Feeling Tired
If you are a sufferer of social anxiety then you may find that you get tired a lot. This is because our bodies use up much more energy when we are feeling anxious than when we are calmer. When in a state of anxiety we may feel the opposite from tired, such as feeling hyperactive, alert and tense, but once the anxiety passes and we are able to relax more we may feel exhausted. Increased heart rate, racing thoughts, adrenaline release, increased muscle tension, shaking and general nervous energy all draw from our reserves and can leave us feeling totally drained.
It is good to be aware of this for a number of reasons. Firstly, it might help to know you are not suffering from some mysterious tiredness disease, although if your tiredness is having a significant impact of your daily life then it would be a good idea to discus this with your doctor. Secondly, it might help to know that your anxiety related tiredness is not just laziness and therefore your lack of energy is not something to beat yourself up over. Finally, it is good to know that once you have managed to feel more confident and less anxious, your energy levels will increase and you will feel able to do much more.
In addition to anxiety related tiredness, you may be experiencing depression related tiredness. It is common for people with social anxiety to also experience depression. This is because the fundamental thinking that is at the root of social anxiety is also at the root of depression and therefore it is possible for people to develop both social anxiety and depression separately, but also it is common for people to start to feel hopeless and depressed about not being able to fulfil their social needs as a consequence of social anxiety.
Depression related tiredness is a very different sort of tiredness to that resulting from anxiety. This kind of tiredness, very convincingly so, makes us feel like we have no energy and cannot do anything, but it is a block to accessing our energy rather than an actual lack of it that we are experiencing. When we are depressed we are generally feeling hopeless and because we think there is no point in trying to do anything our brains shut us down and produce feelings of low motivation to help us conserve energy for the times when there is hope and something worth engaging in.
When we are feeling depressed every fibre in our body might be telling us we are too tired to do anything, but this is not necessarily true, and if you get yourself to start engaging in an activity that brings you pleasure and a sense of achievement then your mood and energy levels are very likely to lift. Unfortunately, there is not time in this short blog entry to address the issue of feeling like nothing will bring you pleasure or a sense of achievement, but just remember that such feelings are always a lie that feels true.
For the social anxiety sufferer, the main issue with anxiety or depression related tiredness is that it can make it harder to feel motivated to work on improving one’s confidence. As already discussed, depressed feelings lie, so stay focused on encouraging (not forcing) yourself to take a first step. Once this step has been made, the subsequent steps will most likely be easier. With anxiety related tiredness, the best advice is to make sure you look after yourself well with regular exercise and a healthy diet to help the stress have less of an impact on your body. This may also take effort, but the rewards are worth it.
Overall, remember that you are feeling tired because of your social anxiety or depression and through working at overcoming it you will start to feel better and more energised about life. The more time and effort you invest in feeling more confident, the better you will feel and the easier things will get. So even when your energy is low, stretch to put in the work to improve your well-being and your life. We always have a little energy left, so keep going and invest it well 
Tags: Depression, Energy, Exhausted, Fatigue, Hyperactivity, Lazy, Low motivation, Motivation, Tired, Tiredness
October 19th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
A very enlightening entry I must say. I have suffered from social anxiety for as long as I can remember…and also I have struggled with feelings of tiredness. I can sleep for the recommended 7 hours a night and yet still feel like my eyelids have elephants attached to them by mid afternoon. I even started to think I might have ME, and went through a period of popping several pro plus and drinking copious amounts of caffeine…but of course this just made my anxiety levels much worse. Being tired due to being constantly anxious makes alot of sense. From an evolutionary perspective I suppose that it was helpful to have increased alertness at an anxiety provoking moment (eg a large predator about to eat you)…but when a person with social anxiety such as myself is in a constant state of alertness then this must place a huge drain on mental capacity. This may have hindered my recovery somewhat…feeling tired all the time doesn’t make doing the work any easier (CBT is hard work!) But i’m sure if guns are stuck to then progress can be made…and it gets easier the more you work at it.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:29 am
Very glad I read this entry, Nick. I’m temping at the Business School here in the University of Exeter at the moment (where I’m also doing my PhD), and by the time I get home I feel a degree of exhaustion that is disproportionate to the amount of sleep I’m getting (7-8 hours). I felt similarly tired after work when I was working full-time in an open-plan office, so it makes a lot more sense in retrospect. The penny sort’ve dropped when I was discussing it with my girlfriend tonight, and this really verifies my suspicions.
On a related topic, I’m going to make a real effort attend one of the North Bristol groups soon if a place doesn’t open up in the Central Bristol one within the coming weeks. I’ve got to the point with my social anxiety where I am completely fed up with it, and I’m eager – even desperate – to move on. I’m encouraged by your own story – it gives me hope that there’s a better life ahead of me if I focus on making the necessary changes to my own thinking.
Thanks,
Lee
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:23 am
I’ll keep this short and sweet–Thank you.
December 8th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Thanks, this is great encouragement
January 8th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Thank you for this post. I have been fighting with tiredness (and depression) episodes for a couple of years and they still come from time to time – then I feel soooo exhausted, that I’m not able to get up from bed for a whole day
January 24th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Hi everyone,
I have day off from work today and am feeling drained due to constant anxiety at work where I work in customer services.
I am hoping it will get better overtime.
S
August 29th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
hi a do not no what to do i feel so warn out and depressed have done for the best part of my life i have spoken to a number of doctors mental health team good diets execise i am a single mother have no money cannot drive plus scerd of the outside world this has led me to cut my wrists a number of times en i do not no how much longer i can keep fighting this constant battle please help