Adrenal burnout/fatigue a possible "byproduct" of

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Initially I thought this forum was primarily fitness/exercise related so I wasn't going to post this here. If this is the wrong forum, please forgive me.

As I have been struggling with chronic fatigue, depression, irritability, and now weight is starting to be a problem, I have been reading a lot on various theories for the combined symptoms and their increasing severity.

I came across several articles on cortisol and adrenal fatigue/burnout. The question that came to mind is "how many Apies are suffering this as a secondary problem?"

We know that aspies are at increased risk of secondary issues, such as behavioral disorders (add, bipolar, etc.), but what about associated physical complications such as adrenal problems that the conventional medical community ignores, such as adrenal fatigue, chronic fatigue (which is a symptom of others), etc.

I can post links to the articles if it is permitted and anyone is interested.

I have the same things that you are describing in your post.

Personally I think it's not really the "cause" of Aspergers, if that's what you're trying to say. What I do think is, Aspergers more or less means, well, a weaker constitution. You have to exert more effort to get an equivalent task done, ie, socializing. Sure you can learn and adapt, but it takes more energy for you to do so, thus easier to get adrenal burnout.

For example, here's a context. When I deadlifted for the first time in my life, I pulled 255. I have an Indian friend who it took like a year to reach 255. I have a stronger natural construction than him. It takes him a lot more effort to reach the same level I did at the start. Now, not that deadlifting is uh...you know, the same thing, but if day in and day out, your job was to deadlift, say, 225lbs constantly (like 50x a day,) and you started at 135 or less, then you'd probably get fired if you didn't adapt, and in the adaptation process, since it wasn't slow and controlled like you going to a gym, you'd probably get injured, whereas someone with a starting lift like me would probably adapt pretty easily to it.

So the point is, everyone can adapt to be whatever they want...as long as it doesn't kill or break them in the process. This is what people don't understand about Aspergers and other illnesses. They say "well why don't you toughen up lololol" and it's not quite that simple if your starting base is so bad.

The other thing, too, with socializing, etc, it's not like a deadlift in that it's like, not just one thing. Socializing is multiple things, multiple variables, etc.

But the reason I say this all is, under "light" circumstances I don't need any supplements/drugs. But now working a fulltime job, I need to be on a bunch of ginseng, vitamins, Chinese medicine, etc, just to work a job like a "normal" person. My job isn't even all that hard. It's just I'm poorly suited for working like a normal person. So the drugs (well they're herbal but to me they're drugs, ephedrine and heroin are technically "herbal" too) help me to adapt.

So yeah, having Aspergers, you're probably gonna be burnt out as hell, because you're going to be expending more energy mentally to get "normal" things done. The flipside to this sometimes is we get special abilities/talents/ways of thinking, but it's quite a cursed existence in my book.

could it be associated with the fundamental social emotional stress that comes with constantly mis-reading cues and the subsequent heightened fight or flight 'antenna' that is always on because of the rejection and confusion of our interactions? Face it, most Aspies are not exactly relaxed when 'out and about - yet most of us long to have some sort of social connection. Yeah, we burn out and melt down a lot - which also registers on the adrenal system.

Well, let's see. I use two Chinese medicines. One is Jia Wei Xiao Yao Wan, which I think means "Free and Easy Wanderer" pills. Basically it's an antidepressant or antistress medicine? You're supposed to take 8-10 pills twice a day. I take 7 pills in the morning and 4 at night. I take another Chinese medicine called Bu Nao Wan,, which supposedly translates to "Cerebral Tonic." Take a lower dose of that. Recommended dose is like 8-10 pills 2-3x daily. I take like 5-6 in the morning and like 3 at night. TCM is kinda tricky, as you need a diagnostic and it's a lot different than Western medicine. For me personally, I cut out a lot of the meat and stuff I was eating and ate more vegetables and stuff, in Chinese medical terms meat is "yang" and "warming/hot/fire" usually. So it'd make my mood swings and whatnot worse, more hormones. What made me look into TCM was actually getting a UTI and having the Chinese medicine work better than antibiotics and having the UTI go away once I cut my meat consumption down.

For non-TCM herbs, I take schizandra (single dose) in the morning, half dose evening. Well, schizandra is used in TCM, but not too often by itself. I also take Siberian ginseng, but sometimes take red or American ginseng (only have American ginseng candy, though, good candies for when you're stressed, haha.) Siberian I find is "smoothest" of them all. In Chinese medicine Siberian is "neutral" whereas red ginseng is yang and American is yin, so that's another reason.

Besides that, I take B vitamins and vitamin D, and vitamin C.

Doing this I don't need insane amounts of coffee to do normal people things. However if I'm left in a non-stressful thing, I feel OK after just a cup of coffee or whatever, and no pills. What else, I also had hypoglycemia for awhile, I believe due to adrenal burnout/stress. I bought the first Chinese pills to deal with that, actually, and it worked.

So what I use is just what I use. It might not work for your composition/etc. Let's see, Rhodiola Rosea is pretty sweet s**t. But it's too strong for me to use on a daily basis, imo. Stuff kept me wired and focused as all hell.

I have chronic fatigue syndrome that probably started because of the prolonged diarrhea I had(had it close to 1 full year). Stress(very high due to bullying and abuse) my ultra poor sugar-rich , high junkfood, unhealthy diet and lifestyle were possible triggers too.

Pretty much my earliest complaint before I had the words to describe it.

Diet, nuerofeedback/biofeedback, exercise (martial arts) and various CBT based coping strategies have helped.

Fundamentally it is still there in the background. However any physical sensation, is actually down to how your brain processes the information. So it has much less impact on me.

It does take time, it probably took an concerted effort of 5-8 years to get there, I saw a bunch of doctors, and go nowhere for a long while. Eventually the solution that worked for me.

I have much less sensory issues, my mood much more stable stable, and the physical symptoms are much more under control.

The biggest improvement is I had a very low stress tolerance ,and now my stress tolerance is much higher. This is down to the nuerofeedback.

I used to have literally a sea of bile in my GI tract upon waking up, adrenaline would shoot up all my limbs an fill my body, at the slightest noise. I was very tired and worn out. Diet was quite important in changing this.

Btw, it isn't down op have much adrenaline you have it is down to how your body reacts to it, and also the hormones in the adrenaline.

I have found that making my own cultured vegetables and eating those are much better than yoghurt, especially soy yoghurt. the only healthy soy product I have found is fermented organic soy.