"Post-exertional malaise" doesn't cover the sudden debilitating fatigue that many survivors of COVID and of Polio encounter, for two examples.
What these people experience is sudden. Further, it is not tied to exertion but can happen any time without warning. It is unexpected. And it is more than the fatigue that able-bodied people might envision when they hear the word, "fatigue." It is debilitating.
Instead of a misleading term, why not call it by its true name? Certainly survivors should call it by its true name; leave the diagnostic words to the clinicians (who generally never have to experience anything like it).
Call it something like Sudden Debilitating Fatigue, to take account of its main features: It is sudden and it is debilitating. Adding these adjectives to the word "fatigue" will bring it out of the realm of able-bodied people who think it means the same thing as 'tired.'
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