connection between alcohol addiction and adrenal fatigue.

Hi #38976,

Thanks for posting that article about the connection between alcoholism and adrenal fatigue. That story helps me understand a bad experience that happened to me, recently.

((Although Droffinah still balks at people who use kudzu to find relief and even sobriety from their alcoholic ways, I am proud to say that the kudzu helped me stay sober for 10 weeks. TEN WEEKS. That's 2 and a half months! As an adult, I have never been able to stay sober without meds like antabuse, psycho-therapy, AA meetings, etc. This time, I was sober for that long just by popping some kudzu capsules whenever I felt moments of weakness and temptation. It cost me less than $60 to use kudzu to stay sober for 10 weeks.))

But here is my story: A couple of weeks ago, I went hiking and got a very, very serious case of poison oak, which ultimately spread all over my body: face, arms, legs, chest, back, etc. The worst of it was on my arms, which became very red and swollen, and which oozed lots of fluid. The itch was maddening, and I stopped sleeping. It was awful. Every 4 hours or so I took a shower with special soap, and put calamine and all of those other kinds of lotions on my skin. Eventually after a week of misery, I went to the doctor because of a shortness of breath. The doctor told me that basically, this was all a severe hyper-allergic response to the poison oak. The interesting part is that I had an alcoholic relapse as soon as I started taking the steroids that the doctor prescribed (to suppress my immune system). During that Friday after starting the meds, I took the kudzu as usual, but by the end of the work day, I was having serious alcohol cravings! It shocked me, because I thought the kudzu was going to do what it had been doing for the past 10 weeks, but the kudzu became uneffective. And needless to say, by that evening, I was drunk.

I think it's an interesting coincidence that I had an alcoholic relapse after my body had been having a severe allergic response after 8+ days (with difficulty sleeping and breathing). Was it just a coincidence?

According to that allergy/addiction article, the immune response creates elevated cortisol levels which ultimately contribute to the adrenal fatigue. So one idea to consider is that if you can control your body's allergic response, then you will reduce your adrenal fatigue, which might be helpful in reducing cravings for booze. I think that's a reasonable hypothesis. I think the point of the article is for those people who are alcoholic, it might be worthwhile to investigate if you have any allergies, which might be contributing to your urges to drink.

Of course, I have no doubt that the kudzu will still be able to help me, once my body has had a chance to get over the allergic response to the poison oak. I'll be sure to make a post on this forum about it, hopefully in the next few days, once the weekend passes (when I am most vulnerable to alcoholic cravings).

BTW, Droffinah, my 10 weeks of sobriety were WONDERFUL. L.O.L.!!!! I enjoyed waking up feeling refreshed, with a CLEAR HEAD. My decision-making process has improved, and my nerves are stronger, and I feel ALIVE. It feels good to be able to concentrate on the things that I want to focus on, rather than having my mind constantly being tugged at by thoughts of alcohol and the associated shame of addiction. It is a joy to feel that I have control over my sobriety, rather than putting my fate into someone else's hands, like a therapist's. Some people only find their sobriety through their own autonomy.



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