In many cases, the cause is not an acute illness, but a kind of low-intensity anxiety: a small but persistent tension, fed by endless messages, anticipation of a response, small daily decisions, and sporadic fears that do not amount to a panic attack, but do not go away. This anxiety is not a big psychological drama, but an internal background that slowly consumes energy, until the depletion turns into a chronic physical condition.
The first key to understanding this phenomenon is the idea of cumulative stress. When a person lives in a state of mild alertness throughout the day, the nervous system remains on standby: hypervigilance, rapid response to stimuli, and a tendency to worry about the near future. The person may not feel stressed, but they are checking their phone every few minutes, rethinking a sentence they said, and postponing rest because something has to be done.This situation maintains a relatively high level of stress hormones for long periods of time, and makes the body work like it's in a slow, non-stop race. Over time, symptoms appear: morning fatigue, fluctuating appetite, digestive upset, neck and jaw tightness, and rapid depletion of mental energy.
The second key is that low-intensity anxiety interferes with sleep without canceling it. A person may sleep for 7 hours, but he does not get enough deep sleep, because the brain remains in a state of surveillance even during sleep: he wakes up for seconds he does not remember, or enters a superficial and interrupted sleep, or sees disturbing dreams. The result is that sleep becomes a time of extinguishment rather than recovery, and the body wakes up as if it has not had its share of recovery. Here a cycle forms: tiredness increases sensitivity to anxiety, anxiety increases fragile sleep, and the cycle builds day after day.
Each small decision - write the letter or not? Reply now or later? Start the task or not? - consumes part of the brain's executive energy. With so many small decisions in succession, self-regulation reserves are reduced, so fatigue appears to be physical while its root is neuro-managerial: the brain is tired from managing an endless day, not from great muscular exertion.
To prevent it from becoming a generalized feeling, you can use a visit magnet: a simple 7-day scale that reveals the source of attrition. The idea is to record each day in just three boxes, from 0 to 10: 1 Energy: How much activity do you have? 2 Sleep: The quality of sleep, not just the number of hours. 3 Sleep: The quality of sleep, not just the number of hours. Then write one line: "What drained me the most today?" such as: waiting for a reply, too many alerts, a postponed task, a tense discussion, or a pending decision. After seven days, clear patterns will emerge: perhaps energy drops on days with too many messages, tension rises before meetings, or sleep quality worsens on nights with too much scrolling on the phone. These little maps help you move the issue from vague fatigue to specific triggers that can be addressed.
The bottom line is that low-intensity anxiety creates chronic fatigue by accumulating neurotic vigilance, impairing sleep quality, and draining daily decisions. You don't have to eliminate anxiety altogether, just see it running in the background, measure it, and then reduce its small, recurring sources. Often, the cure for fatigue starts with details, not tests: phone limits, fewer decisions, and true rest that doesn't require permission from anyone.
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