Chronic fatigue syndrome is a tricky disease to diagnose because many of its symptoms are similar to the symptoms of other types of disorders. As the name suggests, chronic fatigue syndrome involves excessive tiredness (or fatigue) that develops over time and can become debilitating to a person’s quality of life.

However fatigue or prolonged fatigue which it really is in this instance, is a factor in literally hundreds of different kinds of illnesses and therefore isolating the one trait that makes this disease that of chronic fatigue syndrome is not easy for doctors and healthcare practitioners. For example, 10 to 25 percent of all patients suffering from one type of health problem or another find themselves experiencing fatigue.

It is important to differentiate that fatigue that accompanies CFS from regular fatigue that strikes everyone from time to time. It is normal to feel over tired after a few sleepless nights or after a stressful event or if one is nervous about something that is coming around the corner. The fatigue of chronic fatigue syndrome is incapacitating and intense, bordering on severe and does not improve with a good night’s sleep or even a couple of good night sleeps. As well, taking naps and catching up on rest in every way possible will not make the condition go away.

Chronic fatigue syndrome can be made worse by other kinds of mental or physical problems and it can drastically affect an individual’s quality of life as energy levels quickly can become depleted which can decrease the sufferer’s level of stamina. With little or no energy, a person will begin to change the way she lives her life and often many activities that a person once enjoyed disappear. CFS affects all areas of a person’s functioning and this includes their personal life, their social life, their occupation and so forth.

A diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome can only be made conclusively after a series of tests has been done on the patient, however if a person has been suffering from unexplained and prolonged fatigue for a period of six months or longer then CFS is likely to blame. If the patient also exhibits a number of other characteristic symptoms then the doctor is inclined to lean towards a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome.

The characteristic symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are often referred to as primary symptoms and there are eight in total. If a person suffers from cognitive dysfunction, which includes problems concentrating, impaired memory or even memory lapses, then CFS could be to blame. If a person suffers from “post exertional malaise” that lasts for more than a 24-hour period and it occurs after a strenuous mental or physical exercise then it is likely caused by CFS. If a person wakes up feeling unrested and unrefreshed morning after morning that is another symptom of CFS.
Other characteristic symptoms of CFS include persistent pain in the muscles, pain in the joints that does not include any degree of inflammation or swelling, headaches that are different than any a person has experienced before or headaches or a more intense variety, a sore throat unrelated to a cold or other respiratory condition and cervical or axillary lymph nodes that are tender.