Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Support Group

My legs hurt me too, NoreeU. And the more I walk, the worse they get. Exercise does not help me there.

I am fighting with Social Security, so I went to a neuropsychologist to get documentation of my cognitive dysfunction.

I can go from being a functioning professional to a moron in an hour when the fatigue strikes.

I had a whole day's worth of cognitive testing. Since I've had this illness for a long time, my "normal," "un-fatigued" IQ measured about 30 pts lower than I was told my IQ was when I was younger.

I agree that the problem is SLOWNESS of thinking, which definitely affects ability to work, but try explaining that to Social Security. . . .

Anyway, the part that my lawyer hopes WILL help me with Social Security is that about midway through the extremely strenous testing day, (these were tests that cannot be faked, faking is detectable if you try, so I was warned to try my best to succeed on all the tests)

anyway, and I'm rambling here because I'm a little fogged right now,

when the fatigue hit in the afternoon my brain shut down like it always does. And my IQ at that point showed a 45 point drop from just that morning and I registered then as RETARDED. The doctor wrote a report that states that I'm going to be needing assisted living before too long. Pretty scary, but I believe she laid it on reeally thick to get through to the thick skulls at Social Security.

I do believe, however, that once my Social SEcurity is approved I will lose a lot of panic, anxiety, depression, fear, that can't help but make cognitive functioning worse.

So I do believe I will "improve" eventually, and like others wrote, with the right amount of rest I can avoid being "retarded."

You learn to work around those periods of time when your brain refuses to function.

My processing is slow, short term memory worse. Trying to speed up typing skills is a joke. My brain gets confused easily when there is multiple info trying to go in- the thoughts jumble and make me anxious. When I am late going somewhere I can't speed up what I am doing to get somewhere on time.
I am not working because I never know what day I need to rest for several hours. The drowsiness causes me not to be able to focus and I make mistakes and get confused at what I am doing which of course causes more anxiety.
Does anyone else have increased anxiety? Sometimes I feel I would do anything to avoid the feelings of anxiety.

I forgot to add that I have given up trying to learn anything new as the needed info going into brain gets jumbled up. Comprehension is worse. It's like I want to take the ingoing thoughts and want to line them up instead of them being jumbled. Does this make sense to anyone?

I wish I could learn how to jumpstart myself. I guess over the years I have given up and truly don't know what I am capable of any more.

I too am starting to develop alot of the problems that you have all mentioned..it's a real scary thing! It's great to know that it doesn't always stay this way, but to all you who have noticed it is starting to improve, please tell me, how did you get through those weeks, months, years when you were struggling? It's just taken a huge part of my positivity away and I'm trying to hold onto it, but considering I was always a pretty smart and witty girl, I'm really starting to feel that without it, what can i offer!