Adrenal Fatigue Meant Sleeping My Life Away

(San Diego, CA)

Adrenal fatigue devastated my life, until I took charge of my health, sought answers, and got relief!

I am a 25 year old female. I am healthy, other than the fact that for 10 years I have slept several hours of my life away--eight to ten hours at night, and long naps once or twice a day.

I've known something was wrong with me for years. I've been on anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, prescription stimulants, etc. I was diagnosed with depression, a mood disorder, and idiopathic (unknown) hypersomnia (excess sleeping).

After trying everything to fix this I finally, thanks to my insurance, saw an endocrinologist, who tested me and told me me I had a cortisol deficiency. He gave me a shot and now, a few days later, my energy level is still high and I have more motivation, and less depression/anxiety.

I am still on anti-depressants and stimulants, but before they only helped me about 50%. When I had adrenal fatigue, I was still tired, lethargic, unhappy, dis-satisfied, and overall sick of my life. Now I feel 100%.

A regular family doctor cannot adequately diagnose cortisol deficiency, at least not in my case, and I go to a very good doctor at that. Endocrinologists look for things other doctors, even my SLEEP doctor didn't.

Be proactive in your health. I told my endocrinologist to test everything. You can't rely on your doctors to figure out what's wrong with you, especially if your primary symptom is fatigue--which is caused by practically ANYTHING that is exhausting your system--general stress, minor or major illness, eating the wrong foods, lack of exercise, etc.

If you're sleeping way more than you feel you should be, or you're constantly exhausted and want to nod off (and you're getting adequate sleep at night) first see a sleep specialist to see if you have RLS (restless leg syndrome) or Sleep Apnea.

If this is treated and still not fixed (as was in my case) keep digging. Maybe you do have adrenal fatigue, or maybe it's something else entirely. But no one will figure it out for you unless you know the right people to see and the right questions/tests to ask (for).