Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Managing Life around Exhaustion
What it's like to be a student with CFS

Imagine actually getting eight hours of sleeping a night, but still waking up like you pulled an all-nighter. Imagine not being able to work out because you won't have the energy to finish your paper. Think about having to cut caffeine out of your diet, how would you function? Imagine what it would be like to have to eliminate any physical, social, or emotional activity that is not necessary in a day so that you can conserve your energy. Imagine if stress caused you to become bedridden, not because you want to nap but because you find it hard to function. You are imagining being a college student living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating disorder that is illustrated by intense fatigue that affects physical and mental activity. CFS is not relieved by rest or sleep. In addition to severe fatigue, many people diagnosed with CFS experience other symptoms including weakness, dizziness, muscle pain, headaches, impaired memory and concentration.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is estimated that 100,000 to 250,000 Americans suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and that many more cases with go undiagnosed. While CFS does not target a specific ethnicity or social class it is four times more common in women than men. CFS also occurs more frequently in young adults and those in their 40s and 50s.
So little is known about the syndrome that to be diagnosed with CFS is a diagnosis by expulsion; that is doctors must rule out the possibility of other illnesses. Testing negative for other illnesses helps test you positive for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

A study released by the CDC in 1994 outlines two criteria people must satisfy to be diagnosed with CFS.
-First a patient must have experienced severe fatigue for six months or longer without any other medical condition.
-Second, in conjunction with chronic fatigue, patients must experience four or more of the symptoms such as: impaired memory and concentration, sore throat, muscle pain, unrefreshed sleep, and headaches that have also occurred for six months or longer and did not predate the fatigue.

There are no medications available to treat CFS, most doctors advise their patients to take an anti-inflammatory, such as Tylenol or Advil, to treat the symptoms. CFS affects each person differently, some will recover and others will

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