ARE YOU TIRED OF BEING TIRED?
Dealing with constant allergic reactions in addition to all the other “ normal stuff” in life, can be utterly exhausting and can make you feel like you just want to be in bed all day. Well, maybe you should be!
Below is a list of the types of exhaustion you may be experiencing and some steps you can put in place to help increase your energy levels throughout the day.
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION:
Emotional exhaustion can lead to a feeling of total burnout. It often stems from issues with your career, relationships, and/or the overall ups and downs of life. It also includes empathetic stress or compassion fatigue. People that suffer from constant allergic reactions find their “emotional bucket” is often empty because they are trying to balance the regular stresses of life with the extra worries of “when will my next reaction come” or “how do I keep my job if I continue to miss work” along with other continuous thoughts around the emotional effects of your allergic reactions.
Suppressing your emotions can also greatly add to the feeling of being “emotionally tired”. When you are sad, frustrated, angry, or feeling completely unheard, yet you don’t take the time to feel those feelings, they instead sit in your body, increasing your feeling of exhaustion.
PHYSICAL FATIGUE:
Physical fatigue is impacted by many factors such as diet, sleep, biochemistry, physiology, and, for those that suffer with allergic reactions or mast cell disease, well, you know how exhausted you are most of the time. The truth is that having allergic reactions throughout each day can cause serious body fatigue in and of itself, not alone adding in all the other typical day-to-day stressors of the body such as sitting too long at the computer, not getting a chance to exercise or stretch, getting too little sleep, and so forth.
Now, let’s add a whole new dynamic into the picture – Adrenal Fatigue, which I will discuss in detail later in this blog. But for now, just recognize that it goes under the category of physical fatigue.
MENTAL FATIGUE:
If you suffer from continuous allergic reactions, I am confident you have also suffered from a phenomenon known as “Brain Fog”. This alone can cause severe mental fatigue, and even impairment, depending on the level of fatigue. Do you have a hard time making decisions, solving problems, planning, and/or answering questions? If so, you are experiencing mental fatigue, which might not sound too bad, but living with it can be debilitating.
SOCIAL FATIGUE:
Social interaction may be playing a large role in the fatigue you are experiencing. The following factors may be contributing to your social fatigue.
If you are…
- Constantly trying to “keep up” with your friends and family, but knowing it is too much for you
- Feeling isolated due to potential allergic reactions and/or COVID
- Getting in arguments or disagreements with others about your mast cell disorder/allergies
- Feeling unheard and unsupported by your loved ones, doctors, etc. around your needs (this also falls in the category of Emotional Exhaustion)
…then you are definitely being affected by social fatigue.
ENERGETIC FATIGUE:
Are you an empath? If so, you may be taking on other people’s energy, or the energy from all that is going on the world right now. Do you often find yourself feeling someone else’s pain or do you cry when you see someone else cry? Can you walk into the room and feel the energy (or mood) of the room?
If you resonate with the examples above, it may mean that you are taking on energy that does not belong to you, which in turn, is most likely increasing your exhaustion. Therefore, it is imperative that you learn tools and techniques to put protection into place and block others, and that you learn how to keep your life force energy to within your own field.
SOUL EXHAUSTION:
Do you have an achy feeling deep in your gut or your heart that you are meant to be more and do more in this lifetime? Do you feel trapped in a “broken body” but have a strong sense that it doesn’t have to be this way, yet you have no idea how to change it? All these sensations are your soul begging you to remember that you are here for something much bigger than yourself and, that it is time to heal so you can become all you are meant to be in this lifetime. The mere idea of trying to heal, thinking of being more than you already are, may seem much too much. The very thought of it may be exhausting in and of itself, even if it excites you or gives you goose bumps.
ADRENAL FATIGUE: Let’s revisit Adrenal Fatigue for a few minutes because this is a key issue for many people that suffer from chronic allergic reactions due to a mast cell disorder and/or other immune issue(s). When you experience any kind of stress, your body will produce hormones and chemicals, including histamines, which, as you know, can cause allergic reactions.
Your adrenal glands will respond to the stress by producing cortisol, which in a perfect world will balance out the histamines. However, when you are chronically stressed, your adrenal glands may produce excessive amounts of the cortisol, and over time, may become fatigued. When this happens, the adrenal glands become unable to produce the amount of cortisol the body needs as a defense against the stress, leading to low cortisol levels in your body. Eventually, if not taken care of, the adrenal glands will stop producing cortisol at all, leading to the need for a synthetic cortisol. This synthetic cortisol can be difficult for people with allergies to take, as a side effect is allergic reactions.
My adrenal fatigue story:
After 34 years of my body recovering from one major allergic reaction after another, my family and I went camping to the Sacramento Delta. After several hours playing in and out of the water, I broke out in a severe rash that landed me in the ER. The usual steroids and antibiotics were handed out and I was sent on my way. This is an important time in my life to discuss because it was the catalyst to a complete body breakdown. You see, my body didn’t fully recover from that incident, and several months later things had progressed to where I was having one allergic reaction on top of another.
After seeking the help of a Functional doctor, I learned that I was barely producing cortisol. In fact, my numbers were .6! I was extremely close to never being able to produce it naturally and needing a synthetic cortisol, which the doctor was convinced my body would not tolerate. So, I spent the next several months having mandatory naps every four hours in order to help my body increase its cortisol production. And I spent the next couple years getting out of this acute state of adrenal fatigue.
So, if you have been suffering with moderate to severe allergic reactions, or have found yourself in fight/flight mode for a long period of time, and you are experiencing some of the following symptoms, you may want to have your adrenal glands checked for cortisol production:
- Difficulty waking up and/or getting out of bed
- Feeling tired throughout each day
- Difficulty managing stress
- Muscle and joint pain
- Dizziness
- Recurrent infections
- Depression
- Low blood sugar
- Heart palpitations
- Anxiety/panic attacks
- Headaches
- Low blood pressure
NOTE: these symptoms are often experienced from a variety of different issues. It is important to have tests taken to check your cortisol levels if you feel like you have adrenal fatigue.
To sum it all up, I hear you when you say you are exhausted! I was too.
And, I strongly encourage you to take steps in your life to reduce your exhaustion. This comes down to listening to your body and being willing to make valuable life changes in order to reduce your fatigue and live a more energetic life!
How do I do that you say?
This will look different for everyone reading this blog. The key is listening to your body. When you were reading the above types of fatigue, what were your thoughts? Did you squirm a little when you read one or more of them? Were you nodding your head saying things like “yep, that is me”? Did you feel sadness as you read them because they resonated with you?
If so, it is time to CHOOSE YOU and make some tangible changes toward having more energy. I encourage you to make your health a non-negotiable! Start with a couple small changes at a time. But make the changes that will support your health and well-being by starting today. You deserve it!
The following are a few suggestions to consider.
- Make time for a 10 or 20-minute nap each day, or even a couple of them
- Start and end your day with a short meditation
- Set strong boundaries with your friends and family
- Be willing to say “no” more often
- Let yourself “feel your feelings” – take the time to let yourself cry and feel upset rather than pushing your emotions deeper into your body
- Learn how to protect your energy before going around other people
- Learn how to cleanse your chakras (this made a huge difference for me!)
- If you sit in front of a computer all day long, be sure to step away with small breaks throughout each day
- Turn on music that lifts your spirits and turn off the news and other items that are draining your energy
- Get your cortisol levels checked!
- Be kind to yourself and give yourself grace if you don’t do something “right” in your eyes – look in the mirror and forgive yourself instead of holding in the frustration
- Focus on what your soul wants out of life and what is possible for you – keep believing in your power to heal!
Take those small steps today to reduce your exhaustion and feel the difference it makes. You are worth it!!!
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