What is a crash...too much cortisol or too little?

[soxfan]

Okay...so here in am in the midst of another crash for no reason that I can even fathom. I was feeling quite well last week and started this week off good too. Then I did a few errands yesterday and came home really tired. I rested and then cooked dinner.

Went to bed at my normal time which is 9:30 and felt the cortisol? or adrenaline? kicking in and surging through my body. You know that really uncomfortable extremely wired but tired feeling...so I didn't fall asleep till after midnight and woke throughout the night.

Today I am hollow inside and feel drained and empty of life. I felt like that most of the day and then it turned into extreme tiredness. I laid down but again it felt like my body was revved up again.

I did some reading and it seems like it is hard to tell what causes these feelings. When I go to bed I am wired...when I get up I am drained and hollow feeling...

I am so confused as to what is causing these crashes as I usually only have 3 or 4 of these a year. I will be down and out now for days....then I will go back to my regular PEM.

It is just total dysregulation of our nervous system or adrenal glands....anybody know? please....

 

[Ema]

I think you hit the nail on the head with "total dysregulation of our nervous system" unfortunately.

It could be either too high or too low cortisol. Both can produce that wired but tired feeling. When I am really low in cortisol, I can't sleep for the life of me and a little bit of hydrocortisone acts like a sleeping pill. But when I have too much cortisol in my system, I feel mostly the same way.

Too high cortisol feels to me a bit more like I've been beaten with a stick and dragged through the mud (but am still awake) and too low cortisol has a bit more of a fear/shaking component to it for me though I'm sure that everyone would experience this slightly differently.

Have you tried phosphatidylserine? It's meant to be good for either too high or too low cortisol so it might be a safer bet.

 

[soxfan]

@Ema- I took cortef a few weeks back when I was crashing and it made me so sleepy. I thought it would help with the total life draining feeling I was having but it did nothing except cause the sleepiness.

I am guessing the draining lifeless feeling I have today is low cortisol and the wired at night could be high cortisol. It is so hard to determine if my cortisol ran out yesterday and last night my body was trying to replenish or if the cortisol was pumping because my body felt under stress from all the errands I did.

I tried seriphos (think that was the name) a few years back and it put me into bed. It made me extremely tired and lifeless...I actually think it lowered my cortisol too much....

Is anyone like me who has no clue why all of the sudden a person would crash when I hardly did anything stressful or is it just another mystery....that hasn't been solved yet.

 

[SOC]

Is anyone like me who has no clue why all of the sudden a person would crash when I hardly did anything stressful or is it just another mystery....that hasn't been solved yet.

It doesn't have to be something big to make you crash. It just might be going over your AT -- doing a little bit more than you were before if you are already living on the edge of going over your AT. It sounds like your "few errands" was too much for you and that alone might explain the crash.

I can also crash from being exposed to a virus. That looks like a crash out of nowhere, but can often be tracked down to a sick family member, or somebody's sick kid. Grocery shopping can be iffy that way because sick people put their germs all over shopping carts and the like.

I used to have "unexplained" crashes a lot, but that mostly stopped when I learned to pace according to my AT using a HR monitor. Now I might get one once a year or so during flu season.

 

[Tammy]

For me..........I have not figured out the inconsistencies ...........sometimes overdoing it makes a difference and other times not. I like you HAVE NO CLUE.

@Ema- I took cortef a few weeks back when I was crashing and it made me so sleepy. I thought it would help with the total life draining feeling I was having but it did nothing except cause the sleepiness.

I am guessing the draining lifeless feeling I have today is low cortisol and the wired at night could be high cortisol. It is so hard to determine if my cortisol ran out yesterday and last night my body was trying to replenish or if the cortisol was pumping because my body felt under stress from all the errands I did.

I tried seriphos (think that was the name) a few years back and it put me into bed. It made me extremely tired and lifeless...I actually think it lowered my cortisol too much....

Is anyone like me who has no clue why all of the sudden a person would crash when I hardly did anything stressful or is it just another mystery....that hasn't been solved yet.

 

[soxfan]

Anyone know why Cortef would cause sleepiness a few hours after taken it. I was only taking 5mg in the morning...I know it is short acting so maybe when it is wearing off it causes the tiredness?

I am going to talk to my doctor about adrenal support rather than taking cortef....

 

[xchocoholic]

I can't run errands without a steady source of B's and caffeine so I assume my wired but tired is coming from taking caffeine and B's too late in the day. Are you doing something similar ?

Do you have a sleep med that you can count on working ?
I feel like total crap if I don't sleep.

My crashes appear to be bacterial, mostly utis. Killing the bastards and boosting good bacteria seems to help. Have you tried this ? I'd culture your probiotics for max absorption.

Tc .. x

 

[soxfan]

I have a cup of coffee in the morning and maybe one with lunch but that's it. I don't have to drink it to keep myself going or anything like that.

My Klonopin usually works very well unless I am in a crash period or I have been very overstimulated late in the day. If I go out at night which is extremely rare and get to bed later than normal I also have problems sleeping and the Klonopin is useless.

I have to say that all other times I sleep very well...If I don't sleep well I am totally useless the next day and feel like crap as well....

My crashes are random and I don't think are set off by any type of infection as I don't feel sick or have any symptoms of anything. I just feel drained...tired....(doesn't even begin to describe the feeling) and on the edge of dying....

I take VSL3 as my probiotic so I should be good there...

I don't think I will ever know what causes these days of total hell....the crashes happen so randomly and for really no reason that I know of.

 

[cmt12]

Without getting too into it, there is a natural ebb and flow that is beyond our control. I used to beat myself up the same way I see others around here doing the same, but looking back with more understanding, it was all completely unnecessary. It's natural to think that progress is a steady upward trend of symptom relief but I've found that not to be case. I don't know if this response is helpful but thought I would try anyway.