Cortisol

[Guest guest]

I've been asked to explain what I said about cortisol being a problem

in SSRI withdrawal, and how I can tell when mine is high. I'm so used

to dealing with it, I forgot that people here might not understand

what I was talking about.

There's a lot of medical knowledge at the other Yahoo group I belong

to, and a lot of people who have come through withdrawal and have

been helping others do it for a long time. One common feature of

withdrawal, particularly if you do it very fast or cold turkey, is a

dysfunctional cortisol response. It's part of the damage that gets

inflicted on the body during rapid withdrawal from the psychotropic

drug on which it is dependant. The way it was described to me was

it's like a light switch that has been broken. Cortisol is part of

the " fight or flight " response that also includes adrenaline. The

cortisol is supposed to subside rapidly after the stimulus is gone;

but after rapid drug withdrawal, it may not. By the way, other things

like long-term stress can cause cortisol problems too. If your

cortisol is high then you are exahusted a lot of the time, jittery,

often tearful, anxious, you have trouble sleeping, and you may feel

depressed. I believe there's a saliva test you can have done if you

really want to. I personally have decided that doctors have done more

harm than good in my life, they're the ones who gave me these drugs

telling me they'd help me, and they probably wouldn't believe me if I

told them about the withdrawal symptoms I've had. What I've been told

about cortisol, and researched on my own, fits well enough with what

I've been experiencing.

My cortisol went sky-high when I worked in a school for 6 weeks

recently. I am a trained teacher but I took a teaching assistant job,

as a less stressful way of re-entering the school environment (I've

been raising my daughter at home for 4 years). However, the ringing

bells, the crowds, the noisy drama and music classes where teachers

weren't in control; trying to cycle, then fighting rush hour traffic

in the car; working 4 full day a week -- they all left me with the

symptoms I described above, plus 100% genital numbness. Cortisol

actually robs chemicals out of the sexual hormone system in order to

be created and function.

I've more or less recovered from that experience, and I've been

assured that the cortisol problems will mostly or completely subside

over time. In the meantime I have to relax as much as possible, and

avoid things that overstimulate my system. The list seems endless,

but I've been learning over the past several months how to cope.

After all, you don't heal a bruise by repeatedly irritating it.

There are times when the cortisol isn't quite so high, but the

genital numbness persists, so I don't think there's a simple

relationship between the two. What I try to do is remember that the

sexual problems aren't the end of my life, that there are other

things to enjoy and be thankful for. At least, I'm OK with that

attitude until I have another fight with my husband. It's taking him

a long time to accept what's happened to me, but I'm hopeful we'll be

able to work something out. I'd be interested to hear about what

other people here have done when this has happened to them in the

middle of a relationship.

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