Sometimes, you want to do nothing, and that’s normal. Rest is essential to replenish your energy and motivation. When you’re feeling lazy, it might be your body telling you to take a break. Hence, you shouldn’t regard laziness negatively.
But there are instances where your laziness might not be so usual anymore. Instead, it might indicate a health issue. Maybe your immune system has detected a foreign body in your system and is attacking it. Or it might be a mental health problem, like work- or school-related stress.
The point is laziness beyond your control isn’t always an attitude problem. Break the stigma against poor motivation by considering the possible health reasons.
Table of Contents
1. Bad Lifestyle Choices
Your lifestyle directly impacts your health. As such, bad habits—like drinking too much alcohol, not sleeping enough, or overeating—can affect your energy levels. Even if you drink coffee or Red Bull six times a day or more to pump yourself up, it won’t cure your sluggishness.
Heavily Relying on caffeine is a possible culprit for your low energy too. Consuming more than 400 mg of caffeine in a day can cause insomnia, restlessness, increased heart rate, and headaches. Those symptoms will affect the quality of your rest and sleep, so your body isn’t given a chance to recharge truly.
If you’re guilty of these lifestyle practices, make minor adjustments until you get accustomed to a healthier routine. Reduce your intake of caffeine and alcohol each time you’d drink them. Set a consistent sleep schedule and follow it even on weekends. These changes will bring back your body’s circadian rhythm that isn’t influenced by any substance.
2. Anemia
Anemia acts differently on each person it affects. The symptoms go unnoticed in mild or gradual cases, but the disease is far from cured. But all types of anemia have common symptoms, including fatigue, energy loss, and difficulty concentrating, among others.
There are four possible causes of anemia:
- Iron deficiency
- Vitamin B12 deficiency
- Chronic lead poisoning
- Chronic red blood cell destruction
Iron deficiency anemia also causes pica, or a strange craving for inedible items. It also curves the nails upward and causes mouth sores and cracks. If your laziness is combined with those symptoms, get checked as soon as possible.
Suppose your laziness is accompanied by a pins and needles sensation in the hands or feet, a wobbly gait, reduced sense of touch, and clumsiness or soreness in your limbs. In that case, it’s most likely vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 injections and dietary changes can treat this.
Chronic lead poisoning should be more obvious, as it causes vomiting, abdominal pains, and constipation. But since those symptoms are the same as many gastrointestinal conditions, look for the telltale blue-black line on your gums. Call your health department or rush to the hospital at once if you see it. The lead should be removed from your system fast. If you’ve ingested a lot of lead, you will need chelation therapy to recover.
Lastly, chronic red blood cell destruction causes jaundice, brown or red urine, leg ulcers, and gallstone symptoms. A blood transfusion is one of the treatments for this.
3. Autoimmune Disease
Up to 50 percent of autoimmune disease patients exhibit depression-like symptoms, including laziness and fatigue. Hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid, is one common autoimmune disease. It causes your thyroid glands to produce fewer thyroid hormones than necessary. Besides fatigue, its symptoms include weight gain, depression, and muscle aches, among others. The disease has no cure, but its symptoms can be relieved through hormone replacements and lifestyle changes.
If fatigue is your main problem, you might have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Its symptoms include chronic insomnia, memory loss, muscle aches, and dizziness when changing bodily positions. Sometimes, it also causes swollen lymph nodes and frequent sore throat. It has no cure as well, but effective CFS treatments will alleviate its symptoms.
4. Depression
Depression and laziness can go hand-in-hand. Since depression makes you stop enjoying the things you used to like, it tamps down your overall motivation. Depression also causes fatigue, which 90% of its patients experience.
If your laziness is coupled with mental health issues, don’t hesitate to seek counseling. Depression can also be life-threatening, so don’t downplay it as mere sadness. Anti-depressants, support groups, and other mental health activities will keep you from hitting rock bottom. For that reason, seeking treatment will be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.
Again, laziness is not always a simple refusal to do anything. If it’s already affecting the quality of your life, take it more seriously and get help. Spread awareness about its relationship to your health. That way, anyone going through the same struggle can understand their condition.
Meta title: Feeling Lazy? You Might Actually Be Sick
meta desc: It’s normal to feel like doing nothing sometimes. But dealing with sluggishness every day might indicate a health issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
