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How To Stop Adrenaline Surges


icesktr189

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I need a "quicker" fix than waiting them out because they have been going on for days. I cant take my klonopin right now or else I would. I am SOOOO tired but they are keeping me awake. I was up all night because every time I would drift off, I would get a surge and I felt like I couldnt sit still. I feel like im on crack but tired at the same time. So much fun...

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Hi dani,

Two things come to mind but they of course will work differently for each person:

1) Can you take something like a benadryl or Tylenol PM that will have a slightly sedative effect to help counter the adrenaline?

2) Believe it or not, when I can't sleep cause I'm really feeling wired up from it, I drink a cup of caffeinated coffee and it puts me out. Crazy, right?! It somehow works the opposite on me that it would on a normal person. I am one of the POTSies that is helped by a cup of coffee in the morning (it feels like it slows my heart and eases the shaking), so I would probably only try this if you know how you react to caffeine.

Hope you get some sleep soon,

Katie

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thats funny Katie because I was going to recommend the same thing! weird how the coffee thing works.....dani what about taking a couple magnesium supplements....cami tea....or gravol??? .....me I couldnt live without my ativan for adrenaline overload....sorry to hear you are suffering!!! also I know it sounds weird but when I was really suffering bad with my surges I found lying on my stomach helped maybe because of the chest compression? Hang in there!! Hugs

Bren

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Thanks for the suggestions! I will try some caffiene.. I havent had it in a long time so Ill drink a small amount and see how it goes. How long does benadryl stay in your system? I just dont want to be tired the next day because I have to be semi alert for my daughter lol.

I do the stomach thing too! Last night was horrible, I felt like I had RLS in my entire body. I just had to walk around for an hour straight until most of the adrenaline wore off... that was at 4 AM! EEEk.

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Dani...magnesium sent me into a blood pressure whirlwind. My pressure was up and down and went to Quick Care I was so scared. :) but I lived. I took it for my muscles and I'm so sensitive that it did help my muscles, but it messed up my system terribly. I have something similar to what you are talking about and I get so sweaty and feel shaky and have flushing which feels like adrenaline. For most of the summer I had this, and just 4 days ago for no reason it stopped. Wish I knew what stopped it. Good luck to you! I hope you an feel well soon.

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How do you guys feel your surges? I wasn't told I had hyperadrenergic POTS but haven't been told I'm not. I know I am not hypovolemic POTS. I know that a number of POTS symptoms can coincide with high adrenaline but there are some times I get very shaky, weak, and a feeling of being unsettled. I'm also having trouble with sleep; I can feel wired or not, feel exhausted or just tired, and it doesn't mater I won't fall asleep. I am particularly frustrated tonight since recently my fatigue has been quite bad and extremely severe the past 3 days (awake maybe 8 hours a day at most and exhausted after 3 hours of being awake). Even this morning, 3 hours after waking I didn't know how I would stay awake for the rest of a meeting I had but now it's after 1 AM and I can't fall asleep. If I take ativan or Nyquil I'll sleep half the day and often remain tired the rest of the day.

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Hi Britishangel....be careful with the Nyquil. I think it is on the list of medications that can be dangerous for dysautonomia. Maybe you do okay with it....but I had a bad experience. I can't take anything, but Nyquil was the worst.

Ugh....I hate not being able to sleep. So sorry for you. Mine is mostly hyperthyroid. But if I read something really boring...I can usually fall asleep. I hope you got some rest. My surges are usually in my chest and then go all over my body and I sometimes sweat, which is so weird since I didn't have any sweat on an autonomic test. And then I feel almost like a wave in my brain or like my heart is beating in my brain. That sounds weird I know, but it's how it is.

PS Dani....have you had your thyroid levels checked? Just a thought.

I hope you slept well.

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Hi Britishangel

What you describe is exactly how my adrenaline surges go and I can relate to the exhaustion crash afterwards....my specialist says its like a catecholamine dumping syndrome......your body has all this adrenaline in your system and cannot expel it properly.....so it takes a longer than normal time for it to get out of our system and because of that we crash harder afterwards.....I also can barely hold my head up after a night of surges.....feels like I am drugged....terrible nausea, chest and arm pain,,,,horrible feeling...I have been in SVT the last 2 days pretty much nonstop :(.........I had been doing really well until the last couple of weeks and bam I am right back to square one and no reasons why :( hang in there girls!! we will fight through this! hugs

Bren

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dani,

The Benadryl is usually ok for me if I only take 25 mg...you can take up to 50 mg but I really need about 12 hours of sleep if I take that much. If I take 25 mg around 8 or 9 pm and get 8 hours of sleep, I usually feel pretty good the next day. I do usually go for the Tylenol PM (which is acetominephine and benadryl together) because I also have a lot of joint pain that also contributes to not falling asleep. If you don't know how you will react to a Benadryl, I would suggest maybe trying this for the first time on a weekend when someone else might be available to watch your daughter if you need to sleep it off the next morning.

It's always a crap shoot with us since we all react a little differently and many of us have strange drug reactions. I always try new things when I know someone else is around in case something goes wrong.

Katie

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Hi dani,

Have you tried theanine ? It's the natural alternative for klonopin. Green tea has theanine but

the caffeine in green tea nailed me so bad that the theanine never had a chance.

Sun theanine is the best way to go. When I was having your symptoms I needed 100 mg every 3 - 4 hours. Now I take appr 100 mg at night ..

Another alternative is to look at your diet for anything that could cause this. Of course any caffeine

source could, but foods containing glutamates, like gluten, casein, soy, or corn could do this.

Any chemical could cause this. We're living in a toxin filled environment and many of us are overwhelmed by this. All foods containing dyes or words you can't pronounce are suspects. Toxins found in our cleaning supplies, etc cando this too.

Are you taking a probiotic ? Our immune systems are mostly located in our guts and our guts

depend on a healthy balance of bacteria to function. If you can handle dairy, kefir is your best option.

Hth ... D

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You might want to talk to your doc, when you can for later. Maybe one of the other benzo's would work better. I know for me .25mg xanax does not make me tired at all, just stops the nerve twitching and takes the edge off the surges, I dont get wire either. Personally I take .5mg of ativan at night. This makes me sleepy and relaxes the nervous system. It lasts longer and combats the surges through the night. I usually only feel a little groggy in the morning. Perhaps this may not work for you, but I would try. Hope you find something that helps you.

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I am just so afraid because I once took Nyquil and it was TERRIBLE. I ended up at the ER from it, so I get nervous about anything sedating like it. However I am at the point where I just dont care right now so im going to just take it!

I had a terrible experience with Nyquil too so be very careful with that. My heart rate shot up over 220 and I wound up in the ER. They actually stopped my heart and restarted it.

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Where can you get theanine from? Does it have any side effects? I would much rather take that if it helps than klonopin because its so regulated that I am constantly going in for a prescription and I dont want to become dependent on it.

GingerA- Nyquil is the reason I have a medication phobia....It was the worst thing next to starting up lexapro. 20 mins after taking it I had crazy adrenaline surges and passed out and didnt wake up for minutes. I couldnt stay awake on it (my bp totally crashed). UGH what a horrible med! Weird thing is, it took it plenty of times before I had POTS with no problems.

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After living with adrenaline rushes for 4 years straight (had them daily, and they were especially worse when I had a virus, environmental changes - hot/cold weather, changes in weather, stress, and being over tired and insmonia issues created more adrenaline rushes) - I finally found that combining 1/2 table of tylenol & 1/2 tablet of xanax made so much of a difference! The two together (and a very small dose) seems to work well for me. I had also been on Klonopin which helped some, but made me feel worse in other ways. Something you could check into if it's available for you to try - I'm sensative to Tylenol, but the small dose allows me to make it work.

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Hi dani,

You can get theanine at the hfs or order it online. I use enzymatic sun theanine. It worked so well that I never

tried other brands so I don't know anthing about them.

The only downside I found to this supplement, is that if you take too much, your thinking will slow

down dramatically. At this point it sounds like you may benefit from that tho. I know I did ...

Just lower your dosage or discontinue it when that happens.

I haven't noticed that side effect becoming permanent and I've been on it for years.

Of course we are all different so for safety sake you always want to take a low dose of any supplement

to start with. You can open the capsuls and sprinkle a little into some water. If that's ok, then try taking

more.

Like I said I had to tske 100 mg every 3 - 4 hrs to control ny symptoms in the beginning but I

only needed that for a few days. I try to avoid taking more than I need because of how it slows my

brain down ..

Hth ...d

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Hi misstraci,

Anything we take can have consequences but theanine appears to be safe. I'm not a doctor tho, I'm only

familiar with my experience and that of several if my freinds.

There is a lot of good info on the web about this supplement. And if you google theanine klonopin you'll see a thread on prohealth about this too.

So far the only problem I've noticed has been a decrease in brain function. Coming off theanine has

always eliminated the problem. I always taper off this just to be safe ...

Tc .. D

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  • 2 weeks later...

So how do you get a prescription for xanax without your pcp or specialists stating that you are just a nervous ninny? That it is addictive and you don't need it...or miss, do you think you are just worrying unnecessarily about your illness, blah, blah, blah?

And...the only way around the sleep issues IMHO is a sleep doctor. I haven't slept over 3 hours/night for many months. My BP was 196/110 give or take 3 points for days on end. Then my sleep doctor knocked me out with a very high dose of restoril (I'm already on remeron and trazadone plus magnesium to sleep; with nothing I do not sleep at all - went 9 days with no sleep). Wham! I slept EIGHT HOURS!!! When getting up, my bp was 125/85!!!!!

Worth a trip to the sleep doctor IF you can find a decent one.

Yet I had a bad reaction to the Restoril and have had to stop. What a mess this POTS is!

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I can certainly relate .. I use a combo of theanine, melatonin and 5htp and vary the dose as needed.

Typically 1.5 mg melatonin, 100 mg theanine and 100 mg 5htp works well. If I'm wide awake past my

normal bedtime, I increase this. The highest I've ever had to go was 9 mg mel, 300 mg theanine and 300 mg 5htp. I played with this for years and I need the combo to sleep thru the night and wake

up rested.

I only take the higher doses when I have to which is rare. Caffeine, gluten or too much excitement interfere with my sleep. I know I've had more than I needed if I feel groggy the next day .. Hth .. D

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I hope you find some relief, dani. I know exactly how you feel - - it's the night surges when I'm just dozing off that get me too. Try magnesium and read that thread started by Julie too. I use Klonopin (clonazepam) 1/4 to 1/2 a pill Ibecause I'm so drug sensitive) before sleep for periods like this - - don't know why you can't take it right now, but if you can - - but I try not to take it other times as I don't want to become addicted to it. But when I get that restless all over/wired feeling, or if I wake up with my heart pounding and tachycardic and with cramped thighs/while BP swings and shaking all over, Klonopin is what works fo rme.

Carol

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