After reading this thread about Linsey Lohan, it got me wondering about when people are suffering from “exhaustion.”
In my sheltered experience, I’ve never heard of this ailment outside of the entertainment industry. I have always assumed that it was code for “substance abuse recovery time.”
But I may just be ignorant. So what’s the straight dope?
ba-dump
I passed out from heat exhaustion/dehydration once. That’s more of an acute condition, though. Mono makes you feel exhausted all the time.
I think in the rest of the (non-entertainment) world, it is called a “personal day” or a “sick day” or a “mental health day”, isn’t it?
Well, yes. There is that. Is that really the type of exhaustion the entertainment types are habitually suffering from?
That’s a joke set-up if I’ve ever heard one…
“Exhaustion” = “Too Much White Powder/Booze”
My current sig line says it all. :dubious:
Hey, you try sleeping with Fez and see if you don’t end up in your cups too. 
exhaustion = hangover.
A coworker was able to take a 3 month sabbatical due to exhaustion…
I have no idea what caused it… it wasn’t just the job since I got stuck with her duties for that time period…(I still do about half of what she did.)
Could also be euphemism for “recuperating from cosmetic surgery”
I can guarantee you that “exhaustion” is not a medical diagnosis (IAAD).
I’d say it comes just before “nervous breakdown” on the list of things-that-sound-like-real-diagnoses[sup]TM[/sup].
My ICD-9 manual lists a number of things under the general heading of Exhaustion, including:
battle (reaction, stress, acute) 308.9
cardiac (see heart failure) 428.9
due to cold 991.8
heat 992.5
heat, due to salt depletion 992.4
heat, due to water depletion 992.3
mental (also psychogenic) 300.5
old age 797
Like KarlGauss said, it’s not really a diagnosis in and of itself, but a handy symptom. The actual diagnoses, you can infer from the dissimilar numbers, are pretty well all over the board.
Sometimes on the reports I get, patients are admitted with clinical data that reads “fatigue,” but that’s just what the patient complained of when they came in.