Fatigue and Health

Reading over the posts I wrote in August, I see how affected I was by fatigue, and how it caused me to be irritable and antisocial.  I have been feeling better for the past week.  When I am ill with fatigue, it is so hard to imagine that I will ever feel any differently.  I once read something that described chronic fatigue syndrome as walking around carrying a refrigerator on your shoulders.  When I have that refrigerator, I feel that is just what life is like, life is that hard, and I just have to keep on going anyhow, have to do my job, do my chores, and try to carve out some happiness.  And then the refrigerator goes away, and I feel so much lighter.  Suddenly, it seems pleasant to go out and be around people.  Suddenly I just do things, I'm not forcing myself to do them any more.  Always I am looking for a cause for the presence or absence of the fatigue.  If I go to bed earlier will the refrigerator go away? How about if I exercise more? Or exercise less? Have caffeine? Quit caffeine?  Go out more? Stay home more?  There are no easy answers.  I work hard to live a healthy lifestyle, but the refrigerator comes and goes according to its own whims.