The Fatigue Epidemic
Why are people just fed up these days and it is not getting better.
The alarm clock goes off or your phone buzzes on your chest of drawer or your bed side table. It is either a song to alert you into consciousness or a generic ringtone that still fills you with dread. You slam or shut it off, get to the side of the bed and the first thought that comes to mind is: Another day, again?
Your are tired and you haven’t even gotten to your feet yet, had your morning stretch or fully understood what you dreamt about last night. You drag yourself out of bed, shower, dress and get everything ready to tackle the day ahead. Your on the way into work, your commute is the same as always. Everything is the same and nothing is out of the ordinary.
This is your routine. This your life.
So, that is probably your first hour and half on your day so far. You haven’t started work yet or clocked in. You haven’t reached your station, your desk but you feel you have done so much already. That coffee hasn’t kicked in but your already eyeing your second. Your head is melted and you could swear that you had a weekend, but where was it? Did it even happen? Finally you start the shift but it feels like you’ve done a full day’s work already. You are spent already and used up all your battery, so why does it feel like everything sucks and you cant seem to catch a break.
I may tell you why: Fatigue.
You are suffering from fatigue and you are not alone.
Everyone is dealing with it.
Tiredness, grogginess, brain fog, higher blood pressure, low excitement level. Enthusiasm for anything is one on the scale. You rely on coffee to get you through the morning, a smoke or a vape to take the edge of. Something to distract you from where you are and what you are doing like social media, podcasts, music or something along those lines. It just doesn’t work and you feel lost, tired of everything and mentally drained from it all. What is happening is that you may be starting to get the signs of fatigue but you just put it down to another day in the job. Carrying on, you grind your teeth and continue towards the same routine that you cant help but find yourself in.
Your fatigue is setting in and it is hard to admit: This may not be working. Whatever you are doing isn’t working.
There are wide combinations that can lead to Fatigue. Work: being one. Routine, health issues: mental and physical, financial reasons, social, political and of course diet. All these are not good in the long term anyway, but they do contribute to the every growing epidemic of what I am seeing daily.
People are tired. And they are tired of everything. Overwhelmed by their own issues that vary from person to person. They also have to tend with what is happening around them. It is already too much for some people to balance their lives as it is. Some people are struggling with financial issues, rent is high and so is food. Throw family issues, community problems, social unrest and also what is happening around their county and the wider world. Sometimes, moving down by the river and living as a nomad sounds very appealing.
People are already sleeping walking into their jobs just to get the basic needs and essentials. On top of what they have to do to get by, the world crashes around them everyday. Wars, International policies and local ones, climate anxiety, social media, news, and outlets that tell you everyday that the world is burning and it is fed into your phones non stop and we consume it. Then we speak to our colleagues, friends or family about said topics and it is more doom and gloom. The fatigue of everything spreads and everyone is affected by this.
People are becoming overwhelmed by the constant barrage of horrible news, bad situations, increased rates and lower opportunities. Do you blame others when they finally say : “I’ve had enough!” and wave everything away.
Fatigue is real and it is showing on most of the faces of the people I see daily. Everyone is fed up and tired of the endless supply of social media accounts, the bias newspapers, social media sites and shit they are forced to listen to. They want o get away from it.
The rat race is real but everyone is too tired to compete at the moment, so the crawl instead.
Be it Politics, which is the biggest one that people are seriously upset about and also are the most burnout from. It has become a blood-sport with teams on either side battling for your attention and your mind. Consuming this and this alone will only drag you down further. People have drawn the lines when it comes to Politics, it is too mind consuming, to emotional and when your side loses, it is like you loss as well.You can become burnout from just listening to politics from the sidelines and even that itself is not the best for anyone. You want to mix that in with your everyday life?
You can get Fatigue from what you take in, it isn’t just physical work that makes you tired. It is what you listen to, consume daily and what you talk about and what you read.
Everyone is over consuming on a daily basis to the point that it is messing with your mind and emotions. You see something online that is unattainable like: constant travelling, expensive clothes and jewellery, cars, houses, people lives, money, sex, drugs and wild parties and concerts. And the question you ask yourself is: “Why isn’t that me?”
You are shown how some people live their lives and you feel worthless because you life is normal. This over consumption of social media feds into your already growing fatigue because you life doesn’t resemble what you see online. Not everything is real, but so many people are hooked and believe that everything that is online is real and that the people they follow are living these lives. Trust me most aren’t. When this is your daily life and what is on your social media fed, you start to think that noting is worth it. Why bother?
When you dig yourself into a hole that you feel like you are doing nothing with your life and that everyone else is having more fun then you, this sucks away any drive that you have. This is a problem with a lot of young people these days. They are not tired because they are lazy, no. They are tired because they completely burnout by the constant overwhelming world that has been presented and handed to them. When they say that they are tired, they aren’t saying that because they had a long day in work or out doing something. It is far beyond that. They are actually tired from what they are always seeing, hearing and being fed daily. When they say that they don’t want to do anything and don’t have the energy, is it because they actually don’t. This goes for everyone as well, but mainly I see it in the younger generation.
And do you blame them?
The fatigue is real and don’t have to look far to see that everyone is tired of everything at the moment. I don’t have the answers for this one and this article is to bring attention to something that I see and hope that others do to.
With that said; I hope you are keeping well. I hope that you are in a good place and that you can take time out of your day to step back from the things that consume you or worry you. Take a deep breath, relax and try to decompress as best you can. Sometimes it is best to take a moment of reflection and be aware of your own surrounding and know the signs of mental fatigue. Sometimes even your mind needs a cleanse and a detox.
Put yourself first and put that phone down once in awhile. It’ll be better for you in teh long run.
Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Thank you for taken the time to do so. Have a great day.
Slán Go Fóill
-Marc Sean
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