Ongoing stressful situations lead to chronic stress which can leave us feeling tired, drained, and lacking the energy we need to get through the day. If you’ve had a full night’s sleep, but you’re still tired, and the thought of going back to bed sounds wonderful, then it might be time to check for adrenal fatigue. True, there may be other conditions with similar symptoms. So you would want to talk with a healthcare practitioner. How would you know that you have symptoms of adrenal fatigue? That’s what this post will discuss further. When we are rebuilding our lives after traumas and losses, we have to on purpose rebuild in many ways, starting with our bodies.
Constant Stress
Our bodies were not designed to handle constant stress and traumas. Jesus was always saying not to worry or fret, but instead, to talk to Him and to give Him our cares so we can have peace in our hearts and minds.
Who hasn’t had traumatic events occur in life? We know how stressful things can get. Stress makes our adrenal glands work harder than normal. One stressful, major incident can wear us down and make us tired and emotionally drained. But when several traumatic events occur close together or at the same time, that makes life even harder, sometimes nearly unbearable. What happens is that our adrenal glands have to work overtime because we’re in a survival mode. Our adrenal glands work as if we are trying to escape from a huge lion chasing us. So the adrenal glands are pumping out a stress hormone called cortisol which is designed to give us a turbo charge to get us to safety and away from the charging lion.
What is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a steroid hormone made in our adrenal glands. It is pumped through our bodies during stressful times. As a result, cortisol increases our heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose, respiration, and muscle tension. When cortisol is pumping hard, it temporarily shuts down our digestive and reproductive systems since we don’t need them during a crisis. For more details about cortisol, check out this article on Cortisol from the Cleveland Clinic. Meanwhile, think back on some of your highly stressful situations. Do the results of cortisol racing through your body sound familiar to what happened in your body?
Too much cortisol from stressful situations can cause anxiety and depression and can be related to changes in a woman’s menstrual cycle and libido. On the other hand, adrenal insufficiency is a result of low cortisol levels in the body. This condition brings with it mood swings, fatigue, weight loss, skin changes, and muscle loss.
What are Your Lions?
How often do you have to escape from a big lion that’s chasing you? Only once in a great while, right? It’s not supposed to be an hourly or daily thing, but when you’re in a very stressful environment, your body may be responding as if there’s a lion after you all the time. That’s a problem!
Are there any lions in your life right now? Lions might be work-related stress, caring for a loved one who has cancer or a loved one with dementia or other disability, or it might be hormone changes, sleepless nights, financial stress, or unexpectedly losing a job. Any number of combinations might exist at one time. For instance, being involved in an auto accident, that coincides with extra job stress; an unexpected job loss right after buying a new house, or the untimely death of a loved one followed by a car dying too can quickly turn your life upside down. Maybe it’s something more positive, but still just as life-changing like returning to college to pursue a higher degree, relocating to where the college is located, and having to change jobs. I mention these examples to help you realize what can catapult anybody into survival mode impacting our adrenal glands and our sleep. These kinds of situations can cause the adrenal glands to go hyper and rev up your cortisol levels.
Coping
So whatever lions you’ve identified in your life right now, pause for a minute and think about how you’re coping and what you’re doing to de-stress and help your adrenal glands calm down. Are you taking a quality vitamin C product? What about a stress-complex supplement that typically contains a combination of B vitamins to help the body better cope? Vitamin C will help support your adrenal glands, but with ongoing stress, the adrenals require extra support. Getting ample magnesium will help the body stay calmer. Herbs like Siberian Ginseng (be careful using this if you have high blood pressure as it may increase it), Ashwagandha, and Rhodiola are all used to help support the adrenals. Your local health food store typically has a variety of products specifically formulated for adrenal support. Find what works best for you even if it takes trying different formulas. A good formula will help you feel calmer and it will also help you to get to sleep and stay asleep at night. You can also use soothing herbal teas to help you relax. One suggestion, if you’re taking B vitamins, you’ll want to take them in the morning or early afternoon so you get the most benefit. Taking them too close to bedtime might keep you awake. Another option for coping and keeping your immune system strong is using a high-quality Beta-1 3D Glucan product that surpasses others on the market. It’s one that I use because it is well-tested and highly respected. You can read more about it when you click this link.
While you may feel too tired to exercise, it’s still important to do it. Walking is great therapy for those who are tired and drained. A brisk, 30-minute walk in the morning will get your day started positively. If you commute to work, then try walking at lunchtime or after work. Pushing yourself to do full-blown, high-impact workouts at the gym may be too taxing for someone with adrenal fatigue. So be kind to yourself and be sensitive to what your body can handle each day. You can also do some exercises with free weights or on a small trampoline (rebounder) at home. The key is to be wise and not overdo it when your body is already trying to recover from chronic stress.
You can be sure that I’ll be addressing this topic again in the future because it’s so important and so many people are dealing with it. I would love to hear what you have used to cope with and recover from chronic stress and adrenal fatigue. Feel free to leave your comments below and I’ll be sure to respond.
Wow, this is an amazing article.
As an RN, I love websites that promote health and self-awareness of the early symptoms of stress because stress actually damages the whole body systems slowly – physically and psychologically.
By the way, I love your analogy of one’s big lion.
I’m glad you liked this post, Che! Yes, stress damages our entire body physically & psychologically. There’s so much more to be said about this topic, but I’ll be doing that in future posts. I appreciate your professional insight in your comment. Thank you!
Well, I’ll say this: Very interesting read. Normally when my mind is spinning from any work, I would just go for a run outside or for a walk or I would just listen to music to calm down. They at least gets my mind focused on the task at hand. Great article; I will for sure keep this in mind. And by the way, that lion that you speak of is ME getting all of my success!
Ah… so you are your own charging lion, Evan. I get that! Sometimes we can get in our own way. Sounds like you have some good things in place to de-stress. So glad you shared your insights. Now take a deep breath, because you’re already successful. 🙂
Thanks a lot for this post that was explaining to us everything about adrenal fatigue. I think it’s a very common thing that we hardly ever take the trouble to solve. I will be sure to implement the suggested solutions , especially excercising.
Good idea, Mitala! Exercise is very helpful if you do what your body can handle in the midst of stressful situations. You’re right about people ignoring adrenal fatigue. They tend to have extra caffeine to keep their energy levels up and that further zaps the overworked adrenal glands. Ugh! Here’s another idea for strengthening the immune system when under stress. Thanks for stopping by my site and for sharing your thoughts.