I’m so glad you’ve found your way here. This is where you get the link between stress, adrenal fatigue and how to heal.
I was always very familiar with the short term symptoms of how stress affected me.
I would feel my blood pressure rising and a constriction in my head. I felt anxiety and an inability to relax easily. I would find my breathing getting very shallow and occasionally I also suffered with headaches & insomnia.
In past situations, these symptoms usually subsided within a day or two and I felt back to “normal”.
A few years back however, I experienced these feelings and symptoms of stress over an extended period of time, on and off for a few years. I had begun to feel chronically stressed.
I began to experience a whole new set of symptoms which I later came to understand as adrenal fatigue. Some of these included intense fatigue, a feeling of weakness, digestive disturbances, blood sugars that dropped quickly, and a knock on effect with my thyroid which resulted in weight gain and hair loss. Need I go on!! It was not fun and not pretty.
Check out a more detailed description of adrenal fatigue symptoms here. I also encourage you to check out the what is adrenal fatigue page which will help to give you a deeper understanding of what it is.
For now, know that if you experience symptoms of stress that are short-term, you will usually recover fairly quickly and began to feel like your “usual” self again.
If the symptoms of stress go on for an extended period of time, this becomes chronic stress and many people experience symptoms of adrenal fatigue and many other potential health issues.
Essentially, if the stress you are experiencing becomes chronic, your cortisol levels start going out of whack as your body engages its “fight or flight” mechanisms far too often. This reaction over time, has your cortisol working the wrong way around and you find yourself wired at night and tired in the morning (it should be the other way around!!).
If the stress and fatigue becomes severe, your cortisol may eventually flatline and you may find you have “nothing left in the tank” so to speak, all the time. At this point there can be a knock on effect with many systems in your body.
The most important point is in recognising that you are experiencing stress, then recognising that you may be feeling chronic stress; and knowing the difference in the types of symptoms that you are now experiencing.
An even more important point is knowing how to heal. Check out this more detailed post on the physical healing tips to get some ideas. As well as the aspects of physical healing which I encourage you to work with a natural health practitioner on; there is the very important aspect of understanding the emotional and mental components. To fully heal from adrenal fatigue and the underlying stress, you need to get to the root of what caused this.
I wish you well on your healing journey and look forward to getting to know you in the facebook community and here on the website. I encourage you to read a wide variety of information here to really help you in your understanding on a deeper level.
Much love
Lisa
