What is Lifestyle Fatigue?
Sometimes, the everyday tedious routines of life can leave a person feeling in a rut and experiencing sadness, depression, tiredness and fatigue. These ruts, habits or patterns can become boring, unproductive, hard to change, and cause a decrease in the ability to find enjoyment or pleasure in life. Terms such as tiredness, fatigue, burnout, and depression are interchangeably used to describe one’s feeling of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, and being overwhelmed. However, they are not all the same and can affect mental health in different ways.
Tiredness and Fatigue:
Feeling tired is usually a short-term experience such as after staying up late and feeling tired for the next day or so. These feelings of tiredness will generally go away after a good rest or night’s sleep. Fatigue happens when one feels constantly tired and can result from lifestyle, work, psychological stress, and general well-being.
According to the World Health Organization, burnout is defined as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”.
Lifestyle Fatigue and Depression:
The term Lifestyle fatigue, which is not a mental health diagnosis, has been used to describe a feeling of being stuck or in a rut. It is also related to feelings of physical tiredness and emotional exhaustion. It can be triggered by stressors such as life events like the COVID-19 pandemic which led to extended times of monotonous lock down routines. It can also be triggered by external factors such as overwork, tragedy, financial problems, boring activities, and more.
Lifestyle fatigue is better defined as feelings of being stuck rather than of depression.
Depression involves persistent feelings lasting for at least two weeks of sadness, low mood, hopelessness, and loss of interest in usual activities along with other emotional, mental, and physical changes that interfere with daily activities.
Since the symptoms of lifestyle fatigue and depression are similar, it is important to contact a professional therapist for an assessment to determine if your symptoms meet the criteria of depression or some other mental health diagnosis.
In his article in Psychology Today on Lifestyle Fatigue, licensed social worker Sean Grover gives a helpful checklist you can take. If you answer yes to five or more of the questions, you may suffer from lifestyle fatigue. He states that, “having Lifestyle fatigue is a term he uses and is not a mental health diagnosis and does not prevent the possibility of having depression.”
Lifestyle Fatigue Check-list:
Does every day feel the same?
Is your work dull and unrewarding?
Do you dread leaving your house?
Are you avoiding friends and social interaction?
Do you spend more time with screens than people?
Have you lost your creative drive?
Has your sex drive gone missing?
Do you tend to ruminate or obsess about your failures?
Are you overeating or undereating?
Do activities that used to give you pleasure now feel like a waste of time?
Tips:
Implementing and experiencing change is seen as a helpful way to decrease feelings of lifestyle fatigue. Alayna Park, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon gives some helpful examples:
Make changes in your daily routines. Example: drive a new way to work or home
Add productive activities you enjoy such as exercising, running further than you did last week, or learning a new language. These can give a sense of accomplishment
Introducing new activities to your day that disrupt monotony or predictability
Identifying your purpose: what things are life giving and what are life draining?
Developing meaning in life by setting meaningful goals. The more meaning in life people experience the more well being they enjoy
Concentrate on self-care: rest and take naps, journal, exercise, and do things that bring you enjoyment.
Contact a professional therapist for an assessment to determine if your symptoms meet the criteria of depression or some other mental health diagnosis.
Roubicek & Thacker Counseling is Fresno’s premier provider of individual, couples, family, and group therapy. We offer in-person and online remote therapy sessions. Contact us today to change the way you feel.