Many people use the phrase "I'm exhausted" to mean that they are very tired. However, clinical exhaustion can be a symptom of serious medical disorders or a condition requiring treatment on its own. According to WrongDiagnosis.com, causes of clinical exhaustion include factors ranging from serious illness to mental stress to substance abuse.
Environmental Causes
Heat prostration causes symptoms of listlessness and fatigue due to dangerously high body temperature. Similarly, the presence of pollution or toxins can cause exhaustion. Other environmental causes of exhaustion can include altitude sickness, hypothermia and affective disorders caused by too little sunlight. Environmental factors are among the easiest causes of exhaustion to fix. However, if your exhaustion continues after you've eliminated the environmental factors and had sufficient rest, check with your doctor to confirm there isn't another cause.
Diseases and Infections
According to WrongDiagnosis.com, quite a number of diseases include fatigue and exhaustion among their symptoms. Common examples include colds, influenza, staph infections and food poisoning. More exotic diseases that can cause exhaustion include dengue fever, malaria and the bubonic plague. WrongDiagnosis.com points out that exhaustion is such a common symptom of illness that doctors tend to ignore it as a diagnostic tool. If your feelings of exhaustion last well beyond the end of other symptoms, continue seeing your doctor to find out why.
Behavioral Causes
Personal choices and behaviors can also cause exhaustion. On the "too much of a good thing" side of the equation, overwork, sleeplessness and too much exercise can push a person over the brink to medical exhaustion. Drug abuse, addiction and withdrawal can all also cause exhaustion. Like environmental factors, if you stop the exhausting behavior, the exhaustion should go away. Also like environmental factors, if your exhaustion continues after the fact, visit the doctor.
Mental Health
The Mayo Clinic lists sleep disorders as possible symptoms of stress. Since sleep is the body's way of recovering from fatigue, stress-related sleep disorders can easily lead to exhaustion. According to Drugs.com, diagnosed mental disorders, including depression, anxiety disorder, attention deficit disorder and sleep disorders, can also cause real or imagined exhaustion.
Thyroid Problems
According to an Australian thyroid support group, thyroid problems can result in exhaustion and fatigue. Ironically, exhaustion is listed as a symptom of both overactive and underactive thyroid glands. Since the thyroid helps to govern metabolism, the body's system for processing energy, it's easy to see how problems with the thyroid can produce problems with energy levels. Thyroid-caused exhaustion is only diagnosed by going to the doctor, often after other causes of exhaustion have been considered and dismissed.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is a complicated disorder that doctors don't completely understand yet, notes the Mayo Clinic. It causes chronic exhaustion and fatigue that don't get better with rest.. The causes of CFS are as yet unclear. However, mental problems, mineral or vitamin deficiencies, some viral infections, hormonal issues, hypotention and allergies have all been considered seriously. Like with thyroid problems, physicians usually diagnose CFS after ruling out a number of other causes.
