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What is wrong with me ? (A story + search for clarity)

nooptropic anxiety anger cortisol norepinephrine

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#1 julez

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Posted 11 February 2016 - 10:31 PM


I'm going to explain what I feel and maybe someone will have had the same kind of experience. I want to apologise for any grammar or spelling mistake I make in the following wall of text, this is only my second language :) 

 

I'll start with my childhood: 

All was well, nothing special, I played outside, never really had any serious diseases or traumatising events etc ... 

By the time I was 14 I had a really bad car accident together with my parents, 1 leg got shredded into 3 pieces, the other leg got torn on the backside, I was basically catapulted out of the side window when the car did a quadruple sideflip downhill ! Nothing else (apart from the leg that hit a concrete post) was broken, really strange! 

I recovered! 

 

When hitting puberty I developed an inherited feature:

My father has had a "pinkish" glow in the face all his life, he tried everything and nothing helped, doctors told him it was genetic. I inherited this feature and I run around with a healthy pinkish glow all day. On really relaxed days and mornings this glow is REALLY faint, almost invisible. 

 

I am now 28 , healthy (or so my doctor tells me every time), I never drink soda/sugar, 95% of the time I drink water and on occasion I enjoy 1 pure whisky because I enjoy it. I eat a pretty healthy diet (I think I do), medium amount of meat a day, as little processed shit as possible, as little fast food as possible, I NEVER EVER take regular pills or medecine, I didn't need any untill this day. I only took antibiotics 1 time in my life and it wasn't even necessary because the doc thought I had an infection from a mosquito bite but the truth was that I had a severe allergic reaction which mimics the features of a bacterial infection (instead my reaction developed WAY QUICKER => they call it skeeter syndrome) So yeah, my body dislikes foreign substances and hates mosquitos. Then he put me on a very low dose (1/8th of a 10mg pill) of anti histamines for 6 months. 

 

Now for my "problems" (I'm sure some people have it worse than me :)): 

 

I always feel "on edge", it is hard to explain this but let me try: I get a lot of unsubstantiated bodily reactions (fight/flight) in my life. 

Examples: 

-I can be perfectly relaxed and enjoying the most relaxed conversation with friends, friends who'm I love a lot and love spending time with and suddenly out of the blue I can get HOT AS FUCK and get terrible burning facial redness. Off course this brings with it a sense of embarrassment because then I'm sitting there thinking:"WHY THE FUCK IS THIS HAPPENING ?" 

-I can be sitting here watching a movie and the same thing can happen with no one around so I don't think I suffer from terrible social anxiety or something

-I can be playing a stupid game with friends and get a racing heart, small trembling sensations in extremities by just getting nervous about this game we are playing

-I react really hard to heat, 19-20°C is my temperature, when I go to friends and we play boardgames or sit in the couch I always have to ask them to shut the damn heat down because I'm burning up. 

-I'm really easily offended/irritated/annoyed by the slightest touch (ex: someone that decides to tickle me without my consent) , sound (ex: baby crying on a train where I was enjoying some music), annoyance (I explain something to someone and they don't immediately get it, I can rage so hard about this but believe me, I don't want it to be like this, its just a bodily reaction :-( which sucks because I like interaction, talking, friends, going out etc...)

-I always notice these things happening when I have to concentrate for a very long time on a hard mental task, I don't lose my concentration because of it, its like my brain working heats up my body :-D 

-When something important is coming up I can be laying in bed waiting to fall asleep but my mind stays fully concious and I start noticing my heartbeat increasing, my body heating up, as soon as I just remove the sheets I'll be able to fall asleep when I'm "colder" 

 

Now, after hundreds of articles and experiences I am at a loss, what could be causing this ? 

It seems to be somewhere between high cortisol levels and high norepinephrine levels, or could it be something else ? 

 

sleepschedule: 

I must admit, I'm a night owl, I get my 8 and a half hours a day of sleep but they always start at 2.30am in the morning. I wake up really slowly, I turn and turn and turn and turn a bit more and once I feel fully awakened I step out of bed and I feel just fine in 5-10mins and I don't feel tired ALL day, I never even yawn. When I have nothing special to do the next morning I fall asleep without a problem (max 5mins). 

 

I feel like my sympathetic nervous system is causing my body to be hypervigilant all the time for no reason at all. Some people told me it could be a nerve in my neck because of my accident in the past and I should get it checked out by a chiropractor. The doctor says "relax, you are fine". Then I found /r/nootropics on reddit and I see lots of people with certain "problems" looking for a sollution. 

 

Here I am, does anyone else feel like their nervous system is way too active for no reason ? Would you like to calm the FUCK down like me ? 

Anyone have good advice ? 

*sorry for the wall of text :-)

 

 

 

 

 



#2 Doc Psychoillogical

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Posted 11 February 2016 - 11:55 PM

Thats very strange, id try some natural options like Magnesium to calm nerves and l-theanine if in fact it is anxiety/panic attacks. And some Anti inflammatories maybe somehigh ratio DHA/EPA fish oil(Works for Anxiety&Inflammation) for whatever flushing or increase in blood pressure you are experiencing. 

Best of luck

 



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#3 julez

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Posted 12 February 2016 - 12:30 AM

I always asked myself if it was psychological or not. Can anxiety and panic attacks come out of nowhere? Because as I said, I never think twice to go somewhere, I never think twice to go out the door and do shit, I never think twice to start talking to people, my stuff just kind of happens out of nowhere. I have to admit that after many years you kinda start to get afraid to actually become anxious of it happening but I try to deal with that by simply "not caring". 

 

Who knows it is something repressed ? I don't know what I could have repressed as nothing bad happened to me in my life so far. 

 

I read about theanine before , it seems to reduce glutamate, might be helpful as I seem to always react to chinese food (which is known for high doses of glutamate use) Is that possible ? 

Still new to all these terms and what they all do to the body :)

*I'd like to add that none of these things are problems that stop me from enjoying life but after many years of living with it I started looking for answers :-) 

 

*Extra info: 

I don't exercise regularly , I sit at my desk a large part of the day (see my job), I don't get fat really easy, I gain muscle easy, nothing out of the ordinary. 

My skin is fine, never had acne or the likes. My eyesight is perfect, my hearing is perfect. When I do hard labor I can go on for hours (like taking down a full house with a sledgehammer) 

I also react really heavily to music and ASMR, the shivers can destroy me haha. 


Edited by julez, 12 February 2016 - 12:47 AM.


#4 Doc Psychoillogical

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Posted 12 February 2016 - 04:42 AM

Well, considering the factors you've posted it's probably blood pressure related(not 100% sure obviously).

Which can be affected by psychological and physiological influences. 

BEST BET

- Practice your breathing (http://healthyliving...thing-5640.html)

- Watch diet (http://healthyeating...style-3007.html)

and lastly supplement your health Magnesium, theanine etc..

Hopefully I could be of help! :~


Edited by Mr. Psychillogical, 12 February 2016 - 04:44 AM.


#5 rwac

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Posted 12 February 2016 - 06:09 AM

"high cortisol levels and high norepinephrine levels"

 

Are you on a low carb diet?

 

One thing that could cause high cortisol levels, is running out of carbs. Cortisol is needed to convert protein to carb. You might want to try eating more starch with that meat.



#6 julez

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Posted 12 February 2016 - 02:23 PM

You guys think some adaptogen herbs would help me ? 

You think there is any permanent side effects possible by at least trying some for a couple of weeks ? :) 

 

@rwac, I'm afraid I'm not on a low carb diet, I tried it once (for 3 weeks) and felt perfectly fine/the same so I just turned back to a normal diet. 


Edited by julez, 12 February 2016 - 02:26 PM.


#7 Dichotohmy

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Posted 13 February 2016 - 12:51 AM

A few things:

The mental and physical symptoms of anxiety don't always equal psychological. It's not uncommon at all for a hormonal, microbiome, immunological or other physiological cause for anxiety. Anxiety can and often is only manifest in physical symptoms as well. Yes a physiological cause can make the symptoms come or go for no apparent reason.

Are you confusing vasodilation with a feeling of heat?

Get a hormone panel done - thyroid and cortisol at the very least.

Don't waste time looking for a psychological explanation if one isn't immediately apparent. You probably don't have repressed memories and the very basis for repressed/unknown memories causing somatic symptoms like this is very flimsy and borderline magical thinking.

You might consider the usual supps like magnesium, phosphatylserine, or ashwagandha that people typically use for anxiety-like symptoms. Perhaps move on to low-dose alpha or beta blockers if the supplements don't help enough.

Edited by Dichotohmy, 13 February 2016 - 12:54 AM.

  • Agree x 1

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#8 julez

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Posted 14 February 2016 - 05:52 PM

Yes Dicho, it might be vasodilation, as all of my skin becomes hot to the touch, my cheeks go red and hot, my eyes start burning and go slightly red, it indeed looks like all of my blood vessels dilate :-) never thought about it that way but it seems they do ! Thank you. 

 

I tried to really "observe" as good as I could this weekend. 

Is it possible to have anxiety without weird thoughts in your mind ? 

 

I'm currently working on an e-sports project with 5 of my best friends, seriously comfortable in being with them.

There I was sitting at the table, having a nice conversation about the work that is done and needs to be done in the future, making plans etc... 

After about an hour and a half I started having "the symptoms" again, heat, a serious blush, my eyes start burning and I can no longer focus on the task at hand. What fixes it is stepping away for 5mins and taking a breather outside (fresh air). All of this unfolds without my mind actually being afraid of something, without thinking and anxiety related topics. It is not so bad that I can no longer function, it slowly fades away after a while and stuff goes on as usual. 

 

So yeah, can a body be anxious for no reason and just start the fight/flight response without an actual trigger ? 

I wonder if adaptogens could help reducing these random reactions.

Why can everyone not be born perfect ? :-D


Edited by julez, 14 February 2016 - 05:59 PM.





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