Late stage adrenal fatigue - desperate for advice
Hi all,
I am a 25 year old girl from Brisbane, Australia and I believe I have stage 3c/3d adrenal fatigue.
Back story: After a tough few years I thought high levels of stress were my new normals with panic attacks out of the blue and random odd symptoms, doctors tried to prescribe anti-depressants, but after seeing friends struggle on them - I brushed them off. Anyway after symptoms were getting worse and a very bad call by not my normal doctor - I ended up on high dose prednisone last year, although only on the drug for 3 weeks and weaning off I had every bad symptom in the book over this time...it baffled doctors because I was weaning after not being on them for long at all - I honestly felt like I was dying.
I recovered eventually and was back to my normal self, with a few more odd symptoms here and there and
Depression hanging over me that I couldn't shake after experiencing it on the prednisone. Eventually that cleared up too (with work with a great physcologist and hours of self work)... Around April this year I noticed my hair was thinning at an alarming rate. The doctor said it was Telogen Effluvium and not to worry...my hair is still falling out with no sign of stopping and it has now been 6 months. Since though I have also been getting a steady stream of worsening symptoms. My blood
Sugar is all over the place (not dissimilar to the way it was when I had only just come off the prednisone), I am exhausted doing nothing and walking short distances, I have leg pain, upper back pain, my libido is non existent, I have anxiety in waves with a sore/tight chest hanging around most nights. I am dizzy and feel like I am about to collapse at any second and I feel as though I no longer can tolerate any stress, even getting excited at my boyfriends football game causes me to feel horrible and ill. My doctor has hit a wall, my bloods are generally all fine and he wants me to go on the pill to see if this will help. I have a clotting disorder so this isn't possible.
I started to take 600mg of vitamin c after ready Sarah Gotfrieds book (of which I pretty much scored chronically highly in almost all of the categories for hormonal imbalances). My body doesn't seem to like it at all, I get night anxiety really badly when taking it, or feel extremely sleepy if I take it during the day, and since taking it I have felt so much worse!!! I can't seem to really tolerate any vitamins (I have tried magnesium in the past when stressed and always have weird reactions, same with iron and multivitamins), which I have read is also a sign of late stage adrenal fatigue?. I should also mention that I am gluten intolerant - badly!
Basically this is a plea for help and guidance, if anyone could shine some light on a regime that has worked for them or even a good doctor in Brisbane (we seem to still be in the dark ages with this stuff in Australia) I would be very grateful. I have an appointment with a more integrated GP next week but am honestly feeling so run down and miserable I sometimes don't think I will make it (melodramatic I know). Would be nice to hear from people who have been here and are on the track to recovery. Thank you!