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Every times energy improves it comes with severe anxiety.....what do I do?

alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
Arggghh so I have made many posts before regarding my anxiety, it was much better for a few months- but my energy tanked.

Past week my energy has slowly picked up but once again I'm dealing with severe anxiety!!!!

I have not started anything new, or changed my diet, I'm still on yanks protocol though.

I feel so freakin wired, my mind won't stop spinning, I can't sleep, and it's just bad.

I have taken a Xanax, and nada. What do I do?

Why does this keep happening? It's as if my body or nervous system can't tolerate energy! Am I missing some kind of nutrient or something that's required to support energy? Feeling very frustrated....
 

PeterPositive

Senior Member
Messages
1,426
Have you ever tried an adaptogen herb such as Ashwaghanda?
It is pretty effective at controlling anxiety and helping the nervous system. Dosages between 300-600mg typically help.

I have similar issues and my go-to supplements are Ashwaghanda, Niacinamide (100-200mg), GABA (250-500mg), Valerian root (500-600mg).

Not necessarily all together :) I know the effect that each has on me and I take them when needed. E.g. GABA and Valerian are good for inducing sleep. The first two for calming anxiety.

Also you may want to check your levels of B6 and Magnesium, two very important nutrients that regulate the endogenous production of GABA. (the calming neurotransmitter)

Cheers
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,086
Location
australia (brisbane)
At a guess, maybe cortisol levels are increasing when u have energy but it's possible your dhea isnt high enough to balance out your cortisol levels . Dhea is said to help counteract the negative effects of cortisol.

dhea is an option but need to go low and slow. For women 5mg is a common dose but best to start at 1mg and increase in 1mg increments upto 5mg.

relora is a combo herbal supp which can help high cortisol and is calming and can use as required.
 

alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
At a guess, maybe cortisol levels are increasing when u have energy but it's possible your dhea isnt high enough to balance out your cortisol levels . Dhea is said to help counteract the negative effects of cortisol.

dhea is an option but need to go low and slow. For women 5mg is a common dose but best to start at 1mg and increase in 1mg increments upto 5mg.

relora is a combo herbal supp which can help high cortisol and is calming and can use as required.

Thank you thank you thank you! I think this might be exactly what's going on!!!! I have dhea cream I never tried, do u use cream or oral?
 

alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
Do ypu mean the brain does not calm down? Thoughts going round and round in circles and not producing something usefull?

Yes, exactly.

But the wired part is more physical, like my body is buzzing heart palps, can't keep still, that sort of thing
 

Seven7

Seven
Messages
3,444
Location
USA
alice111 do you monitor your HR with constant reader (like a Mio watch) or a Polar??? My HR goes up and feels like that is dysautonomia.

by the way there is no more natural relaxer than magnesium.
 

leokitten

Senior Member
Messages
1,542
Location
U.S.
I've had the exact same symptoms as you've described, that with increased energy I had increased neurological systems, feeling hyper, anxious, and trouble sleeping.

As others have mentioned definitely check your thyroid (TSH, T4, T3, free T3, RT3) and do a 24-hr urine cortisol and aldosterone. The saliva cortisol tests are not accurate don't bother with those.

Have you also thought about checking for sympathetic nervous system activation (ie high catecholamines and metanephirnes)? This is common in PWME and can cause anxiety, that tired but wired feeling, and contribute to sleep disturbance.

This is also best measured with a 24-hr urine and try to do it on one of your more wired days. I had above normal NE and E as well as metabolites and by treating this pretty much all my anxiety and wired feelings went away.

There is something that ME/CFS is doing causing sympathetic activation which results in all these symptoms. Before falling ill I never had any anxiety, wired feelings, or trouble sleeping, they all appeared within a week after falling ill.
 
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alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
alice111 do you monitor your HR with constant reader (like a Mio watch) or a Polar??? My HR goes up and feels like that is dysautonomia.

Yes I have monitored HR, it does not seem to correlate with these symptoms, but what does is a POUNDING heart -it can be fast or slow... But it feels like it's going to burst out of my chest. I don't know how to monitor this as the pounding doesn't seem related to a high or low HR - do you have any thoughts in this?
 

alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
I noticed on your profile that you have Hashimotos..............could it perhaps be acting up? Are you on thyroid meds?
Yes I have hashis
And yes I'm on thyroid meds
This past year every test I have done shows that I am HYPO but I can't seem to tolerate increasing any thyroid medication.. I know this is the classic adrenal-thyroid vicious circle that STTM, Dr rind and many others speak of, but I have had no success with treating adrenals... Seem to be stuck in this loop
 

alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
@leokitten very inspiring that you have been able to deal with it!

How did you treat high catecholimines?
I actually have a test here for 24hr urine cortisol and catecholimines that Iwill be doing so should be interesting to see!

Also in response to thyroid you can see my post above this one
 

alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
I had that very severe. It disappeared with overall improvement.

Unvoluntary muscle movements? Twitching?

Any specific treatments? Or just feeling better and it went away?

No, it doesn't come with the muscle twitching, although I do get that often.
 

lansbergen

Senior Member
Messages
2,512
Any specific treatments? Or just feeling better and it went away?
.

Only taking an immunemodulator and trying to stay within my limits. It was a very long slow process from the dying state to where I am now. On that route symptoms disappeared and others became less severe. I am not cured but very much better and still improving.
 

leokitten

Senior Member
Messages
1,542
Location
U.S.
@leokitten very inspiring that you have been able to deal with it!

How did you treat high catecholimines?
I actually have a test here for 24hr urine cortisol and catecholimines that Iwill be doing so should be interesting to see!

Also in response to thyroid you can see my post above this one

ME/CFS made me go only slightly hyperthyroid during the first year (TSH around 0.5) and then it came back to normal and my cortisol levels have gone between high normal and low normal so the anxiety and wired but tired feelings were not due to either of these but due to the illness causing SNS activation/high catecholamines and metanephirnes which were consistently above the normal range after multiple 24-hr urines.

I'm part of the subset that didn't get POTS/OI and my blood pressure went from normal to prehypertension levels after falling ill, which makes complete sense given the SNS activation so I started taking clonidine 0.1 mg every night before bed. Clonidine will calm down the SNS. I also take tiagabine and gabapentin along with it which work on different systems but have a synergistic effect.

Not only have the anxiety and wired but tired feelings gone away but I sleep so much better and many of my GI problems have reduced significantly. I didn't realize before that SNS activation contributes heavily to GI issues.