Living exhausted . . .

Hi, guys . . . it looks like this forum isn’t visited very often – I hope someone can talk to me . . . I’m 35, female, and have spent my entire life exhausted. I never even fought naps as a child, for crying out loud – although the exhaustion didn’t really set in until the teen years.

For as long as I can remember I have never woken up feeling refreshed unless I’ve gotten at least 14 hours of sleep. Yes. 14. Hours. My mother has always just told me that I sleep TOO much so I’m tired all the time, but that is obviously not my problem since I sleep 6-9 hours a night during the week and 10-12 hours a night on weekends. It doesn’t matter if I get 5 hours of sleep, 7 hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, or anything in between – I’m exhausted and can fall asleep almost anywhere almost any time. If I have to be in a meeting or seminar for work, I rarely last more than half an hour without having to get up and walk around so I don’t nod off and fall out of my chair. If I sleep more than 14 hours or so, I actually feel rested though. This typically happens about once a year if I happen to fall asleep right after work on a Friday and don’t get up til like 8 or 9 the next day.

I have had sleep testing and they say there’s nothing wrong with me.

I started on Prozac around age 14 and have always just blamed that for my sleep issues, although I’ve always been open to other causes and, other than sleep testing, I’ve also been tested for anemia, thyroid issues, diabetes, etc . . . I’m healthy as a horse at my yearly physicals, too. When test and after test just keeps coming back normal year after year, it just bolsters my Prozac blaming even more. Over the last year, though, the Prozac just didn’t seem to be helping as much with my anxiety plus I thought it was the major factor in my tiredness, so my psych weaned me off of it and onto Effexor – which I really like. I’m actually on the smallest dose of Effexor and have been for a couple months now. But my exhaustion remains. I’m SO upset . . . I thought this major med change would help at least a little! All these years, all these tests, I’m completely healthy, and I finally get of the med I think is causing it and . . . nothing.

I know what you’re all thinking – the only option left is depression, and I certainly fit some of the descriptors of depression, but a lot of them are just because I’m freaking tired all of the time! I guess that’s a chicken-vs-egg thing, though . . . does the tiredness cause depression or depression cause tiredness? I’m guessing it’s both – a vicious circle. I don’t really feel depressed, though, and I’m under the regular care of a counselor *and* psychiatrist and my diagnosis has never changed from OCD/Panic to Depression.

One sleep doctor I went to just said it might be just be idiopathic – which, as you guys know, gives the patient NO ANSWERS OR HOPE – and he wanted to prescribe Provigil. I know people here take that, but come on – that just sounds like a Micheal Jackson uppers/downers death wish to me! Take a pill to wake me up during the day as well as Effexor to calm me down!?

Ok I’ll stop my diatribe now for some input . . . WHAT is wrong with me and how do I stop it!? Oh what I’d give to be like a normal person who sleeps about 8 hours a night and then ISN’T TIRED ALL DAY!! *sigh* . . . Please help me . . .

I know this is an old post but I'm new to psych forums and I have sleep issues as well.

I spent years exhausted no matter how much I slept, etc. I've been on one form of anti-depressant or another pretty much since my late teens. I'm now in my mid50's. My dx was pretty much consistently depression, anxiety disorder; later OCD was added, then it became bipolar I.

And then my life took a dramatic turn and I ended up in a very lengthy traumatic situation that resulted my personality fragmenting. Fast forward to a year ago I found out I have been dissociative (DID), since I was small and this situation brought it out again, and everyone just missed the dx.

The whole point in sharing this is that for me, the chronic tiredness turned out to be due to alters coming out at night while (I) was (sleeping). It turns out I'm really not getting the rest I think I'm getting.

I'm not suggesting this is the case with you, I'm just tossing it out there....I truly hope by now you've found some resolution.

You Say:--
[I know what you’re all thinking – the only option left is depression, and I certainly fit some of the descriptors of depression, but a lot of them are just because I’m freaking tired all of the time! I guess that’s a chicken-vs-egg thing, though . . . does the tiredness cause depression or depression cause tiredness? I’m guessing it’s both – a vicious circle. I don’t really feel depressed, though, and I’m under the regular care of a counselor *and* psychiatrist and my diagnosis has never changed from OCD/Panic to Depression.]

OK, every medical person wants to blame fatigue on depression, because then they can blame the patient, like you have chosen to be depressed! I cannot see why these so called clever people for whose education I and my parents have paid, cannot see that being tired ALL THE TIME, is very depressing, because of the lifestyle limitations that it causes, and that might be the way it is, not the other way. I have been tired all the time since I suffered a stroke 20 years ago, but, about 2 months ago, I had 2 wonderful weeks wherein I was not tired all the time, and I was able to do all the things that I had to do without a lot of difficulty (not everything that I wanted to do, mind, because of my stroke disabilities), but I cannot remember what I did during that time, that made the difference. I am now back to being tired all the time, and having to consciously keep pushing myself to keep moving forward.
The amount of sleep matters not to me, I am tired whether I sleep 7, 5, or 10 hours. However, I do find that I am better off if I make sure that I get up and start the day by about 8.00am, and I try to lie down to sleep at 11.00pm I do not sleep all that time, I do get up several times in the early morning, and so probably I am awake between 3.00am and 6.00am.
I take a heap of vitamins, and probably only get placebo effect from them, but to keep me going if I really need to be up and moving, I take a couple of Vig Hi, and that seems to keep me on the move, but they do contain guarana, which causes eyesight problems, so I am limited as to the number I can take within a short period of time.
I hope you can resolve your fatigue problems, and let us know!!! I have had 2 overnight sleep tests, and neither showed up anything significant. Ironically the 2 nights that I was tested, I slept the night through, and did not have to get up during the night. And they found nothing wrong with my sleep. So, I am sure they just think that am a malingerer, and complainer.