Fighting Depression Caused By Fatigue

How does one deal with depression moving in when fatigue is fighting you every step of the way?

I am often wondering that these days. When the fatigue is getting to me more than the chronic pain. It’s hard to fight off depression when you have no energy to bolster the troops. Fibromyalgia sometimes gives you exertion malaise at just the slightest amount of activity. I used to not get this except when I over did an activity. But lately, after my last surgery, it doesn’t take much and I am out of it for the rest of day. Such as taking a shower, starting some laundry, or even some mild stretching and I am ready to crawl back into bed. And leaving the house at all is basically impossible.

How do you spin this into a positive and keep your mood up while spending most of your day in bed or pent up at home?

I would be very lost without modern technology. With my Android smart phone I am still connected to the world beyond my house. I have most any book I want to read in my hands because of my Kindle app. I can observe any artwork I would like to see through the various images available on the internet without stepping foot in a museum. I can even create my own artwork on my phone if I don’t feel well enough to go to my artroom to paint. If I feel like watching a movie I can pull up just about any movie I want from movies available on Netflix or Amazon Prime thru my phone or on my own tv thru a SmartTv, Roku, Playstation or Xbox. Sometimes these movies had just left the theaters. If it is a friend I want I can chat with them thru a regular phone call, text, Instant Message, Skype or Snapchat. I can feel like part of a community thru joining or following groups on Facebook or Instagram. The only thing I cannot get thru technology is physical touch, but I still have my husband and the rest of my family that visits me for that. You see I have a whole life of adventure at my fingertips. I may have dreamt of going places and doing these things myself, but at least thru technology I can still experience them. I am able to battle the encroaching shadows of depression by keeping my mind occupied with these many experiences. There are many other apps or services out there than I listed, but I have only named those I have used.

A Spoonful of Musings

The pain…it is all relative. Some days I can handle it better than others, but it is my constant companion. I must continuously remind myself to breathe and relax my shoulders, so they are not at my ears all day. And as usual I hide behind my smile. Those who do not know me see a shining happy spirit. If they catch a grimace cross my face, a brief glimpse behind my mask, they ask me what is wrong. I have no clue to what they are referring to and I reply “nothing.” Because to me it is nothing but the usual torments.

This constant yoke of pain wears on me and there is never a time when I am not tired. I may have just awoken from eight hours of sleep, but I feel like I haven’t slept in days. My sleep is not a rejuvenating sleep and I often hurt worse in the morning than when I laid down the night before. Every morning I have to will my body to move. Once I start to move it is like dragging broken limbs thru the mud, painful and slow. To say I am not a morning person is an understatement.

You try to speak to me, but I do not respond right away. Forgive me, but my mind is racing to decipher each word spoken, pulling them out of the jumbled mess I hear and placing them in their proper context. Before I can think thru my own response it stumbles out the door of my mouth. Was that the right word? No, I don’t think that is the word I meant. Dang autocorrect. I think I need a new app, hopefully you can decipher what I meant.

Where is my oil can? My joints all pop and creak when I move, like a bowl of rice krispies in milk. I have the body of a tin man, and a brain of a scarecrow. But I continue on and face each day like the fiecest of lions. I dream of one day finding my ruby slippers to go back to a body that doesn’t rebel so. A girl can dream.

A Christian Moderate’s Perspective

A Christian Moderate’s Perspective.
By: Teresa S Kelly

My perspective of the government, a Christian moderate female with a chronic illness and disability, is based on the sacrifices and compromises of those individuals, past and present, who have lived within our borders and assisted us. Our Nation needs to focus on those concepts in Our Constitution that make it great: equality, liberty and justice for ALL.

All life is sacred and has value. Each individual’s health, wellbeing, and safety must be valued, regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, lifestyle choices, or stage of life. We must provide for our Nation and those that live within it’s borders first and foremost, but that does not mean we can not help other’s within the confines of our safety and ability. There should be less focus on acceptance of races, ethnicities, religions and lifestyles, but more focus on each life as an individual.

All individuals are entitled to clean air, water, and environment. It is every individual’s duty, of those who live within our borders, to care for our Great Nation and the environment we live in. We need to build up America, not a wall!

Big Business has NO business in Government! And government needs to be able to regulate business to make sure no individual in our country is being taken advantaged of by it. Business is an IT, not a person or individual. Business is NOT entitled to the same rights as humanity.

Finally, I believe that education, social services, and discourse are critical for America to survive and to be great again.