Chronic fatigue syndrome - Symptoms 

Symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome 

If you have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), there may be times when your symptoms improve and you'll be able to do many normal, everyday activities.

However, at other times your symptoms may flare up and get worse, affecting your daily life.

And people with severe and very severe CFS will normally find carrying out everyday activities too challenging.

Fatigue

The main symptom of CFS is severe fatigue (exhaustion) following mental or physical activity. This does not go away with sleep or rest, and limits your usual activities.

Fatigue is mental as well as physical. Some people describe it as overwhelming. You may feel that:

  • It is a different type of tiredness from what you have experienced before.
  • After sleeping you do not feel refreshed.
  • It is not due to exhaustion.
  • It is not simply a loss of motivation, which people with depression often experience.

Exercising can make symptoms worse. This is called post-exertional malaise, or "payback". The effect of this is sometimes delayed. For example, if you were to play a game of sport, the resulting fatigue may not develop for a few hours afterwards, or even the next day.

Other symptoms

There are other common symptoms as well as fatigue, although most people do not have all of them. They include:

  • muscular pain, joint pain and severe headaches
  • poor short-term memory and concentration, and difficulty organising your thoughts and finding the right words ("brain fog")
  • painful lymph nodes (small glands of the immune system)
  • stomach pain and other problems similar to irritable bowel syndrome, such as bloating, constipation, diarrhoea and nausea
  • sore throat 
  • sleeping problems, such as insomnia and feeling that sleep is not refreshing
  • sensitivity or intolerance to light, loud noise, alcohol and certain foods
  • psychological difficulties, such as depression, irritability and panic attacks
  • less common symptoms, such as dizziness, excess sweating, balance problems and difficulty controlling body temperature
  • show glossary terms
Constipation
Constipation is when you pass stools less often than usual, or when you're having difficulty going to the toilet because your stools are hard and small.
Diarrhoea
Diarrhoea is the passing of frequent watery stools when you go to the toilet.
Fatigue
Fatigue is extreme tiredness and lack of energy.
Lymph nodes
Lymph nodes are small oval tissues that remove unwanted bacteria and particles from the body. They form part of the immune system.
Nausea
Nausea is when you feel like you're going to be sick.

Last reviewed: 13/07/2011

Next review due: 13/07/2013

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4 Comments

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Comments are personal views. Any information they give has not been checked and may not be accurate.

misslili86 said on 26 January 2012

Hello I am hoping I can get some advice... I am 25 and have been suffering from quite a few of these symptoms for around two years... I feel at wits end with the doctors after a number of blood tests and appointments. The last appointment I attended and mentioned CFS to the doctor as I researched it online, the doc told me it does not exist any more as it was just another word for fatigue!! I was really disgusted by that comment as I know it is far from true having looked it up. What I would like to know is how do I get the docs to take me seriously and help me to find out if this is what I have... Thank you

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Arthur Brede said on 18 January 2012

Just got back from a consultation with a doctor I trust (one of the very few) and he suggested I check out ME/CFS and see if it fits. I live in the Czech Republic these days, but I'm British, and I'm shocked by the level of ignorance and frustration I've found in the last hour from the UK net. I was 18 months into a no-drinking, strict-dieting, 6-hours-a-week aerobic response to a diabetes 2 diagnosis, doing well, when what the family came to call 'The Lurgi' struck. In the face of the 'mind-fog' I found I could no longer think straight, I couldn't keyboard (after 40 years of very fast touch-typing), I had no energy and all exercise hurt like hell. And the worst was, and is, that in the spells when I'm lurgi-free I get a taste of what life could be (was) like in a world where I could drive at night, type as fast as I could think, raise all hell in the classroom (I'm a teacher, once famous for energy and life, now just serving time and hoping to make it to retirement before I croak - thank gods for ace students). From my point of view, using a bit of sport as an example of a trigger almost brings on tears - I wish I could manage just quarter of an hour a day on a the static bike (that used to be the warm-up for an hour's session). If can bring myself to try, I hurt for 24 hours afterwards. My weight's off the clock again and depression filters the whole damn world. Yeah, bring on the jokes, tell me to pull myself together, let's all YouTube Guy Clarke's 'Doctor, Dear Doctor' and feel guilty.

I'm writing this because (1) At least I have a diagnosis; (2) I want to tell all the real sufferers out that that is is real. I've got a feeling that it's like migraine - everyone who ever had a bad headache calls it migraine, while the real sufferers listen aghast to stories of how it can be weathered by 'strong people' and (3) I'll be back here and semi-blogging if the Czechs have better ways of cracking it than the Brits (they often do in matters medical). Strength, all!

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Rusty101 said on 04 December 2011

I have to say I have a wonderful GP who suspected CFS from the start but went through the whole range of tests before giving me the list of symptoms and asking if I felt that fit my problems. She gave me a fortnight ot think about it then asked if I was prepared to accept that diagnosis or if I wanted her to refer me to a consultant for more intensive tests.

I agree with nobodysfool who says that fatigue is the main problem. I find that the "brain fog" is frustrating when you can't hink of the words you want to use and when your mind is too tired to make conversation. As fo exercise, I sometimes find it difficult to go upstairs to use the loo. A shower leaves me wiped out mentally and physically and the pain keeps me awake even when I'm exhausted.

The new legislation of stopping sleeping tablets and Diazepam is making things mor difficult as they at least relax you enough to be able to think more clearly.

I wish people (and the medical profession) would realise that CFS is like having constant flu symptoms and it's very frustrating not to be able to do everyday things that most people take for granted.

I used to be a busy, active person who had a job, kept the house clean and played sports now I'm lucky if I get the dusting done.

Please wake up and realise that this is a severely debilitating illness which needs its profile raised so I don't have to listen to comments such as "They call it ME because it's all me, me, me!" This was from a nurse!

Do people really think that individuals with CFS want to feel like this? If it was a problem that people could see there would be more understanding and empathy. Thank God for my GP who really does understand and listen.

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nobodysfool said on 21 July 2011

It is disgraceful that the NHS continues to pedal the utter disrespectful nonsense that everyone with ME/CFS is capable of doing normal everyday activities. It is not true and is the cause of much harm and discrimmination.

Thousands of sufferers commit suicide ever year and many die directly from neglect, because of this kind of false information and it needs to be stopped.

To describe fatigue as the "main symptom" is very misleading it would be much better to describe it as a universal symptom. Your description also implies that severe fatigue is not present before exercise when for tens of thousands of sufferers extreme fatigue is always present.

To use playing a game of sport, as a typical example of an activity ME/CFS might partake in adds to the harmful misrepresentation of how serious this condition is for most sufferers. Many of us can only dream of being able to walk to the front door.

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