Stress and cortisol

[bajmon]

Hi all. I have a question about how stress affects us with hypo. Do you think that a stressful situation can affect us quickly? If I get stressed a lot, soon after (within minutes) I feel extremely unwell; fatigued, nauseous, sleepy, achy, brain fog. I actually have to stop doing what I'm doing and try to relax and sleep. It takes a long time to recover from this. I'm wondering if cortisol is produced very quickly in stressful situations which then would affect thyroid and symptoms worsen.I had an unpleasant situation this morning at work, I got very stressed and now I'm barely chilling with my symptoms. I want feeling 100% already for the last few days due to lack of sleep and period.

I also suggest from ME/CFS which is usually mild but tbh, I still am not convinced of its not "just" hypo.

[birkie]

Hi bajmon❤️

My cortisol was very low, I had that test in hospital the one where they monitor your level cortisol, the out come was I'd reacted to the test no further action 🤷‍♀️ I never recived any test results (but I'm going to seek them when I speak to my new gp, my symptoms are something like yours, if I'm stressed out which is mainly what my last gp did to me everytime I saw him I was stressed to the max, but I would come home and feel like I've been drugged sleepy, sickly feeling body pain like someone as battered me with a baseball bat sweating profusely and shaking🤦‍♀️.. Still ongoing, I have cfs/fibromyalgia ME, but I was also diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism in 2020 so goodness knows what's going on I only know it's not related to cfs/fibro ME.

I'm looking into getting that saliva cortisol test done👍

[bajmon in reply to birkie]

Hi, thank you for your reply. I've been waiting so far for someone to jump on this subject. The cortisol idea is all new to me. I know he's about it than about space. I left work earlier today because I couldn't cope with how I'm feeling. I don't know if it's the stress, period, cfs, thyroid or perhaps this. I will research cortisol further when I'm not so achy and drained. Also I will check home tests. What was the reason for your hospital stay and cortisol testing? I'm not under any nhs endo and only book private apt when I feel worse. But tbh, I kind of have up on this too. I have no faith anyone in anyone knowing the the heck they're doing with thyroid patients.

[birkie in reply to bajmon]

I got a diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism and had several blood tests, my cortisol came back very low so the endo sent me for a synacthen stimulation test at the hospital, although I've since found out this is not the best test for cortisol, saliva is supposed to be the best.Like you I don't have much faith in endos, I was miss diagnosed with graves for a year, lost my thyroid 😠 but if your cortisol is over range there is a reason for it and it will require an endo to look into it.

I hope you get it sorted👍❤️

[bajmon in reply to birkie]

Gosh, I'm sorry to hear that. I'll read more about it and will do so tests privately next week. Fingers crossed.

[tattybogle]

Don't know if it's cortisol / adrenaline /something else entirely ,, but i do get the same thing , shortly after severe emotional stresses ...arguments / noticing next doors car is on fire outside the window etc etc .. i 'd say it affects me worse than overdoing it physically does.

[bajmon in reply to tattybogle]

Did you ever get told what this could be?

[tattybogle in reply to bajmon]

i've never asked .. they'd just write "suffers from anxiety" on my notes which would not be helpful regarding how they treat me in future (and i don't suffer from anxiety )

[birkie in reply to tattybogle]

Same with me, although I never use to, I was a calm person who could be in very stressful situations and deal with it, no symptoms just some anger a some situations, but now if I get surprised like a friend coming up behind me and taping me on the shoulder I jump a mile and suffer afterwards, I certainly can't handle arguments anymore I shake and go into a right state. Also if I get a scared I get vibrations in my lower legs it's weird🤷‍♀️

[bajmon in reply to birkie]

I can relate. I'm just in bed and my legs are vibrating from one down. I put this down to exhaustion from lack of sleep and this stressful situation. I've been feeling nauseous all day and what I can only describe life a sand in my head. It's so bad that so many of us just need to suffer.

[birkie in reply to bajmon]

Truthfully when I first noticed the vibrations I thought my mobile phone was under my legs, I jumped, but noticed it was charging on my table 🤷‍♀️ but it is a weird sensation, 😢

[birkie in reply to bajmon]

Bajmon have you ever had your calcium and parathyroid blood done, might be worth a little look at them 👍

[bajmon in reply to birkie]

No never. Thank you. I'll add them to my list. I'll be abroad from tomorrow and can do whole list privately there and it doesn't cost arm and leg.

[tattybogle in reply to birkie]

i did have that 'physically jumping through the roof when surprised ' thing .. but that was when i was actually overmedicated ,, as in genuinely overmedicated with symptoms including weight loss / over frequent bowel motions etc ...(not a GP's version of 'you're overmedicated' due to low TSH ),

i'd physically jump at noises in the street, and it was dangerous for anyone to come up behind me when i was washing up , in case i had a knife in my hand ,,, but that problem stopped with slightly lower dose .

But i've probably had the 'totally crashed out a few hours afterwards ' response to emotional stress ever since diagnosis 20 yrs ago ....it did take me several yrs to realise that emotional stress was the thing that had caused it.. now i try my best to avoid those sort of situations , and accept the need to crash for a while if they do happen.

if asked, i explain it to people as "like an allergic reaction to adrenaline" obviously not a scientific explanation, but it helps people understand why i've suddenly conked out

[birkie in reply to tattybogle]

In case I had a knife in my hand.. 😂😂😂😂😂 But yeah can relate to this, I'm not over medicated tho.. But I jump at any little noise, then get prickly sensations in my hands then vibrations in my lower legs, but I can get the vibrations just sitting without getting a fright... Watching a good horror film is fun.... Not 😂😂

[tattybogle in reply to birkie]

i can't be doing with watching horror films, i don't get why people like it ? ...i stupidly watched one when i was about 7 and that was enough for me (decapitated head, wrapped in brown paper, still breathing, it was waiting at the top of cellar steps to stop the victim getting out,, and the the rest of the limbs (also wrapped in brown paper) were coming to chop them up and put them in the freezer)

and anyway i used to live in the woods at the bottom of a quarry that had a bit of 'history' ... the imagination really doesn't need any help from horror films when you have to go outside on your own for a pee in the dark ... .

[birkie in reply to tattybogle]

We had a outside toilet in the early 70s, and our business backed on to a grave yard, being young it didn't bother me to much, but as I got older and we're able to watch horror films I'd wait until I was nearly peeing myself before I made a dash to the loo, 😂 it was worse in winter, the cistern would freeze over😂 ho the 70s😂

[tattybogle in reply to birkie]

no weeing in toilets for us , lol (it's a sin to pee in composting toilets) ... so there i am squatting on the grass under a hazel bush , trying to decide if i'd rather have my back to the dark path that comes from the quarry with the 'history' , so i can't see what's coming out of the dark to get me .. or whether i'd rather face the other way , so i CAN see what's coming to get me ... i usually decided it was better to face my doom head on . ( i was 32 at that time ...lol )

[Auders in reply to tattybogle]

oh bless you xx

[bajmon in reply to tattybogle]

I use to be this jumpy and scared with any noise. Remember driving home from the office and another car using horn driving past. That got me so scared. But it was during the first period of subacute thyroiditis when you're hyper. At that point I didn't know was was ill. It happened again when I was over medicated. I am 100% sure that my thyroid issues were also cause by years of being bullied in several will places. Now I try to avoid stressful situations and don't react but I work with a very difficult person and as much as I bite my tongue so the time, that still affects me inside.

[arTistapple]

Many years before diagnosis I noticed that particular change in me. Over sensitive in the first place and the deep exhaustion etc following an ‘incident’. It still happens but I am so out of touch with ‘life’ now it happens less. I hasten to add I am nowhere near optimally medicated. Still tracking ‘me’ down in that aspect.

[Hidden]

I used to have the same thing.

I remember the first time it happened; after a particularly heated argument I was shaking from cold. Like my temperature had plummeted. Had to shower to get warm again.

That was when I was undiagnosed. It continued on for years.

I am now 'almost there' in terms of thyroid but I still can't tolerate stress. Like you, it makes me enormously sleepy now.

[bajmon in reply to Hidden]

So we all suffer with the same reaction but still no one really knows what's causing it and how to deal with it, except of trying to avoid any stress.

[Hidden in reply to bajmon]

My cortisol levels are low. My working theory (with zero scientific backing!) is that while under-medicated we know our adrenals are booting out adrenaline to keep up going and that the additional burden of a stressful situation is just too much for them.

Getting tired seems to be to be a 'fail safe'. Stops the adrenals getting damaged or failing completely. Being tired forces you to remove yourself from the stress.

[bajmon in reply to Hidden]

Yes, sounds like body's surviving mode is kicking in. Shane there's no way of living stress free life though 😁

[arTistapple]

Maybe for us hypothyroids there is a certain amount of re-learning of our reactions required. If we have been hypothyroid for a long time (as many of us have) there will be a certain ‘learned’ reaction, which has become habitual. The habitual part of the reaction is perfectly capable of setting off an adrenaline reaction at the drop of a hat (it’s a life saving reaction on a trigger mechanism when truly necessary) which we experience at loud noises etc? However we must give ourselves a chance to become optimally medicated first.

I remember someone saying to me that breaking a habit/addiction withdrawal only takes a very short time. I think it was about smoking. It’s replacing the behavioural aspect of it that takes time to truly deal with the habit. Here’s hoping!

[Wua13262348]

Have a look at frontiersin.org. REM Sleep Rebound as an adaptive response to.......by David Suchecki 2012.