hope {adrenal exhaustion}

One day Kate saw this ad in a magazine and said, "Is that you, Mama?" I should have known something was wrong then.

I know I have been a really bad blogger. I have not posted a lot and what I have posted has been of little substance lately. I really have not felt well in a long time. I am utterly exhausted and I get sick all the time. I finally found a specialist who has run a million tests and I got all of the results today.

Normally, I would not post such personal health information but I am sharing this because I would never want someone to feel as awful as I have for as long as I have. I found out that I have a severe vitamin B-12 deficiency, vitamin D deficiency and my thyroid levels are low. However, the main diagnosis was severe adrenal exhaustion.

Your adrenal glands produce all of your stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) and they also produce all of the essential reproductive hormones. My adrenal glands are barely functioning. My cortisol level are so low, the doctor is amazed that I can get out of bed.

Symptoms of adrenal exhaustion include:

• excessive fatigue and exhaustion
• non-refreshing sleep (you get sufficient hours of sleep, but wake fatigued)
• overwhelmed by or unable to cope with stressors
• feeling rundown or overwhelmed
• craving salty and sweet foods
• you feel most energetic in the evening
• a feeling of not being restored after a full night's sleep or having sleep disturbances
• low stamina, slow to recover from exercise
• slow to recover from injury, illness or stress
• difficulty concentrating, brain fog
• poor digestion
• low immune function
• food or environmental allergies
• premenstrual syndrome or difficulties that develop during menopause
• consistent low blood pressure
• extreme sensitivity to cold

There are many more symptoms but the bottom line is you feel completely exhausted and you get sick often. You also overreact to things physically. For example, I flinch a lot and am very jumpy because my body cannot adequately regulate the normal fight or flight response.

As a result of the long term adrenal exhaustion, my thyroid and hormone levels are all messed up as well. The doctor thinks it will take over a year to get things back to normal. I am SO encouraged though. She gave me a B-12 shot today and lots of natural supplements and she is beginning to compound some bio-identical hormones to help things get back to normal.

I have felt like a terrible Mom, wife, and friend for a long time now because I am so tired. I just could not do anything 100%. I would look around at women who are able to accomplish so much more than me in a day and feel really guilty. I have let my house get so messy. I have snapped at my kids and husband. I have really felt like people thought I was lazy or a hypochondriac. Finally, I found a doctor who really listened to me and found out what was indeed wrong. I cannot tell you how many dismissed me when I told them I thought I was low in B-12 or that my adrenals were not functioning correctly.

So, I am telling you this because I wish that I had tried harder to find a specialist who would listen to me and do a thorough exam to get to the bottom of my health issues. I had the textbook symptoms of adrenal exhaustion and low vitamin B-12. I also had textbook symptoms of a hormonal imbalance caused by adrenal exhaustion. Yet, I look healthy and eat healthy. For me, the adrenal exhaustion was likely caused by years of sustained stress (building a house, moving across the country twice, parenting a chronically ill child, adopting, etc). Luckily, our heathy diet protected me from other damage this can cause.

So, I am finally on the road to recovery and while I am excited, I know it is going to be hard. For six weeks, I need to eliminate ALL SUGAR and YEAST from my diet. No wine for me. And no chocolate! I will likely blog about my recovery process a little bit because I want to encourage and help other people out there who might have adrenal fatigue or exhaustion.

I am certainly not an expert but this is the second time I have been afflicted with adrenal exhaustion and I have done my research. I hope this helps just one person who might have these symptoms but not know where to turn.