Adrenal fatigue

Burn-out, running on empty, or continuous exhaustion are caused by adrenal insufficiency. You have pushed your body to just keep going, and now it’s at the point where this isn’t working anymore. You’re exhausted, and can’t seem to find the energy that you once had.

Long-term stress

We live in an era where being busy is the norm, we can work wherever we are on our phones, and our lives are compared to the people on social media who all seem to be doing amazingly well. Often those who suffer from adrenal fatigue are high achievers, and I get it, who doesn’t want to achieve amazing things? But at some point, and it’s different for everyone, you will get to the point where it is all too much. Either too much pressure over a long period of time, or a short-term period of very high stress.

Cortisol

One of the main functions of your adrenal glands is to produce the hormone ‘cortisol’. Cortisol gives you the drive to get out of bed in the morning and do what you need to do, in a healthy person, it drops off at the end of the day, they feel tired, and go to bed.

It used to be thought that your adrenal glands ran out of cortisol and this made you tired, but it has more recently been found that your body stops making cortisol, due to its negative health effects, so this is a protective mechanism.  But either way, you now don’t have the hormone that drives you to get up and get going each day.

Nervous system

Your autonomic nervous system has two modes, commonly called “fight or flight” and “rest and digest”, and you need to spend time in each of these modes. You need to be in a motivated headspace to get up and go to work, and do what needs to get done, but also to spend time relaxing, recovering, and having fun. Adrenal fatigue occurs when you have been going too hard without taking the time to rest and relax. In many cases it’s for reasons out of your control, so much sure you’re kind to yourself in the healing process.