Adrenal Fatigue, aka adrenal insufficiency, are non-medical terms used to describe a condition where the adrenal glands do not appear to be functioning up to par, but they are not in “failure” as yet.
The adrenal insufficiency symptoms have a few common denominators: fatigue is the main one. But this fatigue makes it difficult to get up in the morning, and your best sleep is between 7am and 9am. Coffee, soda or some stimulant is needed to get moving in the morning or to keep going during the day. You find yourself dragging through the day, and just struggling to keep up with life’s demands. If you are stressed out, finding it is more difficult to deal with normal every day stressors, and don’t bounce back like you used to, sounds like exhausted adrenals. Craving sweets and salty foods is common. If life to too much of a drudgery, you may even deny yourself of fun activities because it is too much work to prepare for or too exhausting to do.
If you have experienced prolonged stress or short periods of intense stress, post-traumatic stress syndrome, driven yourself to exhaustion, spent too much time working and too little time playing, you may now have adrenal fatigue. Prolonged illnesses, chronic steroid use, alcoholism, excessive coffee intake, drug abuse, and eating disorders can also play a role in wiping out your adrenals.
Common symptoms associated with adrenal fatigue are allergies, asthma, chronic respiratory infections, chronic inflammation and tendency towards diabetes. If you have difficulty handling stress or pressure, are less productive due to fatigue or lack of motivation, avoid emotional situations, have unexplained foreboding, fears or anxieties, “butterflies” in your stomach when nervous or tense, get flustered when hurried or under pressure, or tend to not think as clearly, especially under stress, have decreased tolerance for people, or get annoyed or irritated more easily, you probably have varying degrees of adrenal fatigue.
Classic signs are getting dizzy when standing quickly, even to the point of feeling like you might black out, feeling chronically fatigued, just don’t feel well, but can’t put your finger on it, low blood pressure, blood sugar instability, and emotionally all over the place. You may also feel generalized weakness, cold a lot, and avoid cold, or have unexplained and frequent low grade headaches.
Obviously, these symptoms can mean a lot of things. To find out more, investigative work is necessary.
