There’s Nothing Wrong With You, You Just Have Low Iron

We’ve all had a time where we’re sick but we don’t know what we’re sick with. Nothing is too serious, but it disrupts your routine. It impacts your daily life. These illnesses can be the hardest to diagnose. Doctors don’t take you as seriously because nothing life threatening is happening, and sometimes it’s too difficult to describe what specifically is off. It’s just a feeling of general malaise that keeps you from functioning at a hundred percent.

This happened to me last year, when I spent every single day exhausted.

I’d go to work, and no matter the time I went in, how much sleep I got the night before, or how long my shift was, I would come home completely spent and sleep through the entire night. I rarely stayed up to cook for myself, so I was also eating much less than I should’ve. My house was a mess because I didn’t have the energy to clean. My hobbies went to the wayside, and the media went untouched and unconsumed. Friendships suffered as I spent all my waking hours, albeit minimally, at work. Even on days off, I was sleeping through the whole day, waking up to scroll on my phone for an hour or two before dozing off again.

All the while, I was a student simultaneously battling extreme burnout. If I didn’t have the mental energy for homework, I didn’t even have the physical energy to finish it, so my grades suffered tremendously. 

It was incredibly frustrating having something so wrong with me, but I didn’t feel serious enough to take it to a doctor. Exhaustion can come from so many sources that it is impossible to identify what is specifically causing the issue. It got to the point where I was having fainting spells from all the fatigue. It had impacted my life so negatively that I took the problem to my psychiatrist, who ordered blood work for me.

After many long months, I finally had the answer: I was anemic. 

Turns out, something so simple to fix had been wrong with me the entire time. I knew instantly it was all from my diet—I’m pescatarian and allergic to eggs, so my iron intake is pretty low. All I had to do to start feeling better was take iron supplements. Now that it’s been months of taking them, I feel incredible. I can get through the workday with energy to spare to cook, get back into the gym, and continue my hobbies. I see my friends more regularly, and life feels full of color again.

This is your sign to get your bloodwork done. If you’ve been feeling generally off, like you’re slightly unwell, it could be something as easily diagnosable as low iron. There are better days on the other side of such illness.

If you’re going through something similar, be persistent with your doctor. Advocating for yourself can be difficult, but it’s so necessary. Prioritizing your health comes before anything else!

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