"Do You Have Adrenal Fatigue?"
It can present itself as depression, aching and exhaustion, burn
out, fibromyalgia, auto-immune deficiencies, low sex drive,
insomnia, hair loss, and a host of other things that make life a
struggle every day. Adrenal fatigue will ultimately compromise
your immune system, which is your health. I remember first
hearing about it nearly 20 years ago at a time when a series of
external events had me running on fumes ... which is a good way
to put it.
Our adrenal glands manufacture cortisol and adrenalin, things
I'm sure you're heard about, and associate, correctly, with the
fight or flight response.
"I was running on adrenalin" you might say after giving a
presentation, or simply on an ordinary day that began with a kid
that wouldn't get dressed for school, running late on a jammed
freeway, facing an angry boss ... You go into "overdrive," and
stay there, and this makes you over-react to things and also
causes more trouble for yourself as you elicit stressed
reactions from others. In fact, I'm sure you know people who are
"addicted to adrenalin," those hard-driving Type A personalities
who are always flaming and have a big ring of sweat under their
arms. Or the new Type D, the ones who've gone through it to the
other side, and are cynical, bitter and depressed. Depression,
after all, has been called "anger without enthusiasm."
It's your body moving into basic survival mode, which it does in
a split second. Your heart rate and blood pressure increase,
your body goes after stored energy resources, pumps out
chemicals, and makes you very, very "alert."
All well and good if there's a gun at your head, but when it's
chronic, it's monstrously hard on your body, and takes it toll.
How so?
Well, as we learn in studying emotional intelligence, our
reptilian brain - the one with the basic instincts for survival
has the strongest impact on us, and it doesn't really think.
It's not good at rating "crises" on a scale of 1-10. It also
confuses a thought or memory with "now". You can raise your
blood pressure telling an old war story, or listening to someone
else's, right? Furthermore, and this is why EQ is so important,
we all have different "set points." Some of us are more innately
reactive to stressors than others. You know if you have kids -
with one you might have to raise your voice and really make your
point. With the other, just a look will do. Our lives are full
of stressors. Then we eat poorly, the best of our food isn't
that nutritious any more, and we get hooked on the temporary
"highs" of carbs and caffeine. So there you are -
under-nourished, over-worked, bombarded with environmental
toxins, unable to manage your emotions which take an added toll
on your immune system, and locked into a nasty feedback loop.
You get stressed, you react and do all the things that make it
worse, you pump out more cortisol, which if kept at high levels
destroys muscle and bone, slows down healing, impairs digestion,
over-rides other important functions and biochemicals you could
use for your health, impairs your thinking, and eventually the
exhausted adrenals fail to produce sufficient DHEA and brings on
a host of side-effects such as those listed above. It may also
be a contributing factor such things as chronic fatigue
syndrome, arthritis, and premature menopause. And depression, if
you've wondered why everyone's on Prozac these days.
What I started doing was studying nutrition, researching
high-quality nutritional supplements (essential fatty acids from
fish oil seem to be key as well as a general immune booster such
as Arbonne's DefenseBuilder), limiting toxins (did you know what
you put on your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream and you
might take a look at those drugstore cosmetics you apply so
lavishly) and studying emotional intelligence. Eventually I went
on to become a coach in these areas. After all, if you can
control the emotional reaction that triggers the cortisol, well,
there you have it, though you will have to attend to the damage
already done, thus the nutriceuticals. Sleep and non-addictive
exercise too, but most people with adrenal fatigue don't sleep
well. Many of the tenets of Emotional Intelligence are similar
to those used by Buddhist monks, and we know what they've been
able to achieve in terms of changing brain waves, etc. Their
goal is to avoid suffering, and that's a good description of
adrenal fatigue: suffering. According to Marcy Holmes, Women's
Health NP who writes for womentowomen says: "It's important to
emphasize the role of emotional factors. Guilt, pain from the
past hurts, self-destructive habits, unresolved relationship
problems - your past and present emotional experience may serve
as an ever-present stressor." This is the typical medical model
of pathology, which includes traditional therapy, talking, and
going back in the past. Coaching and Emotional Intelligence are
dealing with the now and the future, and simple, effective
things you can learn that work. A certain percentage of people
do need the dredging work of therapy but many more just need to
know how to get a new emotional lifestyle, and that's what EQ is
all about. For instance we know that talking about anger is not
a solution; it generates more anger. It's learning how to deal
with the anger in the first place (because anger kills) and
that's EQ. Our emotions effect our immune system, and our immune
system if our health. If you have serious health problems, of
course, consult your personal healthcare professional who is the
only person from whom you should get medical advice.