People often wonder what the difference is between fatigue from the day and adrenal fatigue, which is chronic long term exhaustion.
As I have talked about in previous posts, there are three progressive stages of adrenal fatigue: the alarm stage, the resistance stage, and finally, the exhaustion stage.
“Overtraining”
The alarm stage should be a constant stress and recuperate balance that overtime makes you physically and mentally stronger. The mindset that people often develop is they think they are good at handling stress, so they don’t need to recuperate as much. I see people dig deep in there reserves and push hard every day for their family, career, community, and friends, and they do this for years without the proper recovery. The top athletes in the world will tell you their recovery period is often more important than their intense training and this same concept applies to you.
Comparing Kills Your Adrenals
Another societal issue that we have to deal with is that we are constantly comparing ourselves to others and only seeing the best side of people. This creates a disillusion that makes people want to do everything as good as they see the best people doing those things. However, you don’t see behind the closed doors of the “super volunteer” or the “most hardworking and career-focused” or the “most involved mom.” You don’t know what those people are doing to recuperate.
People have this false idea that they need to be the best at everything they see their friends being the best at. It becomes this vicious competitive cycle of not thinking you are doing enough because you are constantly comparing yourself to the best sides of people.
We try to live on this plateau of high performance, and the real problem comes from the people who are good at this and then realize after a short time, it is not sustainable.
Lack Of Energy Is Not A Character Issue
When I work with people who were good at this level of high performance for years, they face almost an identity crisis when they are suffering from adrenal fatigue. The peak of their performance isn’t nearly what it used to be, and they aren’t able to get as much done in their lives anymore. They were happy and proud, and they made a difference in the world, and now that they aren’t able to do as much, they tie that to their feeling of self-worth.
This is a hard reality for a lot of people to face, and they feel like things in their lives have changed them or made them more lazy or unproductive. People start blaming themselves or the people around them for their “faults.” As adrenal fatigue progresses, what often comes with it is moodiness and irritability, which puts further stress on realtionships.
People need to realize that lack of energy is not a character issue; it is a physiological issue. Many times the stress people face they have no control over. Whether that be a death in the family or the loss of a job, there are always uncontrollable environmental factors that we deal with every day that cause immense amounts of stress. These are things that we may not have control over, but we still have to recover from.
Build Your Reserves To Handle Stress
I don’t know about you, but my life is one stress after the next. It is essential when things are going well in life to build in those reserves, which means getting quality sleep, eating healthy, relaxing, and socializing. Don’t be naive to think that once you overcome a significant stressor that another one won’t be right around the corner.
Stress can be a good thing, but it depends NOT on how you handle it but how you RECOVER from it. Too much of anything isn’t healthy, and too much stress is detrimental.