Laker--
Wow. I could have written your post. Huge hugs to you.
First, you are so amazingly strong--despite this awful illness and
complicated treatment and the daily challenges of insomnia... you are
making very wise and healthy choices for yourself. Please know that
most people couldn't do that. Please feel good about
that--it's a bright light.
If you have explored adrenal support with some depth and din't have
much luck, you might be like me in that I found out after spending
thousands of dollars with an ND trying to supplement that I have
neurotransmitter DNA mutations that make things pretty complicate
(neurotransmitters also contribute to adrenal function in controlling or
even exacerbating responses to stress, among other ways). Every one of
my neurotransmitter levels (over a dozen) were measured to be on the
extreme level of "too high" or "too low". So we supplemented only to
adjust them to swing completely in the opposite direction. The
information about
the mutations came way too late so I just set that
aside for awhile and tried to do what I could about
the adrenal problems on my own.
Stress is likely the main reason your adrenals are stressed. There may
be other cogs in the wheel but this is the one component that can't be
"supplemented" or "medicated" into submission. So your isolation from
the huge stressors in the family is likely the single most influencing
factor of addressing your adrenals. I can't tell you how huge a step this
is. I did that (on a little lesser level--but it was a little easier for me
because of their apathy). My biggest step was resigning from my firm
and stopping all travel and other work-related activities. It was a
constant stressor and distraction and it's caused a deeper financial crisis
but my adrenals finally recovered. It took 3 years. It's a very slow
process, much like waiting for the skies to rain to refill reservoirs in a
drought. You must be diligent to capture every mode of recovery and
rebuilding the adrenal reserves as possible.
In addition to eliminating obvious stressors, it's important to avoid other
kinds of stressors like excitement--which induces the same responses in
the body. So, this means:
- no dramatic or action-filled movies
- carefully choose TV and reading material--stuff like that
- no adrenaline triggers.
Meditate every chance you get -
- turn OFF the phone
- sit in your car and meditate over lunch
- take a time out in the bathroom during the day to "be alone"
- pull over to the side of the road to sit for 10 minutes during your long commute home
- nap or at least lie down every chance you get.
Make your bedroom a sleeping oasis -
- black out the windows
- remove all light sources - ALL of them (even small lights like the
battery light on a nightlight can be distracting for some of us)
- remove electronics (except alarm if you absolutely need it)
- despite words of caution - sleep in on the weekends if you can - sleep
whenever, wherever you can
- make sure the temp is controlled (cool is best)
- do nothing other than sleeping in the bedroom, and don't sleep anywhere else but the bedroom (no falling asleep on the couch)
Sometimes cortisol surges wake us up in the middle of the night (this
would be an awful, panic-filled surge for me--very upsetting and difficult
to fall asleep after)
- for this reason - no sugar/simple carbs is a must - sugars create
unbelievable havoc on adrenals
- try also to eliminate processed foods - the chemicals are only making
your body struggle
- try eating a small portion of protein + complex carb before bedtime
(chicken and butternut squash or brown rice--no sugar) to help reset the
adrenal function/digestive process that occurs overnight
- it's best to stop drinking all caffeine and stop smoking--but not if
trying to stop causes an ongoing stressful response (it's obviously hard a
first but these chemicals only drain the adrenals)--part of the reason
people have such a hard time stopping is because they need a lot of help
with detoxing while they do that, but of course aren't told to increase detox.
- try melatonin and other very popular "sleepy time" herbs - here is a
good list:
www.christopherhobbs.com/library/articles-on-
herbs-and-health/herbs-and-natural-remedies-for-insomnia/ - I always try to do a binder before bed - this helps keep digestion
moving over night, and clean out toxins that might affect sleep. Do this
early enough so that you can also pee before bed (binders require a lot of liquids).
- other soothing things to help calm your GI are also helpful like
drinking a little aloe vera juice, warm tea, bone broth soup
Unfortunately, it literally takes an all-font attack to get your body to
ratchet down the stress mode. I pretty much set aside my treatment for
a month so that I could focus solely on getting into good habits and good
rhythms with an adrenal-saving protocol. I'm so grateful I did--I was
near the last stages and wonder if I would even be here had I not taken
emergency actions.
Hope that's helpful - please let us know if you have other questions.
-p