# Hospitalized for exhaustion?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 23, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801 "2007-07-23T02:35:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/1 "2007-07-23T02:35:50Z")
This question isn’t really about Dave Chappelle per se, but in [this article](http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-07-18) it says that Chappelle was hospitalized for exhaustion. He was admitted for 12 hours and was given “food, water, and sleep” there.
What does this mean exactly? Why couldn’t he get food, water, and sleep at home? Why did he have to go to the hospital for this? Or does “exhaustion” have some medical meaning here that I don’t know? I notice this often happens in tandem with denials of drug use. Is that just sensationalism on the part of the press, or is it a common cover up reason for a celebrity’s admission? Do non-famous folks ever go to the hospital for exhaustion?
I hope to get factual answers, thus placing it in GQ. If the thread doesn’t go that way, I guess it’ll get moved. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/2 "2007-07-23T02:42:21Z")
I’m eagerly awaiting an answer to this question. I’ve wondered about it for a long time. Could _I_ be admitted to a hospital for a week or so and get food, water, and sleep and have my insurance pay for it? After all, I _am_ exhausted.
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### Author:  [@I\_m\_Ron\_Burgundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_m_Ron_Burgundy)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/3 "2007-07-23T03:04:47Z")
After a little bit of digging, I found on wikipedia that there is a medical term, fatigue, to describe this.
> **[Fatigue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(medical))**
>
> Fatigue describes a state of tiredness (which is not sleepiness) or exhaustion. In general usage, fatigue often follows prolonged physical or mental activity. When fatigue occurs independently of physical or mental exertion, or does not resolve after rest or sleep, it may have other causes, such as a medical condition.
> Fatigue (in a medical context) is complex and its cause is often unknown. Fatigue is associated with a wide variety of conditions including autoimmune disease, organ failure, chro...
I googled ‘hospitalized fatigue’ and found plenty of news stories on people being hospitalized for just that.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/4 "2007-07-23T03:13:58Z")
[QUOTE=I’m Ron Burgundy?]
I googled ‘hospitalized fatigue’ and found plenty of news stories on people being hospitalized for just that.
[/QUOTE]
The question is how many of those people were hospitalized for other less savory reasons and their publicity flacks sugar-coated the situation by telling the papers that it was for “exhaustion.”
“Some” is a certainty. What we don’t know is whether “some” is “most.”
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/5 "2007-07-23T05:38:13Z")
I’ve never seen anyone with an admitting diagnosis of exhaustion. OTOH, I’ve never been involved with the admission of anyone that had a public profile.
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### Author:  [@I\_m\_Ron\_Burgundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_m_Ron_Burgundy)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/6 "2007-07-23T06:09:07Z")
Slate attempts an answer:
[http://www.slate.com/id/2170652/fr/rss/](http://www.slate.com/id/2170652/fr/rss/)
It seems more like what I’d call a nervous breakdown.
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/7 "2007-07-23T06:20:30Z")
Sometimes people can become so stressed out that they become overly anxious and panicky. Anxiety attacks can even feel like heart attacks. That’s why a lot of people end up in the ER with this condition. Often what they need is nourishment, a quiet place and good sound sleep. Sometimes they are given a sedative to help them sleep.
Celebrities sometimes keep very hectic irregular schedules that can lead to a lot of stress and poor eating and sleeping habits. If they are also prone to anxiety attacks, then they may end up in an ER with “exhaustion.” Essentially, that is exactly what is wrong with them. It doesn’t happen just to celebrities though. They’re just the ones that get written about.
This is just one possible answer to your question.
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### Author:  [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/8 "2007-07-23T07:10:16Z")
IANADr., but I suspect that dehydration is the culprit in some cases. Blood pressure drops, you feel extreme energy loss. I also agree w/ **Zoe** , that stress can result in panic attacks. Back in the 70’s I was in a high pressure situation, job, politics, marriage, too many balls in the air. I had several panic attacks over a period of a couple of months, very scary, but not life threatening, even though it feels that way. Age must also be a factor, as we grow older the body, and the brain, grow less tolerant of our excesses.
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### Author:  [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/9 "2007-07-23T08:42:54Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak]
This question isn’t really about Dave Chappelle per se, but in [this article](http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-07-18) it says that Chappelle was hospitalized for exhaustion. He was admitted for 12 hours and was given “food, water, and sleep” there.
What does this mean exactly? Why couldn’t he get food, water, and sleep at home? Why did he have to go to the hospital for this? Or does “exhaustion” have some medical meaning here that I don’t know? I notice this often happens in tandem with denials of drug use. Is that just sensationalism on the part of the press, or is it a common cover up reason for a celebrity’s admission? Do non-famous folks ever go to the hospital for exhaustion?
I hope to get factual answers, thus placing it in GQ. If the thread doesn’t go that way, I guess it’ll get moved. Thanks.
[/QUOTE]
We do not use “exhaustion” as a medical diagnosis except for specific circumstances such as heat exhaustion (a sort of “not quite heat stroke” diagnosis).
It’s more likely the patient was taken to the Hospital for whatever reason, kept under observation for a period of time, and released. Absent a pathologic or politically acceptable diagnosis to apply, “exhaustion” is benign and vague enough to apply.
It is possible to be so overwhelmingly ill from dehydration/cold/underlying illness etc that you cannot hydrate or feed yourself but these sorts of cases are seldom that.
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### Author:  [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/10 "2007-07-23T09:31:09Z")
maybe he just had the worst case of diarrhea/food poisoning on record as I did and needed the hospital to recover from dehydration.
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### Author:  [@zeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeno)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hospitalized-for-exhaustion/412801/11 "2007-07-23T15:44:03Z")
I always thought it was a codeword for drug overdose or addiction.