Persistent stress symptoms - does anyone identify?

[danhall]

Hi,

I’ve been suffering with some kind of stress-related problems for a little over a year now (at least, that’s how long I’ve noticed the worst of the effects). Although I’m pretty sure I understand why I developed these problems, I’m not entirely sure what is wrong with me NOW and why it persists. This is where I am requesting some help: any knowledge or experiences shared to help me to understand exactly what is wrong with me and how I can improve my situation would be much appreciated. So, here’s my ‘story’, hopefully streamlined enough such as to avoid too superfluous information:

Stage 1) Stress overload and acute anxiety
A little over a year ago (September 2012) I was a) finishing off a PhD (so lots of work stress, often working late into the night), struggling with very turbulent relationship problems, and generally had a very poor work-life balance. Suddenly (for the first time in my life) anxiety struck. I stopped being able to sleep, started getting various symptoms such as palpitations, restless legs, panic. I was prescribed valium (briefly, to calm me down at my worst), sleeping pills and cipralex (escitalopram), and took about a month off work.

Stage 2) Recovery from acute condition
Amazingly to all concerned my symptoms vanished within a month or so. My stress levels however remained sky high for another couple of months. By March of this year my relationship is issues had been entirely resolved, my PhD was finished and I’d stated a new, less stressful job, I’d also improved my work-life balance, though some bad habits remained. In April after a hard day of physical exercise, lying in bed I suddenly started getting jolts of adrenaline when dropping off to sleep, which kept me up all night. I had experienced these horrible sensations during my worst patch in 2012. Even so I stayed calm and everything seemed to be ok.

Stage 3) Relapse
Suddenly in May, after waking up very early and working in very hot weather, I had another ‘attack’ of anxiety. Heart palps, racing pulse, sleeplessness and I developed eye floaters. Having experienced this before, I was better equipped to deal with it and the immediate effects of this lasted only a few days, after which I assumed, similarly to previously, I would recover so long as I took it easy.

Stage 4) Stress, ONLY when looking at a computer screen (!?)
Indeed all my symptoms got better, except heart palpitations, which occurred only after long sessions looking at a computer screen. My attitude at the time was ‘ignore it, it’ll go away if I don’t give it too much attention’. I cut down more stress in my life, and rectified some bad habits.

Stage 5) Stuck in recurring / constant state of stress
It didn’t go away. It very gradually got worse, and other symptoms started to return. HOWEVER, I have felt, by and large, quite cool and collective about my situation. There is little external stress in my life (just the physical and emotionally draining stress caused by my various symptoms). My condition appears to alternate between 2 modes – feeling awake and healthily alert but struggling with fast heart rate, palpitations – generally a hyperaroused state, OR exhausted and dizzy with no palpitations.

I don’t feel particularly anxious, my external stress levels are very low, I practice all the generally advised stress-recovery techniques (practice mindful meditation every day, yoga, relaxation techniques, plenty of exercise etc), I feel really quite knowledgeable about anxiety, fight or flight, thought processes etc (thanks mainly to an 8 week mindfulness course) yet I don’t appear to be getting any better. My best guess as to why this is the case is that I am suffering from something chronic – the extreme stress of 2012 has taken its toll and changed something chemically / neurologically such that I now have an extremely low threshold for stress. Perhaps the ‘something chronic’ is hyperventilation syndrome (I am considering trying out regular Buteyko breathing exercises to address this), perhaps it is some kind of adrenal malfunction. It should be said that, although not experiencing any external anxiety, I do worry about my health to some degree – but nowhere near as much as I did back in 2012, yet back then I recovered very quickly. I am not on any medication.

Can anyone identify with my story? Can anyone offer any advice or guidance? Do I just need to be more patient? Do you agree or disagree with my interpretations of my condition? I’d love to know exactly what my problem is, and how I might be able to help myself.

Thank you

[jessed03]

I genuinely believe, just like negativity, and addictive behaviour become a habit, stress can too. I have seen a fair amount of people, who seem to have good knowledge, good anxiety practices, and good lifestyles, yet can't get over that final hurdle that prevents them from finally breaking away. It's almost like the body has learnt to be in a stressful state, and that becomes it's default.

I'll share a few of the popular causes of this below:

Firstly, I didn't like buteyko breathing for stress related problems. It's essentially a lesser version of meditation. Plus, it has a lot of black box warnings, that anxiety and stress related symptoms can become aggravated by using the technique.

I had really bad hyperventilation too, I'd dig up the posts, but they were from years back now. I tried various yoga breathing exercises, and buteyko, I just didn't find it very helpful at that time. I found once I fixed my actual problematic anxiety issue, my CP was naturally really good without any practice. I do think in most cases the anxiety causes hyperventilation, rather the hyperventilation causing anxiety.
Once this stress has gone, then getting a frolov device can really ensure you maintain a good level of health, and it's about 10 times more effective than Buteyko.

But that's just my experience! Of course every person is unique, so I don't want to discourage you from trying it, but perhaps instead, it's gonna be more fruitful, to explore the reasons why this stress related issue is still there when it shouldn't be.

And so here are the three most common reasons I've seen:

Unresolved Conflict - if you have any dreams unfulfilled, any desires unmet, any frustration at your life, then this could well be a factor. Usually you feel it if there's an issue. There's almost a tension in you, that is easy to feel and easy to recognise. It may hide itself, but when you really look at it, you know it's there.

This can range from anything; unfulfilled potential, a grudge from the past, a want for change, a feeling of missing out, a lack of love respect or acknowledgment from others.

This more or less creates 'free flowing' anxiety. It's just a tension that remains despite what you do. This doesnt really go either until the issue is addressed. Even things like meditation and medicine can't really do much to overcome the tension that comes with free flowing anxiety.

This is more of a spiritual issue of sorts, rather than a simple case of stressful life.

Also, depending on how much you still worry about health, this could still count as an unresolved conflict.

Stage 1 on Maslows hierarchy of needs says a human needs to feel security. If there are a few too many times where this isn't the case, then yeah, this would count as you not meeting the basic needs for your well being, and create a degree of free flowing anxiety/ tension.

Adrenal Fatigue - A lot of anxiety sufferers have adrenal fatigue, even after recovery. Due to so much stress previously, and the stress that comes on due to their condition. Add to that poor diets, bad sleep and coffee, and most people have a textbook case.

Adrenal fatigue feels a lot like very mild anxiety. You dont feel good, but you don't feel classically anxious either. You're sort of in the middle. You can't see anything in your mind to work on, yet... symptoms remain. It feels like a low level of ineffective living.

There are labs you can send spit samples off to, and they'll provide you with a result. There are also online tests which are free.

A good book to read if that's the case is Adrenal Fatigue; A 21st century syndrome.

This also kind of covers other hormonal issues too, like cortisol problems. It also takes into account nutrient imbalances, and food intolerances.

If you get brain fog, or fatigue, this is definitely a place to look.

Inefficient Serotonin Regulation - Another pretty obvious one, but a very important one nonetheless. Scientists still aren't totally sure just how the brain and anxiety correlate, but virtually all accept that Serotonin does play a pretty big part. It's the renowned 'Feel Good Chemical' after all.

And that's where you need to get, eventually, to finally overcome the anxiety problem: you need to feel good. At some stage, you need to feel good, and you need that feeling of feeling pretty good, to finally start to outweigh the bad feeling (the dread, the depression etc). Until this happens, I do believe, in it's way, speaking very unscientifically here of course; that the body forgets how to enjoy life again.

Feeling bad, almost becomes a habit. For some people, the feeling bad only becomes dulled. It becomes less prominent, less of an issue, but it never makes the change to feeling good.

By feeling bad, I mean tension, stress, apathy, depression etc.

For some, they are able to make that change. For whatever reason, time of suffering being a factor, they are able to go back to feeling pretty good, after their episode. Others aren't able.

Whether their Serotonin issue is easier to resolve than someone else's, no one really knows at this point, but it is a real likelihood.

For me, I felt a lot like you. Very, very similar. I tried so much, but I could never get any distance between myself and stress, and eventually, I retook an SSRI, after being off antidepressants for a few years.

And the problem healed itself. It went completely. I know it's different for everyone, I guess in my case, it was a pretty profound problem. This feeling of daily unexplainable tension, of ineffective living, just went, in the space of about 10 weeks. I kept on them for a little over a year and a half, until quitting them, and the positive effects remained. I just managed to make that change from feeling tight, to feeling a little free again. And that's all I needed for my body to have flashbacks and revert.

I do strongly believe some people can't get better without some form of chemical intervention. I know that's controversial, but I believe myself to be one of them. Of course there are many many ways to tackle serotonin problems. Drugs are arguably much more effective, but certain supplements also yield success.

It isn't necessarily about fixing an imbalance either. I believe it's about using that 'feel good chemical' to bolster your life, and help you create new positive neurological pathways, that often only come from a happier state. Ones that don't lead you down the same path to Feelingshitville.

That's why people can do ALL the right things but not fully recover. Their state of being and their emotional profile was unable to create better pathways. It just wasn't a realistic possibility given a less than desirable mood a lot of the time.

A lot of people will take the SSRI and assume the chemical imbalance to be solved. Perhaps it was for a little bit, but it's almost certain better neuropathways weren't created, otherwise it's unlikely they would have come back.

Sometimes the issue is just too exacerbated by your past living, and becomes like anaemia. A deficiency of sort. It becomes almost impossible to tackle simply by eating steak and green vegetables, and having a few solid months and expecting a deep problem to be sorted.

Perhaps the quitting of the meds re triggered the issue, or perhaps they didn't have time to work to the full extent and allow you to create better neuropathways through successful living. It's no simple procedure after all. Perhaps they just pooped out, it's not that uncommon.

This isn't everybody's problem, but it's the problem of some.

Anyway, those are the three major issues I've seen for stubborn tension and anxiety hanging around. If you haven't tackled any of them, it's pretty much the first place/places to begin, before you look at more complex problems.

Best of luck.