Adrenaline

[riverrat]

Hi everyone,
in addition to the pain i am trying to heal, I have this adrenaline rush feeling I get. Sometimes it's during the day during a stressful situation but mostly when I get tired at night and need to sleep but can't relax enough to do so.

Partly pain keeps me from sleeping, but also it's this weird thing where if I hear the littlest noise, i get very startled and jump and feel this jitteryness like adrenaline racing inside me. My teenagers dont always go to bed when I need to and I hear every little thing. Yet I'm so tired. It's like I'm so tired and if I can't go to sleep when I need to, something triggers this horrible adrenaline. I Never have caffeine and very little sugar in my diet. It's this this huge shaky, trembling unable to sleep feeling when i hear noise at night. Anyone else get this??? Is it just from the over stimulated nervous system?

Also my husband said my breathing at night is terrible. Shallow, uneven, snoring, and I stop breathing several times a might. Very typical of sleep apnea I suppose. I never feel rested. I wake up so often and just jump and feel so startled and don't know why. My dreams are always something very anxious in nature- like something is always going wrong or stressful in the dream. I feel like I rarely get in a deep state of healing restorative sleep. Which I'm sure many of you have with insomnia, but what's up with the adrenaline, shaky feeling when trying to get to sleep when I feel so exhausted and tired to begin with??? What's the connection to this and the chronic pain? Will I ever get out if this cycle of pain!?

Thanks for any insights.

 

[Ines]

I'm not 100% sure but I remember seeing on here about startle responses in highly sensitive people. Maybe your fight/flight system has been on over drive and your startle response is high. Maybe you are overly sensitive to stressors.
Anxiety in your sleep and anxious dreams is another reason why I would think so.
I am not sure about the sleep apnea except that inflamed nasal passages is also TMS.

 

[Alexis1984]

Hi Riverrat,

I don't know if this will help you... But even before I discovered TMS, and before I had pain as an anxiety response, I would have debilitating anxiety attacks. There is fight/flight but there is also... faint. I would jut collapse. Probably because I am thin and I have low blood pressure, but it was horrible. No matter what I was doing, driving, laying in bed, I would get a rush sort of like adrenaline but it would result in me feeling like I was dying. It was awful. I would feel nervous and upset for hours afterwards, as if I had just had a brush with death.

My mom, who I inherited a lot of my nervous tendencies from, and who is an RN, told me "You just have to tell yourself, 'It's scary and its uncomfortable but its not going to hurt me.'" My brother, a family practice doc, also told me mantras were what he told patients to do when they had anxiety attacks. I never thought I would move past it. But the cycle broke eventually when I allowed my body to feel how it felt but refused to engage with it mentally. It started again, but I told my mind then, "I can do this right now." It took another few months, but it stopped.

Now I am working on the unrelenting back tightness/spasms But once I read Sarnos book, it loosened up considerably. Really... try not to think long term, or try to be your own big sister and say "Look, its not going to last forever. That is just what it feels like. Lets find something else to do until the feeling passes."

 

[riverrat]

Hi Riverrat,

I don't know if this will help you... But even before I discovered TMS, and before I had pain as an anxiety response, I would have debilitating anxiety attacks. There is fight/flight but there is also... faint. I would jut collapse. Probably because I am thin and I have low blood pressure, but it was horrible. No matter what I was doing, driving, laying in bed, I would get a rush sort of like adrenaline but it would result in me feeling like I was dying. It was awful. I would feel nervous and upset for hours afterwards, as if I had just had a brush with death.

My mom, who I inherited a lot of my nervous tendencies from, and who is an RN, told me "You just have to tell yourself, 'It's scary and its uncomfortable but its not going to hurt me.'" My brother, a family practice doc, also told me mantras were what he told patients to do when they had anxiety attacks. I never thought I would move past it. But the cycle broke eventually when I allowed my body to feel how it felt but refused to engage with it mentally. It started again, but I told my mind then, "I can do this right now." It took another few months, but it stopped.

Now I am working on the unrelenting back tightness/spasms But once I read Sarnos book, it loosened up considerably. Really... try not to think long term, or try to be your own big sister and say "Look, its not going to last forever. That is just what it feels like. Lets find something else to do until the feeling passes."

Thank you for the helpful thoughts!

 

[riverrat]

I'm not 100% sure but I remember seeing on here about startle responses in highly sensitive people. Maybe your fight/flight system has been on over drive and your startle response is high. Maybe you are overly sensitive to stressors.
Anxiety in your sleep and anxious dreams is another reason why I would think so.
I am not sure about the sleep apnea except that inflamed nasal passages is also TMS.

I think your right! Thank you for the reply.

 

[crumbsandcarrots]

I had this during the beginning of my episode. I had lots of neuro like things going on. Buzzing. Twitching. Tingling. Burning. All throughout my body. And anytime it would start to subside... the sound of a motorcycle or any startle or annoying stressor would fire my body up again. I had to sleep in my office for a few months... which is off the street and much quieter.

I also tried to see Star Wars in the theatre during this time. The booming, shooting and suspense was too much. It set my body into overdrive. Felt like I was a bag of popcorn in the microwave. I had to sit outside the theater while my family finished the movie. Oddly enough, 6 months later as my system became a bit calmer. I accepted an invite to see a very mellow documentary at a theatre with a friend. It was my first time to a theatre since my Star Wars meltdown. I was excited to see my friend and watch a mellow Herzog film. I'm sitting there in my seat for a few minutes waiting for my friend. Feeling mostly calm. And my left bicep began to spasm in a way that I'd never experienced. Like chronically. Every minute. Ting ting ting. Then my legs started buzzing. Then my shin started burning. Which stressed me out. But I didn't panic on the surface. But I felt it in my body.

This is how I am convinced my odd symptoms are TMS. I used to have panic attacks. I used to be very high strung and boisterous. But I calmed down on the surface. And it all snuck back into my life through my body.

Oh yeah. And at one of my dozen+ doctor visits throughout this year long event, I complained of redness on my skin from nearly every touch or prolonged bit of pressure. Like if you scratch my skin softly with a finger nail, it turns bright red and stays that way for many minutes. Turns out it's adrenaline related. Cortisol has run amok in my body.