Anxiety related fatigue?

[malkovichmalkovich]

Hi. I'm a 30 year old male and I've been having a rough time over the last few months with anxiety and panic. I've been averaging 4 or 5 "attacks" a week so I've come to recognize the symptoms and the order they progress in pretty well: a mental "what if?" scenario, racing thoughts, a sudden sense of heat in the face and neck combined with a rising pressure in the head, a shot of panic, spike in heart rate, then wave after wave of sickly fear until it eventually dissipates into chills/shaking. Then afterwards, weirdly enough, I feel pretty much fine.

One extra thing I've been having that I haven't seen written about so much in the literature is periods of heavy-duty, wiped-out fatigue where I feel like I'm struggling to stay awake. I usually get these in the afternoon after a day of high anxiety and it usually lasts between 30-60 minutes. I'm eating a healthy, balanced diet and getting 8 hours sleep a night so I'm not fatigued by my lifestyle - and when these periods pass, I feel okay again - but, man, when they hit, it's like a sledgehammer.

Does anyone else experience this? And does anyone understand what's happening biologically there? Do the adrenal glands get exhausted producing all the flight-or-fight hormones during the anxiety attacks?

[allmymarbles]

As time went by I used it less and less. As an example, my first prescription lasted five months; the second I think lasted six or seven months. The third and last one I stopped using after one year, when there were still quite a few pills left. Around that time I was hospitalized after suffering a serious accident. I used what remained of the third prescription, at the rate of maybe two or three a month. I never suffered any withdrawal. Maybe Ativan is more problematic.

[cnote]

All my marbles, I did not over medicate. Took it as my Dr. Ordered. You still on xanax? Or you off? And how long? Just curious. Some people have little issue coming off. Some react badly as I did.

Paxiled, you are correct. The adrenals going crazy. There are natural ways to calm them. Magnesium is one that works for me. And sea salt.

[Paxiled]

The chemical imbalance thing he's referring to is the one about serotonin.  That is baloney.  Cortisol excess is a result of anxiety attacks, not the cause.  Right now the main research for the cause is the amygdyla, but there's been little success in cracking this nut.  Now, if medication causes problems, and that happened to me as well, that chemical imbalance was created by inducing one with medication, but that's different than anxiety not caused by medication.  But everyone who suffers from anxiety has to balance the adrenals, as does anyone with thyroid problems -- that's been true in medicine for thousands of years.  But it doesn't imply cause and effect, just that if your system for controlling anxiety goes awry your adrenals will respond by working too hard.  

[allmymarbles]

You say, "The chemical imbalance thing in my opinion is baloney." The rush of adrenaline you speak of creates a chemical imbalance. You have to find out why you develop this imbalance and correct it. In the course of correcting it, there are medications which, taken carefully, can relieve a lot of emotional unpleasantness. If you over-medicated yourself that is not the fault of the medication. I was strict with my minimal use of Xanax and had no problems at all.

[cnote]

Not saying pills are bad. They have saved many lives. But they are not for everyone. You typically have to pay a price. I was just suggesting therapy first.

[cnote]

I'm the kind of person that has learned to not take pills.  (not advising, just telling my experience)

I think therapy should be FIRST before just taking a pill.

We are a pill society. I thought pills were my only answer b/c that's what my Dr. told me years ago when I had my first bad spell of anxiety.

He never even suggested therapy. He just through me Ativan (a little stronger than xanax)

Long story short, I got dependant without knowing, even without taking them every day. I took them as prescribed. As the years went by, I noticed my anxiety was getting worse vs. more spread apart.

I then noticed I was taking ativan more often and a higher dosage. You get tolerant to a dosage VERY fast on these drugs. Doesnt take long before you know you are taking .5mg, then 1mg then 2mg... then it's hell to pay for some.

I was one of them. i finally got wise, and saw a specialist, he got me off safely. I suffered for almost 6 months. I believe I'm still healing in a sense after being off for 2 years.

Anxiety is Adrenaline. Simple. Symptoms we feel are effects of Adrenaline. Simple. Once we acknowledge these symptoms, these feelings... and just FLOAT with them... LET TIME PASS... They will end. They have to. :)

FACE, ACCEPT, FLOAT, LET TIME PASS.

It's simple. If you do this, you will recover. Even without meds. It may be uncomfortable, but it will pass eventually.

I suffered for 7 or 8 days SOLID. Til late last night it passed. I drank Magnesium and it stopped my high heart rate. No joke.

Sometimes we lack minerals and vitamins. Stress overtime will deplete you of this.

When I get anxiety, I also have twitching muscles with it. Once I took the magnesium supplement last night, the muscle twitching also slowly stopped.

I'm a true believer in diet and replenishing things in our bodies like magnesium. Magnesium has been proven to help the adrenals. So has Sea Salt.

I just suggest trying these natural things first before jumping to pharmaceutical man made drugs.

The chemical imbalance thing in my opinion is baloney. It's just a guess. I recently watched a Dr. OZ video and Dr. Drew was on there, and he admitted how twisted the system is.

Dr's don't have much time with patients anymore. So they are taught to quickly treat the symptoms vs. the real problem. They are quick to just flip out the prescription pad. When first they should tell you that you are physically fine, and suggest therapy first before taking a pill.

Just sharing my opinion. :)

Happy Healing!

[allmymarbles]

My panic attacks were related to my adrenals. My doctor prescribed the smallest dose of Xanax (0.24 mg.) to be taken only as needed. It works like magic, and without side effects. And I found that half a pill usually worked just as well. We are meanwhile working to stabilize cortisol.

Do I think my problem was physical rather than emotional? Yes. In fact the problem occurred as the result of medications I was taking. Now that the problem is being properly handled the panic attacks are tapering off.

[cnote]

sorry you are going through this. Do you suffer from these all the time? Or do you go through waves? Like, maybe suffer for a month, then you can go months and years without them?

If we knew the TRUE biological cause, we'd be millionaires.

There are pretty much just THEORIES. Some are more true than others probably. Other times its just a guessing game.

Some think it's THOUGHT, some think it's a build up over time of stress. Some think it's Chemical Imbalance.

I do not believe in chemical imbalance 100%. If that's the case, EVERYONE is not perfectly balanced, I'm sorry.

I asked my Dr. what was a chemical imbalance once. He gave me some dry explanation how certain chemicals in the brain are not balanced, or producing enough serotonin etc.

I asked "how do you know?". He said "we don't really... it's just a guessing game, same with medications... we REALLY don't know why they work... sometimes they do, sometimes they dont... we can't cut the brain open like other organs on a live body.."

I truly believe it's all about THOUGHT, REACTION, BEING SENSITIVE, INSECURITIES etc.

I don't believe in chemical imbalance. I think we are just more stress prone, and therefor things build up on a subconscious level and BOOM, fight or flight.

Even THINKING about the next panic attack can BOOM, trigger it again. Then it's all about THOUGHT. We can train our bodies to do these types of things I believe, mostly on a subconscious level.

Acceptance and Time heals all in my opinion. Keep up the good health regimen!!

Try not to focus on the symptoms when you have them. They can not hurt you. ALL symptoms are caused by ADRENALINE. That's it! :)