What’s Chronic Stress?
It’s where your nervous system gets stuck in fight or flight and it becomes very challenging to get back to calm, and this continues over a long period of time. In my case this led to fatigue and panic attacks, which often included migraines. I had a few so intense that I passed out. One while driving, and I totaled my Tesla.
Chronic stress can create mystery illnesses. My heart is fine and I’m healthy in every other way, but the anxiety and stress laid me low.
As an ADD brain, I can’t just sit back and say I’m going to get more sleep and de-stress. I can’t “just relax”. I needed a plan and I needed to feel like I was doing something to move the needle in the direction of returning to normalcy and regaining control of my nervous system.
I needed an active recovery plan.
Here’s what I came up with, and what has helped me calm my nervous system and to reclaim consistent energy, mental and physical.
Basic for Rehabbing a Strained Nervous System
What helps to settle the autonomic nervous system/ sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight), and activate the parasympathetic nervous system?
- Breathwork
- Sleep quality and quantity
- Yoga
- Meditiation/ mindfulness
- Diet management and deletion or reduction of stressors such as caffeine, alcohol, sugar
- Appropriate exercise that won’t over-tax the nervous system
- CBT- cognitive behavioral therapy to get at the root of the anxiety and re-frame anxious thinking
What’s an active recovery plan?
For me it started with monitoring my body with a variety of tools, checking heart rate, HRV, blood glucose, sleep, and diet. Next was to manage my activity level and accept that I may not be able to push my body the way i have been accustomed to doing all of my life.
Tools:
- Apple watch for heart rate, sleep and exercise. I also have a breathing app on there for guided breathing
- Heart rate monitor for HRV daily checks
- CGM for blood glucose monitoring
- AI apps for CBT reflective journaling
Plan:
- Check HRV in the a.m. first thing and structure my activity for the day based on the reading
- Have a menu of physical activities that fit within HRV ranges, including yoga and foam rolling. Choose appropriate exercise for my available energy.
- I chose a keto diet to normalize blood glucose so that I wasn’t dealing with spikes, which were contributing to stress and fatigue
- Daily Wellness Practices- breathing, meditation, solid sleep and sleep hygiene, sauna and cold exposure
- Daily CBT reflective journaling
- I had to re-frame physical experiences that had been triggers for panic attacks such as coughing, shortness of breath and dizziness. My condition had escalated to the level of panic disorder, where these things would create anxiety about a possible panic attack and become a self fulfilling prophecy.
Conclusion:
Using this strategy , I’ve been able to dramatically reduce the frequency and the severity of panic attacks/ autonomic overreations. I’ve reclaimed my calm and groundedness. I’ve improved at coping with stressful situations and recovering after.
The HRV a.m. check ins have really helped me not to push on days when I shouldn’t. Dialing back my activity level/ intensity has been challenging for me, as a guy who is very active and athletic, but I’m looking at a long term benefit, and trusting the process. I definitely wasn’t improving by trying to push through, white knuckle it. That approach was working against me. Now I’m learning to be patient and gentle with myself.
I have a road map and a process toward recovery and evidence of success to keep me going.