Adrenal Issues
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 109
Adrenal Issues
Has anyone had experience with some level of adrenal fatigue? I suspect it's a bigger part of our early sobriety than we know or read about. If you have experienced it how has your recovery been doing?
Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 5,229
sometimes i wonder as i was running 7 days a week for the longest time and i finally said i think i should work in 1 rest day it seems to have helped I think i was umm burning the candle at both ends..
but in my defense i totally love running *sigh*
but in my defense i totally love running *sigh*
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
I think you may be on to something.
Alcohol (as does sugar) stimulates the production of both adrenaline and dopamine, and I imagine that the situations that we create while we're drinking are experienced by our bodies as mini traumas. Reliable and often continuous experiences of "fight or flight," which, in turn, can account for our being "functional" for a time during our drinking. I'm convinced that many of the withdrawal symptoms that many of us experience either are or mimic symptoms of PTSD (which symptoms are in part produced by an overproduction of adrenaline), and that the overproduction of adrenaline is in part responsible for this.
I don't know for certain whether or not or how long after putting down the drink our systems reset themselves fully, and I imagine that this varies from person to person. Following this train of thought...While, at least for a time, our bodies may remain prepared for chaos or trauma after putting down the drink, much of the chaos subsides or occurs less frequently. Yet our excess adrenaline both causes alertness/vigilance and fatigue.
I've had success employing a much broader description of PTSD than does the DSM. Being in an unloving relationship for years, being verbally abused over time, living in perpetual fear, and bringing upon ourselves constant trauma by the use of alcohol and other drugs typically produce PTSD symptoms that, no matter the diagnosis, are very real for the sufferer.
Alcohol (as does sugar) stimulates the production of both adrenaline and dopamine, and I imagine that the situations that we create while we're drinking are experienced by our bodies as mini traumas. Reliable and often continuous experiences of "fight or flight," which, in turn, can account for our being "functional" for a time during our drinking. I'm convinced that many of the withdrawal symptoms that many of us experience either are or mimic symptoms of PTSD (which symptoms are in part produced by an overproduction of adrenaline), and that the overproduction of adrenaline is in part responsible for this.
I don't know for certain whether or not or how long after putting down the drink our systems reset themselves fully, and I imagine that this varies from person to person. Following this train of thought...While, at least for a time, our bodies may remain prepared for chaos or trauma after putting down the drink, much of the chaos subsides or occurs less frequently. Yet our excess adrenaline both causes alertness/vigilance and fatigue.
I've had success employing a much broader description of PTSD than does the DSM. Being in an unloving relationship for years, being verbally abused over time, living in perpetual fear, and bringing upon ourselves constant trauma by the use of alcohol and other drugs typically produce PTSD symptoms that, no matter the diagnosis, are very real for the sufferer.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 109
Endgame very well said! I've been searching for as much health information as I can but seems you really need to educate yourself and come to some understanding within yourself about how your own system works and and what it's been through and what it needs to heal.
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