Adrenal Fatigue

The primary trigger for your adrenal glands is stress, which causes them to produce extra amounts of hormones such as adrenaline. This is an excellent survival mechanism, however if the stress continues over a long period—for example, if you’re going through a bankruptcy, a divorce, breakup, betrayal, the death of a loved one, or some other severe turmoil—your adrenal glands may eventually become weakened from being on continual “hyperdrive.”

Undergoing a very substantial amount of stress in even a relatively short period can also overstrain the adrenals, such as in childbirth. In fact, medical communities are unaware that overstrained adrenals are one reason for postpartum fatigue and depression—these struggles are often the result of adrenal glands becoming so exhausted after the process of childbirth that they lose the strength to produce enough of the right hormones at the right times to keep the mother strong, vibrant, and happy.

When your adrenal glands become overextended, they have the equivalent of a nervous breakdown and behave erratically. Some alternative medicine doctors believe that when the adrenals partially “burn out,” they simply stop producing the full amount of hormones needed. That’s an oversimplification of the complex role these glands play.

What really happens is that instead of creating precisely the right amount of hormones for each new situation, exhausted adrenals may produce too little or too much hormone. For example, a temporary bout of depression can result when adrenals wildly overreact to a situation and flood you with too much adrenaline. The excess adrenaline may in turn burn away your brain’s neurotransmitter chemicals. One of those neurotransmitters, out of many, is dopamine. All neurotransmitter chemical compounds are vital to your feeling stable and happy, so a lack of them can leave you feeling depressed. It’s this variable behavior producing adrenal extremes on either the low or the high side at any moment that characterizes genuine adrenal fatigue.

Over 95% of us will undergo adrenal fatigue multiple times in our lives.

Find out more & learn how to heal in Medical Medium Revised & Expanded.

This item posted: 07-Aug-2023

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