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Stimulants, Stress, & Adrenal Exhaustion

acantelopepope

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Joined
Jun 26, 2009
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10
I abused caffeine supplements for three years in high school before burning out entirely and being forced to switch to antidepressants after the crash. During those three years I had a wild home life, I played 3 sports, got little sleep, and demanded straight A's of myself. Not recommended.

With a highly controlled schedule of nutrition and exercise and sleep, with various supplements like L-Tyrosine and Wellbutrin and finally Piracetam, I seemed to recover rather well...

But that only lasted a few months, and then following a series of stressful events, I was back to square one.

Whatever damage I did to my adrenals over the past 5-7 years has obviously not been undone: I am irritable, I don't sleep well, I'm constantly fighting brain fog, I crave refined carbs, salts, and sugars, I recover from exercise ridiculously slowly despite proper nutrition and otherwise being in good shape, I'm in and out of depression... the list goes on. Not pleasant.

Right now I'm taking pregnenolone, dhea, tribulus terrestrius, ashwagandha, panax ginseng, bacopa, a multivitamin, fish oil, magnesium, phosphatidyl serine, and GABA...

I try to do all the right things... not staying up late (very difficult to pass up social opportunities as a college student, but I do it in the hopes of feeling better), avoiding sugar, grease, refined carbs, high glycemic food, etc.

....but I still have no energy, I'm plagued by stress, and it's a good day when I can concentrate well on my work. There has to be a better way.

I'm not even sure whether I have too MUCH cortisol or too LITTLE; or if focusing on cortisol is the wrong approach. I know that I should have some tests done, but I am so low on money right now and my doctor doesn't seem to like ordering them anyways.
 
mmmm...I was expecting classical stimulants to have been involved. I have a friend (yes, actually not me) who got tolerant to all the effects of d-amp except for its peripheral action...and it doesn't even exert much direct adrenergic agonism. All it took was cessation and time.

So perhaps it was the wellbutrin...tyrosine doesn't really do that much. No idea if it's too much or too little cortisol...or cortisol at all, but I'd give it some time (on the order of a few weeks).
 
I used the stimulant "Spike" from biotest, which contains proprietary Sulbutiamine, caffeine, Yohimbine HCL, and Guarana Berry Extract.

I do not think this is something that will resolve itself in a few weeks... I've been dealing with it for over a year now.
 
Adrenal fatigue is a problem with long term stimulant abuse. I found that it's not worth it in the end. I'd rather be a bit less focused and productive, then undergoing cycles of being jacked up and then depressed. I do amphetamines maybe once a week at most now, usually less.

You are right in that cortisol levels are probably severely elevated in the chronic amphetamine user. However, levels should return to normal once you stop overdriving the sympathetic nervous system.

Remember, that system was never designed to be turned on for extended periods of time, perhaps minutes or hours, once every few days or so (during hunts, danger, excitement).
 
I went to my doctor today and he referred me to an endocrinologist.

The website "stop the thyroid madness" was very helpful. I had a blood profile done a few months ago and my TSH was 3.5, which was supposed to be in the "normal" range. It turns out, 95% of people with healthy thyroid function have TSH below 2.5, so there is a very good chance that I was subclinical hypothyroid, and now may be full out hypothyroid. I have begun to get searing headaches more frequently, and sometimes when I stand up I get dizzy... in other words, the symptoms of hypothyroidism are becoming more apparent.

"Until those data become available, a more precisely determined reference range for TSH of 0.3â??2.5 (Fig. 1

) will permit detection of individuals at risk of overt thyroid disease and should prompt their additional follow-up to confirm progression into thyroid dysfunction and thereby justify initiation of therapy. We will probably never have an absolute cutoff value for TSH distinguishing normal from abnormal, but recognition that the mean of normal TSH values is only between 1.18 and 1.40 mU/liter (7) and that more than 95% of the normal population will have a TSH level less than 2.5 mU/liter (10) clearly imply that anyone with a higher value should be carefully assessed for early thyroid failure. Thus, we believe that a TSH level between 5 and 10 mU/liter deserves confirmation and, if confirmed, warrants treatment. More judgment is required until more definitive data are available for the management of those patients with TSH values between 2.5 and 5.0. Assessment could include a review of their personal and family medical history and serum cholesterol and TPOAb levels, and the decision as to whether to initiate a trial of levothyroxine therapy is based more upon the "art of medicine" at this time than the science.

Pasted from <http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/90/9/5483>"

I will schedule an appointment with the endocrinologist on Monday, and then hopefully get to see them within the week. Then it will take another few weeks for me to have results sent back... and if it confirms my suspicions, I have wasted 2-4 weeks where I could have been getting better. Any ideas? Should I try to get a prescription for Armour or T4/T3 somehow?
 
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