David Powlison erzählt von seiner eigenen tiefen Müdigkeit, die ihn nach seiner Herzoperation begleitete:
For five years I suffered from shattering and debilitating fatigue. Fatigue destroyed much of my life. I had no resilience. I was able to do only the bare minimum in every area of my life. I had to let go of many things that were valuable, gratifying, and joyous. My social life became smaller and smaller, and was finally narrowed down to family and a few friends. My ministry—counseling, teaching, and writing—was severely curtailed.
Die Gründe für Müdigkeit können ganz unterschiedlich sein:
- Physical: disease (allergies, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, cancer, hypoglycemia, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, thyroid dysfunction, and many more), medication side effects, old age, parenting young children (nursing and hormonal changes for women, and for both women and men loss of sleep), and sleep problems
- Emotional: depression, grief, multi-tasking, overwork, stress
- Spiritual: fear, guilt, worry
Müdigkeit kann eine Versuchung in mancherlei Hinsicht sein. David Powlison zählt acht ungesunde Strategien auf:
- Anxiety. You have lost your health. It’s tempting to fret, obsess, and worry about your health, your future, and your identity.
- Compulsively seek a cure. Another typical temptation is to obsess about your health in such a way that it takes over your whole life. Hear me rightly—I am not making light of the goodness of medical care. Certainly you should look for help from your doctors. But when you aren’t healthy, it’s easy to make getting healthy the center of your life.
- Escapism. Because you don’t feel like doing anything, it’s tempting to just vegetate—to turn to food, to television, or to other escapes. Because you feel lousy, it’s tempting to turn to something that will help you forget how you feel.
- Use it for secondary gains. Fatigue gives you a very convenient excuse to not do things. So it’s tempting to use it as an excuse to not do the things you are still able to do.
- Grumble. Fatigue will sorely tempt you to grumble. The Israelites did not grumble when they were in the land of milk and honey. They grumbled when it was hard, when it was hot. They grumbled when they were fatigued and hungry.
- Give up. To lose so many capabilities, and to have so many things you would like to do, but can’t, is depressing. It’s a loss. The temptation to give up in your situation is huge.
- Denial. Maybe you don’t give up; instead, you deny you have a problem. You keep going forward, pushing yourself, and trying to do it all. You don’t want to admit you have any limitations. You’re afraid that if you ever stopped or slowed down you would lose your identity.
- Self-pity. It’s tempting to feel sorry for yourself and imagine that your life is harder than anyone else’s.
