Adrenaline buildup - Do you experience this?

[ankietyjoe]

Hi guys

I'm wondering if anybody else experiences this.

It usually happens out of the blue, mostly early evening.

I have a feeling that adrenaline is shooting through my body, with 'that' feeling in your stomach, like a rush.

It happens in bursts every 10-20 seconds and causes my heart to beat rapidly (up to about 150).

I can control the resulting anxiety with breathing etc, but the adrenaline response feels physically led, rather than emotionally.

I can concede that my life is unbelievably stressed right now and make that connection, but it almost feels like my subconscious mind is suffering separately to my conscious mind - gah, if that even makes sense! :huh:

It doesn't feel like a panic attack though, it feels more physical.

Perhaps it's just a different form of panic attack.

[Gary A]

Never underestimate the power of the subconscious mind. A lot of panic attacks are triggered by the subconscious, some of the attacks that leave people frustrated are situationally predisposed attacks. These attacks come from an original attack happening, say, while driving on a busy road. After that, your subconcious mind starts to associate driving on busy roads with danger, as that's where you panicked before. Your subconcious mind then tells your body to react to this danger. There isn't a danger, but the preconceived notion in your mind is telling your body that there is, and your body responds by creating another panic attack.

This actually may very well be Whats happening to you, as your attacks seem to be coming at a certain time every evening. Perhaps your mind is expecting danger at this time, and kicking your body into action. That "rush" you feel is a actually more likely to be blood rushing from your stomach area to your extremities. The stomach isn't needed when we're fighting or fleeing, but your legs and arms sure are, so the blood gets directed there.

[ankietyjoe]

I'm pretty sure (99%) this is an adrenaline rush as it feels like a rush of adrenaline.

I get the connection between location/situation and attacks, but after having had PA's for nearly a decade I have them pretty much under control.

I do however think that stress can build up no matter how much you can control your anxiety, in my case causing a large release of adrenaline.

It's exactly the same feeling as stage fright or performance anxiety, but multiplied ten fold.

[Davit]

Every thought you have, even the subconscious goes through Hippocampus for redirection. If it is a positive thought it goes direct to Hypothalamus for storage or action. If it is a thing it goes into Semantic memory, if it is an action it goes into Procedural memory, if it need action on it it goes to Episodic memory. If Episodic memory doesn't have a stored memory to use it finds something close in Associated memory. If it is a negative thought it goes the same route only it goes through Amygdala before Hypothalamus. This gives hypothalamus directions to use a different set of memories than it would if it was a positive thought. If you used to have panic attacks then your thoughts were being sent through right side Amygdala which has little stored memory and directs Hypothalamus to action. Even if you don't have panic attacks anymore negative thoughts will go through the left side, the side for contemplating the thought to decide the degree of action if any. So you can have partial symptoms and reactions to the thought without a panic attack. If they are consistent then Episodic memory has an answer that it used before and will use again. (core belief) Because memory says this is what it considers appropriate. And the mind can only use what it considers appropriate.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I've been having adrenaline rushes for a while which I have suspected are due to issues with my medication which works with adrenaline. Every 7-10 days I will go through a higher anxiety period and some of these periods include adrenaline rushes. I didn't have any for a long time, then the odd one and now its become slightly more regular. The first time was the very nexy morning after starting the higher dose of Duloxetine which is known to start affecting norepinephrine at that dosage and it kept happening for 10 days 1.5-2 hours upon waking.

My GP stated it wasn't the medication but my anxiety. Until that morning, I had only ever had one adrenaline rush like that and that was when I had dosed up on a load of stronger than normal supplements when I was lifting. So, I knew it was a chemically induced one, not my anxiety which had never done that in the previous 3-4 years of having it!

With an adrenaline rush you won't get the hyperventilation issue although you may feel some chest fluttering. You will likely be feeling a form of tension but different to normal anxiety. You may feel like your blood is coursing. You may not feel scared, you may feel like you are capable or even positive, its a different feeling to anxiety. You feel like you want to run, tense muscles or feel aggresive.

Are you on any meds? Any SRNI's?

[ankietyjoe]

Apologies for not coming back to this sooner, life etc! :wacko:

No, I've never taken meds.

This is definitely something related to elevated stress levels, but also a confusing one for me.

It's just a rush of adrenaline/excitement in the stomach combined with trembling and usually huge increase in heartrate (which of course will trigger some anxiety at least).

Sometimes it'll last for a few minutes, sometimes the 'rush' will come back every 5-10 mins for a few hours, and rarely last all night.

[Poppy.]

I have exactly the same thing it feels like a massive rush just above my stomach followed by the yukky palps. It can happen at any time even when I mentally feel and calm. It is pretty grim and there was me thinking I was unique :roflmao: