Hi, my name is Joe_. I'm here because I have been suffering with chronic fatigue for around 3 years. I have been medicated for anxiety and depression for 7 years.
Can anyone help?
After getting Covid-19 I have noticed my health deteriorating.
First of all I developed Crohn’s disease which is now well managed.
But by far my worst symptom to date is sleeping/fatigue.
Around 3 years ago I was on Mirtazapine but I found that it made me very sleepy and I had a an episode of severe anxiety and depression. My doctor switched my medication to Venlafaxine which helped massively. I changed jobs and things got better. I got Covid which took it out of me initially but I recovered and returned to work. This is when I started having problems with being tired all of the time. I had just been diagnosed with crohns so I thought it may be that. But when I got that managed and saw no improvement I just put it l down to depression and asked to increase my venlafaxine. Fast forward to now. Now my tiredness might not be as bad as other but it is massively affecting my life. I can get up with around 20 alarms and phone calls from my dad. I can also go to work 37.0.0.5 hours a week. But anything else is hard work. Sometimes I come home on Friday evening and go to bed with out eating and drinking and wake up sunday morning around 10. Atleast 36 hours sleep. I still feel tired. On days off I can have up to x2 hour naps. I can’t cook, clean or do anything thing else.
On the surface I look like I’m coping. But I’m not. I’ve done a lot of research and back and forth to GP. I’ve had my bloods taken often. I’ve been tested for sleep apnea ect.
venlafaxine usually has an energetic side effect but not for me. I have decided to wean myself off the drug as I’ve heard about it making you sleepily in others. My gp is aware. I’ve gone down from 225 to 75mg. Im no better.
I’ve tried exercise, diet, supplements but nothing.
i will have to go on long term sick shortly because I can’t cope no longer. But when I do I know the depression and anxiety will come back. Work as sad as it sounds gives me some purpose.
the only other thing to mention that may be relevant is that I’ve got raynauds (self diagnosis). Also when I was doing exercise for a good 6-7 month my fitness band said I hardly got any REM sleep.
does anyone have an idea on what could be wrong with me or what I should be doing. Current plan is to get off this med and attend another sleep study. thanks for reading