Malaise is described as any of the following:
- a feeling of overall weakness
- a feeling of discomfort
- a feeling like you have an illness
- simply not feeling well
It often occurs with fatigue and an inability to restore a feeling of health through proper rest.
Sometimes, malaise happens suddenly. Other times, it may develop gradually and persist for a long period. The reason behind your malaise can be extremely difficult to determine because it can be the result of so many conditions.
However, once your doctor diagnoses the cause of your malaise, treating the condition can help you feel better.
There are numerous possible causes of malaise. Any time your body undergoes a disruption, such as an injury, disease, or trauma, you can experience malaise. The causes listed here represent some of the many possibilities.
Try not to jump to conclusions about the cause of your malaise until you’ve seen your doctor.
If you have a musculoskeletal condition, you can often experience a general sense of discomfort and unease. Additionally, malaise is a typical symptom of various forms of arthritis, such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.
Acute viral disorders, such as the following, can cause malaise:
- HIV
- AIDS
- fibromyalgia
- Lyme disease
- hepatitis
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a particularly complex disorder that’s characterized by a feeling of overall pain, fatigue, and malaise.
These chronic conditions may cause malaise:
Mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, can often lead to malaise. However, it’s also possible to begin to feel symptoms of depression and anxiety if you have malaise. It can be difficult to determine if the malaise or depression occurred first.
Other causes of malaise can include:
Medications
Medications that can also put you at risk for malaise include:
Some medications may not cause malaise on their own but can lead to malaise when combined with other medications.
Malaise and Fatigue
Fatigue often occurs along with malaise. When experiencing malaise, you will often also feel exhausted or lethargic in addition to a generalized feeling of being unwell.
Like malaise, fatigue has a large number of possible explanations. It can be due to lifestyle factors, illnesses, and certain medications.
See your doctor if you feel overwhelmed by the feelings of malaise or if your malaise lasts longer than seven days. You should also speak to your doctor if your malaise occurs with other symptoms.
It’s important to be your own health advocate if you’re experiencing malaise. It’s difficult to determine the cause of malaise. Being proactive about seeking a diagnosis will only help your condition.
Ask questions and speak up if you feel you need to continue a conversation with your doctor about your health.
Your doctor will perform a physical examination. They’ll look for an obvious physical condition that could be the cause of your malaise or could give clues about its cause.
They will also ask questions about your malaise. Be prepared to provide details such as approximately when the malaise started and whether the malaise seems to come and go, or is constantly present.
Your doctor will also likely ask you questions about recent travel, additional symptoms you’re experiencing, any challenges you have in completing daily activities, and why you think you’re having these challenges.
They’ll ask you what medications you’re taking, if you use drugs or alcohol, and whether you have any known health issues or conditions.
If they aren’t sure what’s causing you to feel malaise, they may order tests to confirm or rule out one or more diagnoses. These tests may include blood tests, X-rays, and other diagnostic tools.
Malaise is not a condition in and of itself. Therefore, treatment will focus on addressing the underlying cause.
Predicting what this treatment will consist of is unlikely because malaise can be due to a wide variety of conditions. That’s why an examination and testing is necessary. This information can help your doctor make a proper diagnosis.
Treatment for the cause of your malaise can help control the feeling and prevent it from becoming overwhelming. You can minimize your malaise by:
Malaise can be difficult to prevent because it has many possible causes.
Keeping a record of your physical and mental well-being can help you identify the causes and triggers of your malaise. Keep a journal to help you track your malaise. You can present your findings to your doctor if necessary.
Discomfort is a fairly broad term, but it's one of the main words that people use to describe what their anxiety symptoms are like. Anxiety discomfort is often difficult to explain. In some cases, the discomfort is more general, like a feeling that something is off. In other cases it's more specific, like back pain, neck pain, and so on. In this article, we'll explore various types of discomfort and look at some of the links this discomfort has to anxiety. Despite falling under the header of "anxiety," each anxiety disorder is very different, and can create vastly different symptoms that may lead to different types of discomfort. Consider the following: Describing discomfort can be very difficult, and occurs differently for each person. For some, it is pain, and the pain can be dull, sharp, or barely there but irritating. For others, it's a weird sensation - like feeling as though your leg needs to move or that your fingers are tingling. For others it's psychological, and the discomfort comes from the vague feeling like something is wrong. The most important thing to do with the various discomforts that anxiety may bring your way is to identity them and learn to accept them. If you allow the uncomfortable symptoms of anxiety to upset you, they will become worse. Then you will have two problems: the original symptom that is causing the discomfort and the fear that you have of the of the symptom. Take the time to make a list of the discomforts you have so that you can learn to recognize and accept them when they appear.Different Anxiety Disorders Create Different Discomfort
Recognizing Your Anxiety Discomforts and Addressing Them Directly
But once again, the best thing you can do for yourself, is to address the underlying problem of anxiety that is causing your discomforts. Meditate. Do a mindfulness training. Or go into therapy.
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“Feeling uncomfortable in your own skin is a suffocating feeling and very difficult to handle when people look at you and think you’re crazy for thinking that or just don’t understand.”
I so resonated with that. I remember feeling so uncomfortable in my body, so unhappy with my weight, and so distressed about my imperfections, that I didn’t know how to handle these debilitating feelings. The suffocation I felt was often paralyzing.
There is a way to remedy this feeling. Next time you have one of these “I just want to jump out of my body and into someone else’s so I feel normal” moments, remember these helpful mindset shifts:
The Danger of Our Mind: The moments when you feel uncomfortable in your own skin, you are completely identified with your mind. It is our minds that spiral us into thoughts of discomfort and being ill at ease in our bodies. Yes, there may be times when you’ve eaten too much and you are uncomfortably full. In this case, you may actually be feeling physical discomfort in your body. But on a day to day basis, when you feel like you are suffocating in your own body and you just want to fast forward a few days and feel normal, realize you are entirely in your head. Our minds can be a dangerous thing when we let them spiral out of control. Not kept in check, our thoughts can easily become destructive and critical; we convince ourselves we will uncontrollably gain weight, never feel satisfied with our bodies, and never be happy with ourselves. When you become aware of these thoughts, and the potential to go down a destructive mind-track, you can stop the spiral before it starts.
Do more BODY living. Explore ways to get more in touch with your body. Disordered eating thought patterns and negative body image criticisms keep us imprisoned in our minds. Taking steps to get OUT of your mind and INTO your body will start your journey towards feeling comfortable. What brings you back in your body? Playing sports? Going for a run? Taking a Pilates or yoga class? Once you begin to experiment what your body actually FEELS like, you begin to walk the path towards more body centered living. Another wonderful tool for bringing yourself into the present is deep breathing. When you find yourself getting caught up in your mind, take 10 deep breaths. It will work wonders for realigning your focus back in your body.
The Path to Freedom. Realize that overcoming the suffocating feeling won’t happen overnight. For those that struggle with food, weight, and body image issues, this is unwelcome news. We are incessantly looking for that one magic “thing” that will solve our problems forever. Remember, though, that these habits didn’t develop in a day. These thoughts and behaviors escalated into mind-habits over the years. So, too, will the path towards living more in your body. But don’t let that discourage you. Because you only have to deal with each “episode” as it arises. The next time you feel the suffocation, the desire to escape out of your body, and the discomfort in your own skin, use the deep breathing to bring you back into the moment. You only have to get through this moment, this day, this time. Each time you successfully overcome one of these “episodes”, you are building upon the foundation to do it again the next time. This is how our new, healthy habits develop. Each time you navigate through the feelings of discomfort, you strengthen the new thought pattern until it becomes a natural way of thinking and being.
It is possible to begin to break free from the feeling of suffocation and discomfort in your own skin. Remember these tools the next time you notice yourself slipping into this feeling.
Take Action! Where in your life can your incorporate these tools? What are some ways you help yourself feel more comfortable in your body? Leave a comment below!