RESPONSE-ABLE, able to respond.
It’s not easy, but at least you have agency, hope, and now , support.
Wellbeing coaching and The Chrysalis Effect Online Recovery programme are not an alternative for the treatment of acute medical conditions. If you have not yet sought medical advice for your symptoms, please do see your GP to rule out any conditions that may require medical treatment.