Wired but Tired or that Blasted "red alert" feeling

[paddygirl]

Goldfish brain

I have this too, sometimes I think it's the sheer strain of remaining upright! Add that to constant pain and (ab)normal anxiety about all the undone necessary stuff of life. I never feel 'caught up'. As a self confessed perfectionist, thats hard to take.

As I'm hopeless as cutting and pasting stuff and links to things, could some nice techy person have a look and see if they could do it? It's a very good link on breathing, with lots of info. I know our abnormal breathing, even when not stressed, is mentioned on a few threads here. I feel sure this might help some people. I haven't had time to look at it all. I hope there is no psych stuff hidden in there.

It's on the cfids facebook page under discussions, my pea brain with the goldfish memory has just forgotten the headline on the discussion, (I got over here as fast as I could after memorizing it but dah! it's gone!) It mentions breath or or not being able to breathe. There is just one post.

Worth a look.

Paddy

 

[johnniehaz]

I definitely have the wired thing going on, and it's so good to read other people's descriptions of something that seems to cut me off from the rest of humanity! It's particularly that sense of being stressed about nothing, as if the body is reacting to extreme danger that your mind knows isn't there. I was wondering though whether anybody finds this spills over into their brain/thinking. I find that my brain reacts with a similarly inappropriate spasm to everday normal thoughts and perceptions. As though my brain is somehow reacting to its own quite normal activities of observing, perceiving and thinking. I find this the most debilitating thing, because the brain becomes its own worst enemy. I find that I am phenomenally busy although I am actually not doing anything. This puts you in a very strange relationship with the world, because you're not responding to the world and events around you, but to something internal. I find that I don't really react properly to real outside world events.

In reply to Lucinda's question about docs in the UK, I think Sarah Myhill does talk about excitotoxicity, but probably calls it something different. There is a cluster of conventionally trained, holistically minded doctors who all seem to do much the same kind of thing. I am seeing a doctor called Shideh Pouria at the Burghwood Clinic in Surrey. Hope this helps.

 

[johnniehaz]

I forgot to mention above that I have had tests for DNA adducts come back showing aluminium toxicity. It seems that the aluminium can block the production of a gene which converts glutamate into glutamine, and also glutamate into GABA - resulting in an excess of glutamate. Maybe this explains the anxiety symptoms, glutamate being the major excitatory neurotransmitter.

 

[SickOfSickness]

I haven't read this thread yet but find the topic very interesting, so I will read the whole thing. I also read this thread at http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthread.php?6943-Adrenaline-surges&p=120242 with interest. And I posted in it today with some of my experiences.

 

[August59]

There is new medication from Shire Pharmaceuticals that is suppose to be a complimentary type med for ADHD. It is suppose to have a calming effect on NMDA receptors, but not sure of its mode of action and I doubt they are too. It is called "INTUNIV".

 

[Timaca]

johnniehaz~ I can relate to what you said "I don't react properly to real outside world events." I find when I'm in that state that it's hard to relate normally to people. I'm not "me"....I'm an agitated sort of me, and that person isn't the calm, cool, and connected me that I used to be, so I feel like I come across differently to others. That makes me sad, for I want others to know the healthy me, not the sick me.....

Best, Timaca

 

[Cheesus]

I realise this is an old thread, but I just wanted to add that I get this too. Sometimes I think of it as feeling slightly manic but that I could fall asleep instantly at the same time (fortunately insomnia has never been an issue for me). I'll get a sensation that I just want to get up and sprint, but know that I'd crumple into an exhausted mess after 10 meters.

I've also had it where my jaw gets tense, where I feel overly sensitive to sensory stimulus, or where I just have a deep buzzing somewhere down in my being that I can't switch off. It's a very difficult feeling to describe! Right now I feel a slight excited/on edge feeling that makes me want to just get up and move. I just need to remember that this isn't real energy, and that I should pace myself as usual.

 

[golden]

I havent read the whole thread, so dont know if its been suggested...

I think its Adrenal Fatigue

 

[Fogbuster]

I havent read the whole thread, so dont know if its been suggested...

I think its Adrenal Fatigue

As a symptom of Autonomic dysfunction.

 

[taroki]

Saw this thread. Can also be due to parasites releasing ammonia/toxins during die off.

 

[SickOfSickness]

In my opinion there are different types of "wired but tired" feelings.

For one of the main types, GABA helps me to get rid of it. So I assume that type I get is when I am lacking the GABA neurotransmitter.

Also L-theanine helps in that case. (There is scientific debate about L-theanine? They don't know if it increases or decreases serotonin?)

However, I have to take small amounts of GABA, if I take a normal dose, I will be too relaxed to do much.

 

[peggy-sue]

For me, it comes after I've had to push to do something.
I think it's an adrenalin surge I use to do the "whatever" - then I just can't switch it off.

 

[Gandalf]

I get it from histamine-releasing foods e.g. chocolate, berries, nuts, tea

 

[WoolPippi]

Goal: to calm down the nervous system and let parasympathetic healing take over.

Remedies:
- avoid exitables (sugar, stress, foodstuffs, anger, worry, cold, body burdens, vanillin, stupid people, hormonal birth control, career stress, wild ambitions, sounds, etc.)
- take action to calm the body down (stretch, yawn, pet a cat, put feet in warm water, practise mental hygiene, relax, wear woolen hat, cuddle yourself, trance journey, knit, Qi Gong, etc.) (masturbate?)
- calm the system chemically (nat.progesteron cream, valerian, magnesium, lithium, anti-histamine, ...). In low doses scattered throughout the day, following arcadian and menstrual cycles.
- "talk to the subconscious" to make it feel safe and at ease (Amygdala training, Shamanic rituals, reading Jung, lightworkers, fairytale ponderings, anything that connects to the not-logical part of you)

Causes for me:
- the enzyme that reduces the exitatory neurotransmitters is a bit bust (MAO A)
- I was born with progesteron defficiency which my adrenals couldn't correct after age 30
- the nervous system was not well instructed the first few months of life (never held by parents, never made felt safe)
- trained for cerebral intelligence from day 1. No attention was given to emotional intelligence or bodily ease.
- hit my head on granite floor as a young baby, causing a little tear at the base of skull. This may still frustrate nervous signals getting through.
- urban life and media favour the extrovert.
- other, yet unknown


This resulted in sympathetic overdrive, all the time. Had a pinball machine for a head and was on alert all the time. Quicksilvery mind though! From far before I got ill.
My ME, Adrenal Fatigue and sleep have been healing since I adressed the nervous system specifically. But I'm not there yet, I'm about 35% healed. It was 10%.

PS
I should mention: I run checks on my "alertness" all day now, consciously relaxing muscles and thoughts whenever I find them. I rest horizontally one hour after eating, only then my digestion system starts to work.
I have autistic tendencies (but are these cause or effect?)

 

[Izola]

Great idea for a thread!

I fell off so much last year that I had to stop working. This "tired but wired" feeling has gone with it (I think because I have finally stopped pushing too hard - 15 years too late), but I remember it well.

For me it was like my entire body and mind were electrically charged. It was typically after a long push to get something accomplished and before the crash. A normal person would relax and get some sleep, but not me. I would have this nervous, unfocused 'energy'. The only positive I found was that I would tap some creativity and if I was smart enough to write them down I would get some good ideas from the experience, and some really crazy ones.

Otis

,

Otis: I get that same thing on my Doctor/Pharm day once a week. And I could, at times get creative and spin out some good stuff. Other times, like yesterday and now--just crazy allover the map & weird. Someone on here described something like a car with no traction. I feel like a car, brakes on tight in 5th gear, gas pedal floored spinning & lurching. That's the way I feel on Doctor day, otherwise I live prone on my bed. Then I'm ok. Sick, in a lot of pain. yes, but more "normal." I'm losing names now, but on the Hummingbird Foundation M.E. site she talks about adrenaline surges & how to deal w/ them. I need a carer (don't have one} just to talk me down off this ledge wheel spinning with no direction or control. I think I just talked myself down. G'night. Iz

 

[taroki]

I'm no longer getting this wired but tired feeling anymore. I guess it was mostly due to stress after losing my last job.

Now the only time I feel wired is after a coffee enema. I find doing a water enema right afterwards helps.

 

[Izola]

Interesting....sensory overload is not an issue for me. That does not trigger it...thanks for sharing...
Timaca

I get it whenever I have to press myself beyond my limits

 

[taniaaust1]

Im feeling wired right now.. I know for me its to do with (nor)adrenaline. I should be in bed right now but too wired to enforce onto myself to head there. Ive had a bad day today.. another collapse (fortunately support worker was here at the time to put me into the wheelchair and take me to couch where i could stay and lay down. I'd collpased on my dirty floor which was covered in ants).

 

[SickOfSickness]

Now the only time I feel wired is after a coffee enema. I find doing a water enema right afterwards helps.

Is it organic and decaf coffee? Just wondering if there is another reason coffee would cause it (another stimulant I would guess).

 

[Smith]

This 'red alert ' wired feeling is literally driving me crazy.
For me it is the most distressing of all the symptoms.....I simply cannot relax or switch off. It's like my whole body is electrically charged, stuck in a weird panic state.
It is awful and I don't know what to do about it.
I seem to have got into a horrible pattern where I am in a crash for a few weeks, can hardly get out of bed or do anything, then the energy starts to return, but quickly becomes this 'red alert' wired state....which goes on until I crash again.
It is a living hell