Before we get to what CFS is, let’s make sure we all know the names it goes by: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome (PVFS), Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), and Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disese (SEID). You may see it called CFS/ME too.
There isn’t a test to diagnose this, nor is there a known cause (except for PVFS kinda). Basically your doc has to rule out other things like sleep disorders, other autoimmune/autoinflammatory diseases, and some mental health illnesses (mostly because they think everyone is crazy).
Symptoms include fatigue (NO WAY), difficulty with memory, having a hard time focusing, sore throat, muscle pain, joint pain, headache, swollen lymph nodes, sleeplessness or sleep that isn’t restful, and extreme exhaustion or fatigue from doing something physical.
You can treat some parts of the disease, like using sleeping pills to try getting more restful sleep and pacing yourself during activity. Some people even work out with a trainer to keep themselves active but not overdoing it.