Hello all, i've just signed up to the site as i'm currently enduring a prolonged state of anxiety and i'm feeling terrible like i'm about to break down. I'm hoping someone can help me understand whats going on.
I'm getting a huge surge of adrenaline rising from my stomach to my solar plexis area. It is unbearable and has resulted in me collapsing in an anxiety attack twice this last week. It feels hot when it happens. Usually my anxiety subsides after a few days but I must subconsciously be keeping it around by worrying. This is my best description of it, but I could be wrong. I don't have a fact sheet confirming it is adrenaline.
Has anyone sufferred similar feelings. How did you get it to subside?
Thanks for any help
Neil
What dose of pregabalin did you start on?
Hi Neil
After 4 years of tragic, and other worrying events within my family and immediate circle, I found I was suffering "adrenalin surges" at the slightest thing....for instance: a car stopping outside my house, an unexpected knock on the door, opening e-mails, the postman delivering letters, the phone ringing.
Then other anxiety symptoms set in....burning skin, pins and needles, hot surges in the night. I was already on Fluoxetine medication, but have upped the dose. I am mentally trying to override these fears, but it is not easy. The symptoms have eased a bit....and I am hoping that by trying to train my brain to unwind, then they will ease more.
Reading the posts on these sites have helped, as it seems so many people suffer from anxiety long term.
At least it is becoming more recognised now,
Try to understand the cause of your anxiety, and if you can identify any specific thing(s) that is half the battle, as you can then work (possibly with help) through it.
Good Luck!
Hi Celt,
Didn't I answer the dosage thing yesterday?
No problem.
75mgx2 for one week, then 150mgx2 for a year.
Hope that's useful for you.
Best wishes
Alex
Hello. I have adrenaline surges like you. Are you better now?
Hi Neil
That is exactly how I started with my Anxiety problems. I still have these attacks occasionally and i know how unpleaseant it is. I usually can tell when this is going to happen as I get a very strong burning in my legs which is the start of the adrenalin rush for fight or flight. If I'm at work I find that if I get up and leave the building and go for a walk and get a way from people and my current surroundings the feeling starts to subside. Its basically burning off the adenaline rush. Most of the time I have to just ride it out and try and remember that i'm not going to come a cropper or receive any physical harm. its not easy pal but getting up and moving about may help. Just try and distance your self from it. it helps to take your mind off it. Try and zone it out.
I'm lucky - I have understanding people around me at work that know to just leave me to it and I can come round on my own. things will get easier. it takes time and you learn how to deal with it more.
Be strong pal
Simon
Hi Neil1981
No idea how long it's been since this post but.......SNAP! I am a mirror image of you.
This is horrendous, hope you are managing ongoing, because I'm exausted. No end in sight at this stage, I probably need to sit around with similar blokes, and say out loud what I think might be bothering me and hear them let it out too, so we can gain strength from each others experience knowing we're not alone. PS If you find a cure, let me know will you? 
I think my problem is actually worse than yours Neil. At night I get hardly any sleep, this is every single night of my life. Very soon after getting up I can feel the adrenaline deep in the solar plexus. It starts to constrict my gut. This can vary from mild constriction (which is bearable) to intense constriction (which is unbearable). I am having to live each and every single day with an adrenal system which has gone completely out of control. During the evening I try to watch TV but it's so hard to concentrate because of the adrenaline. At times I have been driven totally out of my head in a real psychiatric sense because there's nowhere I can go to escape the torture.
I am on masses of medication for anxiety and I've been on benzodiazepines for years. Nothing, it seems, can relieve me of these dreadful symptoms.
Hi Neil please try PROPRANOLOL
20mg will significantly reduce the adrenalin surges. I have dealt with this condition for nearly all my life, finally diagnosed as panic disorder. Now o am anxiety free thanks to this medication.
Yes, I have. I'm going through something very similar right now. I wake up in the morning and it feels like someone is literally pouring an overdose of stimulants in my body. My stomach knots up and stays that way all day until nighttime where I finally get some relief. It is literally torture. This had been going on now for about three months. When my stomach finally unknots then I feel weak and shaky. I take Ativan in the afternoon to try and relax my stomach and it helps some but I don't get total relief until the evening and then I get very tired. I'm feeling really helpless and scared. I've had this before but not in a very long time. It always seems to happen after I've had something like a sinus infection.
I have this problem right now. I haven't been able to get it to stop- but just know you aren't alone. Any chance you have a minor stomach problem causing gas to make it worse? Or acid problems?
I have severe acid problems with my GERD and it makes me feel even more anxious when it causes hot pressure to rise up.
Hi Paul
I'm going through something very similar to yours. I get woken up early in the morning by what feels like an overdose of stimulants are literally poured into my body. Even though I just want to go back to sleep, I'm too uncomfortable to be able too. I spend my morning pacing trying to unknot my stomach which doesn't work. In the afternoon I take an Ativan to take the edge off but I still feel bad. Like you I can't watch tv or read or do anything because I can't get comfortable. This started up after a mild bout with the flu earlier this year that turned into a sinus infection. Now the virus is gone and the sinus thing seems to have subsided. My blood test shows that I'm infection free but I continue to feel horrible with these extreme anxiety symptoms without anxiety doing it. Like you said it is torture. Have you found anything for relief since you've posted this. I could use some ideas.
No Dale I sadly have not found any permanent solution. My wife got me a digital tens pain reliever with pads and batteries which I often attach to my gut area when it's really excruciating. This delivers pulsing vibrations in various patterns depending on what program you set it on. Amazingly this does help a bit by providing distraction to the gut area. It's nowhere near a permanent solution but it does bring some temporary relief.
Thanks for replying back Paul. I happen to have a tens unit. I will try it. This has been unbearable and I can't imagine how you have had to go through this for years. It's awful. I'm sorry you haven't been able to find the cause.
hi neil,
I suffer from bad anxiety and take pregabalin 150mg morning and night. This has worked wonders for me. It stopped that feeling you get in your stomach. I also take 40 mg of propanol morning and night. Ask your doctor about the pregabalin. It gets good results if you google infor on it for aniety.
Hi have you had any tests at all I urge anyone that has severe anxiety and adrenalin surges to request a 24 hour urine test to mess levals of adrenalin. The reason being is that there are health conditions that can be involved if the urine test shows high levals of adrenalin this is usualy the case.
I had the same symptoms and it was going on for years I was fed up of being constant told that my symptoms were anxiety all the time then I developed high blood pressure as well so they tested my urine for over production of hormones and found my adrenalin levals were twicethe limit of what they should be which causes severe anxiety but at the same time people think that will make you alert and high in mood when actualy it has the opposite effect and causes tiredness and constantly drained feelings. After the tests they realised I had what is known as a phemochromacytoma which is a hormone producing tumor on the adrenal gland.
I had this removed and I had no anxiety symptoms for a long time untill recently 8 years later they have returned and it's constant stay of high anxiety I am so tierd from it they have re tested my urine and found now that there is actualy a second tumor.
It's very rare condition so gp dosent always consider it or think to test for it but extremely anxiety is a symptom of diffrent adrenal issues so worth checking if they do find something that can be treated so that you are anxiety free and can actually enjoy life again as I don't know about yours but I feel that it controll my life so much and makes me realy Un happy
Hi Paul, my husband has had this for 10 yrs but in the last year it's become debilitating. Have you found releif yet? I strongly believe it is physical. It's not anxiety, though I think anxiety can be a side effect of it. He's had scopes, mri's, ultrasounds and no reason has been found. He's going for a pill cam next week and we're just praying it finds something. Anything. Anything at this point would be better than the nothing that keeps being found. The only thing that offers some release for him is cannabis. It releases the knot feeling enough for him to function somewhat. He also is seeing an endocrinologist for hypothyroidism and I'm going to beg her next time to look into his adrenals. There is going to be an answer somewhere! Don't give up. If we figure it out I will post it in here to give others a chance at releif.
I just want to ask everybody suffering from
too much adrenaline if they knew about, or tested for something called a pheochromacytoma ?
It's a tumor on the adrenal gland!
Which can create too much adrenaline.
The test for it is a 24 hour urine test.
Also there is a blood test as well.
I am afraid I may have this problem, and soon hope to rule this out!
Please post if you have done the test, and what the results are.
God Bless!
Donny_Dallas
high donny I have metatastic pheochromacytoma my first pheo was 2010 reocurance testing started in 2017.
there are several tests for pheo 24 hour urine for catecholamines and the plasma free metanephrines blood test (this must be put on ice and in a lab withing 40 minuets). there is also Chromogranin A (only helpful if it's high low or normal dosent rule it out) VMH, 5-HIAA, chlondine suppression test 3-methoxytyramine and also 8am cortisol.
when scanning for pheo needs to be a full eyes to thighs scan not just abdomen because pheo is adrenal but there is another tumor called a paraganglioma which is the same as pheo and can be functional the same as pheo but location is diffrent. have a look at the pheo/para allience website for info and there are face book groups if your on facebook