I was trying to come up with something to describe the symptom in ME/CFS that is called fatigue but which most people say is much more than 'just fatigue'. Just to clarify, I am also not referring to PEM.
Interesting that most of the posts here centre on a
lack of energy (however you want to define energy) when one of the most frequently heard comments is "it's much
more than just fatigue"
In other threads the discussion often veers towards equating ME-fatigue with feeling ill or feeling poisoned or feeling viral, in other words there's an
addition of some mighty unpleasant sensations, on top of feeling wiped out, and all tangled up into one impossible to separate knot
I suspect this is what was intended with the term malaise (not talking about PEM here but constantly present malaise) except they forgot that for most people malaise is inextricably associated with Victorian 'nerves' and fainting spells, or with some vague sense of unease. Not quite the same...
The most useful term I've found to date to make the point that ME-fatigue isn't mere tiredness or normal expected fatigue (think new parents type fatigue) is 'pathological fatigue' but that still doesn't describe what I'm feeling
Edit: oops, brain fog with word-finding problems struck again, changed pathogenic to pathological, I guess at least I found half the right word
