Chronic Fatigue is Linked with Negative Beliefs About Activity

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One of the more common chronic symptoms I treat in people is fatigue. CFS/ME as it’s called, really stops people from moving forward because of the crippling fatigue symptoms it brings. The fatigue symptoms end up reinforcing the belief that something is wrong and maybe I am doing too much. This is not true. This study showed that fatigue is linked with negative beliefs about activity levels and issues in the prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). You guys know I love to talk about the pre-frontal cortex as it’s such a critical part of the brain that is implicated in many chronic physical and mental health conditions. We have to get it working in the right positive way to help us heal. With fatigue, this part of the brain (DLPFC) as we as the ACC are big pieces in contributing to continuing symptoms. We need to change our beliefs around fatigue so we can start to move forward with a new understanding and confidence that we can indeed do more than we think. Reach out if you need help in doing this. I don’t believe you need to continue to suffer and live a limited life because of fatigue.

“This study suggests that the DLPFC/ACC may play a role in the persistence of fatigue symptoms and behaviour in CFS patients, linking prior (meta-cognitive) beliefs about reduced physical abilities to reduced feedback-related activity in the DLPFC, and to reduced effort-investments in response to feedback.”