feo66
Back in 2004, when I first crashed, I was at the very high end for morning blood cortisol.
I pondered the Cushings thing as well for a while.
If you google Cortisol Steal ... you'll get a hint of what may be going on.
I think what happens as you slip into Stage 3 is that your adrenals are not making much.... but all available resources go to cortisol since you are stuck in a state of stress.
A saliva test might show low progesterone, but high cortisol.
People often have signs of low aldosterone (low blood pressure, salt craving, dehydration) .... but still have high cortisol.