When I first started having symptoms of MG, I would have made a distinction between muscle fatigue and over-all fatigue. I would have said that MG makes my muscles tired, as if I'd just been on a hike or something, but that it doesn't cause the kind of fatigue you get from having a fever or staying up way too late.

Now I'm not so sure. I'm not even sure there's distinction of kind, and not just degree, between those two kinds of fatigue.

I do a lot of mental work (part-time from home). Right now, for example, I'm heavily editing a long, difficult manuscript. There is a certain level of MG-related weakness and muscle fatigue that I can have without being "too tired" to work at the computer. On the other hand, when this muscle weakness reaches a certain point, then my mind is tired, too.

I found this article, which addresses the question, sort of. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...g=content;col1
I don't really think it's that helpful, except that it's nice to see a study that takes all of this seriously. It's nice to see someone doing a myasthenia study by asking MG patients about their experiences.

Since I got MG, I've dropped two hobbies that I really used to enjoy (playing Irish music and learning American Sign Language). I'm really sorry to see them go, especially because they were both things my husband and I did together. I know that losing interest in activities that you used to enjoy is a symptom of depression. In my case, though, I don't think it's that. I think it's because of a general MG background fatigue--I mean that it's always there but doesn't really jump out at you like periods of more severe weakness that cause noticeable myasthenia symptoms.

The article talks about "task aversion," which is a phrase every human being should understand: it's that "I just don't feel like it" feeling. Since this is a normal human experience, it may not be so noticeable when MG increases it. But I think that's exactly what is going on with me.

I'm still trying to understand this disease (and it would help if the durn thing would stay still and stop changing all the time!). Only recently, when my short episodes of severe weakness have gotten, well, more severe, have I even noticed that there are two quite distinct groups of symptoms that I have: the general pervasive weakness that ebbs and flows; and half-hour episodes of more extreme weakness.

Abby