Sensory overload, glutamate excess and low cortisol relationship?

My cortisol levels are very low in the afternoon and in the evening and I was prescribed hydrocortisone for that.

But I do know I would be treating only a symptom, with the root cause being the benzo influence on the HPA axis.

The thing is: I present lots of symptoms of glutamate excess to the degree of a moderate case of autism (even if I probably already am naturally autistic but I didn't use to experience what I am going through now): I can't watch TV, it's uncomfortable and feels like it's too much stimuli, it's exhausting and makes my right temple area of the brain feels like burning. I yawn a lot after, as if I was going through a cooldown proccess after such exposures.

What calls my attention is that in the morning, when my cortisol levels are higher, I am much less uncomfortable watching TV. Also, when I experimented adrenal cortex extracts to increase cortisol, I experienced extra energy for these stuff with lots of stimuli.

This makes me think: does cortisol also have the function of moping up excess glutamate? I wonder how much who suffer with sensory overload have adrenal fatigue/dysfunction or lower cortisol levels. Mine in the afternoon and in the night are below the standard lower boundaries and it's when screens bothers me the most.

So, if my cortisol levels were normal, I would not experience this symptom? Does cortisol do something to control the glutamate?

And I do not have Addison's disease nor primary or secundary insufficiency.

Your thoughts and experiences on this are welcomed.

I don’t have answers, just questions, I’m sorry.  I haven’t seen a situation like yours before, you take a steroid for low cortisol levels?  Have you reacted to it, most members have a hard time with steroids.

So your mornings aren’t horrible like everyone else because your cortisol levels are too low?  Here I thought that if members could lower their cortisol levels, they’d feel better, I guess not?

You’ve made some remarkable observations. 

I don’t have answers, just questions, I’m sorry.  I haven’t seen a situation like yours before, you take a steroid for low cortisol levels?  Have you reacted to it, most members have a hard time with steroids.

 

So your mornings aren’t horrible like everyone else because your cortisol levels are too low?  Here I thought that if members could lower their cortisol levels, they’d feel better, I guess not?

 

You’ve made some remarkable observations.

No need to be sorry, Pamster. You were always very kind to me. Typing and being in front of screens are being tough for me, so I hope I give a decent answer.

I don't take steroids, at least yet, but an integrative doctor prescribed hydrocortisone (bioidentical) in low doses to see how I react after seeing my salivar cortisol tests. Here are them:

Morning cortisol: 259,5ng/dL (reference interval 110 to 760)

Afternoon cortisol: 26,2 (50 to 140)

Evening: 21,4 (18 to 100) (the issue with this one is that the reference interval is from 23 to 24 and I collected 22h31. But there is the previous one in the evening collected 00:08:

Evening (previous test): 13 (18 to 100).

So, basically, the morning one seems to be inside the standard but still low. Coincidentally, it's in the morning that I am more productive.

I also used to thought that lower cortisol is good and I guess it's a common mistake since cortisol is known as the "stress hormone". But this gives us misinterpretations as we actually need it to manage stress, and the release of cortisol is an answer of our bodies to stress. Actually, an integrative psychiatrist that I only went once asked me for my salivar cortisol tests when I complained about the same issues (but weaker by that time) and when I saw it was low but still inside the standard boundary, I thought: "oh, that might be good!". But actually, salivar cortisol levels near the boundaries is one of the evidences used to diagnose adrenal fatigue/dysfunction.

In the stage 3 of adrenal fatigue, after your body kept after some maybe long time responding with cortisol in your daily stressful life, it got used to false alarms (like, it were not death threats or something like that) and given that the adrenals adapt to release less cortisol. Benzos affect the HPA axis, so they can be the root case of adrenal fatigue.

I have two hypothesis: my mornings aren't terrible because of my "more normal" levels of cortisol or because I am rested and didn't do things enough to feel something like glutamate excess.

One thing that corroborates the first hypothesis is when I used adrenal cortex extracts (ACEs), a natural alternative to steroids. I felt much better when I tried to the point that I was pretty confident to go out and do stuff that I was avoiding. But unfortunately, in my case, the supplement caused a tinnitus spike, maybe because I still experience antidepressant induced tinnitus and adrenal glands generally have serotonin and I consumed bovine adrenal glands extract.

So, no, I didn't tried corticosteroids yet but I will try bioidentical hydrocortisone in low doses in the beginning to see how I feel. Hydrocortisone is less potent than prednisone which is much less potent than dexametasone.

I hope I get an improvement on my symptoms with hydrocortisone.

Sorry if I explained badly. Dr Wilson's book is a good read about adrenal fatigue.

I’m similar to you FOD

Except now I can’t seem to move at all.

So dr is checking cortisol again.

Ugh.

No concept of adrenal fatigue here, can’t take supplements anyway.

Good luck.

I hate Valium.

Winnie

I’m similar to you FOD

 

Except now I can’t seem to move at all.

 

So dr is checking cortisol again.

 

Ugh.

 

No concept of adrenal fatigue here, can’t take supplements anyway.

 

Good luck.

 

I hate Valium.

 

Winnie

Do you also can't watch TV most of the time? When did it start? Was it when you stopped alprazolam?

You can't move? Like, you can't walk through your home? I am sorry you are going to issues similar to mine and also going through this. I am so pissed about the harm that benzos cause. I hope we get better soon.