Fatique gives me social problems

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Hi,

I was diagnosed asperger last year. But I feel all my problems are related that I'm always tired. But very tired..

I can't concentrate because I'm tired.
My short term memory is very bad cause I'm tired.
I'm sometimes too bored to talk to people because I'm tired.
My confidence is very low because I'm tired.
I can't think because I'm tired.
My head is one cloud because I'm tired.

But I have some moments were I'm really awake, like in evenings.
Then I can perfectly talk to people, my thinking is very fast and clear. I feel like a god. I even laugh genuinly when I find something funny. My confidence is also VERY high when I feel fresh and awake.

Is this related to Asperger?


Sorry for my english I'm french

Same here. Fatigue makes my problems much worse. I mumble, stutter, say the wrong word, and quickly get belligerent. I’m also much clumsier, not to mention even more anti-social (which should also be normal for NT’s, nobody wants to be around people when they are tired).

The best time of day for me is from when I wake up at 3AM until I start getting tired at 10AM. I don’t attribute this to ASD though, instead most of the men in my family have “Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder”. All of us wake up around 2 or 3 AM. This goes back many generations.

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Fatigue is associated with the side-effects of sports concussions (soccer, football, hockey, etc.) as well as more obvious brain injuries (car crashes, etc.). Fatigue also shows up as a side-effect in neurological challenges such as post-polio syndrome. For some persons, the old medicine - coffee - caffeine compounds - can temporarily reduce fatigue for a few hours (not a cure). Hopefully, over time, you might discover the cause of the fatigue. There is a big problem in that the word fatigue is so common that one can see a doctor or several doctors and never receive a good answer to it. Too many doctors will regularly misdiagnose fatigue as anxiety or depression and then imply that anxiety or depression medicines will help fatigue. Is fatigue related directly to Asperger? To my knowledge, it is not. There are other causes of fatigue including side-effects of chemotherapy or radiation; in some cases, a heart defect can underlie fatigue. Also, there is the Krebs Citric Acid Cycle which points out why lemonade can reduce fatigue a little for some. It's a big topic and it can be difficult to get a good answer quickly using the medical system in place today due to the expenses involved in running tests and trying to rule out many possibilities. Many doctors wrongly consider the word fatigue to be too vague to look at it/talk about it. There are many reports that coffee - caffeine compounds - work a little; also, some of the prescription ADHD stimulants - alerting agents - help a few; also, with narcolepsy there are reports that Provigil helps a few a little. Can fatigue cause social problems? Yes. In a few cases, persons have sleep apnea and a CPAP machine helps some a little. Some persons react badly to sugar and sugar, for them, can cause energy crashes/fatigue. There can be other causes of fatigue, too, so this is an incomplete list. Good luck.

Last edited by pgd on 03 Dec 2010, 12:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Fatigue always exacerbates my underlying AS issues

It probably also goes the other way; social problems give you fatigue.

Absolutely. It can be a vicious cycle that must end in some serious alone-time.

Learning to relax in the stream of impermanence is a very valuable skill I'm learning.

When I'm exhausted, which I am most of the time because I have CFS, I find it much more difficult to carry on a conversation, and even make the right facial expressions to look like I'm listening, than I do to take on mild physical tasks.

Mine too.

Fatigue can affect NT's the same way they tend to get irritable, this isn't just a trait of being on the spectrum.

Critique gives me emotional problems.

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

I was wondering about this. Very insightful. Thanks

The fatique in the daytime and alertness at night seems like a melitonin deficetcy. Meletonin regulates your sleep and wake cycles and if your meletonin is out of wack, then you can get tired in the day and totally awake at night. You can get Melitonin tabs in the suppliment section of most pharmacies. Also spending a hour or more outdoors can help with this problem as meletonin is created in your body when sunlight enters your eyes. If you cant go out, then get a sun lamp.

Melatonin can really mess up sleep cycles, I used to have to take it to get to sleep and it affected me the next day. I believe whole-heartedly in this theory, when I couldn't/didn't get enough sleep I would struggle socially for the rest of the day. It's sort of like having a computer program. NTs push the computer to the limit already with day-to-day activites. Suddenly, you have to run "social-program.exe". Since you have to regulate several actions unnarturaly, this takes more energy. Therefore, the system is already taxed as it is, and when memory runs low, the programs start to lag.

This is why I drink caffiene, and used to binge on it. Small world.

My social skills get worse when I'm tired or sick. I've noticed this with my NT friends as well, so it's not just Aspies.