Treatments for Faitgue?

Hi Everyone,

I have a had Chronic Daily Headache for many years. The past few years fatigue has become a major problem. Has anyone had any success treating fatigue? I have taken a number of stimulants without having any success. I take methadone on a daily basis, and have not done well when trying to get off it. Although the first two years I was taking it fatigue wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. Thanks for the help and information!

Northsider

Hi! Do you have the fatigue from the headache, the Methadone, another condition, or a combination? I have it from mainly fibro but of course my 24/7 headache and my meds (including Methadone) make it worse. I haven't found much of anything to help. I was tried on Rx strength Vit D and B-12 injections. Doctors wanted to give me Provigil but it interferes with birth control pills so I wasn't willing to deal with that (and its pricey). Besides the usual suggestions like ask for meds for sleep if you need them and devote a good amount of time to sleep, the vitamins and Provigil would be my suggestions in addition to the traditional stimulants, ADD meds, etc.

Methadone is known to be one of the most fatigue-causing pain meds so if it is that, could your doctor do a straight switch over to try something else, without much of a taper down? Yes, most people would do poorly with tapering down on a pain med due to the increased pain plus the withdrawal. Its common with Methadone to switch to something else before tapering down from that as its one of the worst for withdrawal. It does seem the best for head pain, slow tolerance building, cost, etc, though. I still have built tolerance quicker than my doctor would up the dose though. Best wishes.

Thanks for the help Tortoisgirl! I may try taking the stimulants again and I'll ask my doctor about the B-12 injections.

I have fibromyalgia and I haven't found anything to help for fatigue apart from getting the right amount of sleep.

Sometimes I just try and give into it and I can sleep for 12 hours or more - I think my body just needs it. After a week or so of having unrefreshed broken sleep my body just goes into some kind of hibernation mode from exhaustion.

I get severe fatigue during my flareups - when my numbness and spasms get bad. My doctor says that Provigil should help a lot, but I've been reluctant to try it. She has also suggested prescription stimulants if that doesn't work. If I ever try these, I'll let you know how it goes,

I have adrenal fatigue and am taking a natural product called Ribraxx and it is surprisingly helping. I tried lowering my dose a few times and I really notice the difference. No I'm not bouncing off the walls and I still don't get enough sleep but its taken me from that pure exhaustion phase up a couple of levels. Its not cheap though but seriously worth a go if your looking for something alternative.

Lissy

I should have mentioned that my current "treatment" is caffeine in the form of coffee and iced tea. 4 cups of coffee a day really help! I almost always have one to two cups of coffee a day even when I'm not flaring, and I increase it when the fatigue kicks up during a bad flare up. A friend of mine with MS fatigue does the same thing, so I guess I'm not weird.

Fortunately, I have no problems with caffeine, either from a migraine rebound point of view or gastric sensitivity.