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What 'I’m Tired' Means to Someone With Hypothyroidism and Adrenal Fatigue

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A woman explains what feeling “tired” means to her as someone with hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue.

Read the full version of What ‘I’m Tired’ Means to Someone With Hypothyroidism and Adrenal Fatigue.

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What ‘I’m Tired’ Means to Someone With Hypothyroidism and Adrenal Fatigue

You go to bed at 8 p.m. and your alarm wakes you up at 7 a.m. for work.

That’s 11 hours of sleep.

Yet you feel more tired than when you went to bed the night before.

You drag yourself out of bed and everything feels like you are moving a dead weight.

Walking to your car is draining every ounce of energy you do happen to have.

You get to work and you know it’s going to be a long day.

The room feels freezing, even though everyone in the office doesn’t feel the same.

You struggle to type on your computer because your fingers individually hurt and your hands are weak.

You feel drained already and it’s only 9 a.m.

You can’t think straight, and even the simplest of tasks take 100 times more energy than if you weren’t so fatigued.

You have this mental block. Thyroid brain fog.

After what feels like a 20-hour day, you make your way home, barely even standing anymore.

You sleep for a couple hours, before waking up and seeing it’s about 8 p.m., so you make your way to bed and sleep for another 10-11 hours, maybe even more.

Your alarm goes off at 7 a.m. for work.

When a thyroid or adrenal patient says they’re tired or fatigued, we really mean truly, absolutely, abnormally exhausted.

We didn’t choose to have underactive thyroids.

Originally published: May 9, 2017
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