top of page

The affects of overactive adrenal glands:

"Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere"

Emma Bombeck

Get on top of your stress before it gets on top of you

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF RELEASED ADRENALIN?

 

Adrenalin can be the cause of a variety of symptoms most people will feel the effects of released adrenalin by experiencing some of the following symptoms:  it is unlikely that any one person will experience all of these symptoms.

 

PHYSICAL (present and felt in and around your body:

​

  • High blood pressure

  • Increased blood flow to the organs and brain

  • Palpitations. Breathlessness

  • Chest pain, chronic indigestion, heart burn, belching or nausea

  • Tight band of pain around chest or under bust

  • Dilated pupils 

  • Headaches, tight band of pain on top of your head similar to how you would image a tight 'halo' would feel if sat on the top of your head

  • Tension around the eyes or bridge of the nose

  • Tingling sensations in fingers or numbness in limbs

  • Trembling, shaking, goose pimples or hairs on arms and legs standing on end

  • Tiredness and fatigue

  • Sweating, hot flushes, feeling hot or cold

  • Dry mouth, yawning, coughing

  • Sweaty palms

  • Knot in tummy, butterfly feeling, tightness and tension in muscles especially around neck, shoulders and back

  • Stomach ache. Irritable bowel or irritable bowel syndrome, alternating bowel movements i.e. diarrhoea or constipation

  • Constantly wanting to go to the loo to pass water

  • Woman may experience heightened per-menstrual tension, irregular periods or absent period.

 

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS (present in your thoughts/belief system)

 

  • Sense of fear/dread that something bad is about to happen at any minute and every minute

  • Difficulty sleeping/broken sleep or an inability to get off to sleep, continues for more than a few days.

  • Difficulty in being able to concentrate or focus on tasks even for a few seconds

  • Irritability, confusion, forgetfulness, restless, mental blocks

  • Feeling unreal as if you're not in your conscious mind

  • Fear of the symptoms of anxiety which another person is experiencing

  • Reliving disturbing or traumatic events, flashbacks, panic attacks (periodically)

  • Compulsive behaviours repeating acts over and over again

 

EMOTIONAL SYMPTOMS

 

  • Tearing up, crying or swallowing down, emotional ups and downs

  • Mood changes or low mood

  • Numbing out or emotional blunting 'you feel you have no more emotion positive or negative you feel 'as if' you can't access your emotions although you 'feel' your emotion is there and they are intense all at the same   time

  • Excessive worry on a daily basis can't switch off thoughts

  • Racing or obsessive thoughts or irrational fears

  • Low confidence, low Self-esteem, weak Self-concept, Self-doubt

  • Second guessing, anticipating or mind reading what others are thinking

  • Feeling on edge, wound up or irritable a lot or most of the day

Anxiety is expressed in  many ways and if our adrenal system is over sensitised then we are usually suffering a great deal from many symptoms.  Anxiety has  commonalities with every person who is anxious.  It is unlikely  an individual person will suffer with all the  above symptoms at one time but will experience a complex overlapping of some of the symptoms on a regular basis.  If you've had an over-sensitised adrenal system for any length of time it is unlikely you will experience further symptoms than you have already!  Its is now a journey of becoming aware of how anxiety affects you and learning to manage your symptoms and de-sensitising your over anxious systems.  Building resiliency and strengthening emotional intelligence 

A note on Depression

 

Depression is different to anxiety although having prolonged high levels of anxiety can lead to depression. 

 

Depression is about more than feeling down or sad, people who experience the lows of depression have described it as a "darkness which creeps over me draining me of all emotions sucking me dry leaving me running on empty",  "its not sadness, it's not anger, its hopelessness". "There's no colour, or light or feeling, its nothingness, it's empty, numb and hollowness inside me there's nothing". 

 

Where people who suffer anxiety are more likely to express "I feel as high as a kite", "I'm overwhelmed with feelings", "I'm scared of my own shadow" or "I can't sit still" for example.

 

Depression is the inability to access or be in touch with our past or construct a future, a person suffering with depression may express 'I can't'.    Anxiety on the other hand is the ability to be in contact with the past, unconsciously denying it perhaps whilst at the same time anticipating and predicating what the future will hold assessed on past events; a person suffering anxiety may also express 'I can't'.

 

 Both avoid living in the here and now; which in reality is all any of us have.

WHEN SHOULD I VISIT MY GP?

 

Both anxiety and depression have their roots in chemical imbalance anxiety is overload and depression is shortage and it is no shame to get support from medication for a time, in fact, it is a sign of wisdom to look after yourself.   If anxiety or depression is interfering with your normal functioning after a week or two of situational anxiety or a month has passed after an adjustment period or if the anxiety felt is not in proportion to the event, persists when the event has past or seems higher than the situation called for, just appears for no reason you can see or understand, where there is no stressful situation to respond too.  Your mood stays low,  only moves lower then it is a good idea to get checked out by a health professional; my motto is "if in doubt go check it out"  gain advice from a person who is medically trained such as a general practitioner (GP) Doctor. 

bottom of page