I found this publication, by Dr Freed, who has also been DX with MS, the best I have read on the uniqueness of MS Fatigue. All of our Family and Friends should read it, to really understand what our fatigue is like.
Maybe they will stop trying to compare it with their fatigue.
IT'S NOT THE SAME!! How many here, have heard "I know how ya feel, I'm tired too"? Make copies of this article, so you can roll it up and smack them with it.
Or....they could read it.
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Fatigue In MS: What It Is, What It Does, How To Manage It
By J. Lamar Freed, Psy.D.
Every introductory article on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that I've read mentions that many people with MS get fatigue. Health care professionals usually are informed about this effect of the disease as well. Despite this recognition, fatigue has not been taken as seriously nor viewed as profoundly as what the experience of people with MS merits.
Fatigue is a symptom of MS. But it is much more than that. Fatigue underlies and influences many of the other symptoms experienced by people with MS and profoundly influences their quality of life.
The brain's myelin-covered nerve cells send commands and information from one part of the brain to another or to other parts of the body. The essential mechanism of MS is that this communication is impeded or blocked by the destruction of the myelin sheath that surrounds and insulates the cells.
These communication cells serve as the superhighway to make messages travel quickly and easily. When the myelin has been destroyed or damaged, the information must bully through on less efficient channels which are often not ideally constructed for the task. It is like getting from New York to Washington without driving on I-95.
Depending on the locations and number of these myelin depleting lesions, communication within the brain may be profoundly disrupted. As happens with any drive that lasts too long, fatigue is one of the results.
Click the link for the remainder of the article....
http://www.lamarfreed.net/fatiguems.html