AriaBear—
In response to your question about
it "suddenly starting"—it probably didn't. You were probably working up to this but the initial sx were just less noticeable. There are several stages of "adrenal insufficiency". Like Traveler mentioned, your adrenals have a limited supply of "reserves" so when your body is under psychological or physical stress—or both—you're in a heightened state of stress day in, day out.
And in that state, as the hormonal mechanisms to manage that stress become more and more consistent on a a day-to-day basis (versus only coming into the picture in a REAL emergency, like a tiger chasing you down for a snack), your normal state ratchets up and up and up. So, your "normal" state starts to resemble a stressed state (this is where the neurotransmitter functions start to misfire and get out of balance, which affects how you respond—with more stress and fewer endorphins and this is also connected to what people refer to as "lyme rage") and it takes less and less and less to trigger a heightened emergency response (which isn't necessary, but your body doesn't know that and this is what drains your reserves).
And like Traveler says, you only have so much in reserves before you need to fill it—it's like you're experiencing a drought an you desperately need it to rain for a good week. But "rain" in our terms means something very different. It takes absolute peace and calm and many many days with no excitement or stress or physical activities to help rebuild your reserves. It took me a couple years to a) figure out what this really meant because I didn't understand or couldn't commit and b)I had to figure out what worked for me, particularly because I was really sick w/ the lyme & co and a few other issues but didn't know it. And once I figured it all out—it took another 2 yrs to build back my reserves. There is absolutely no quick fix. A good ND can help do the right diagnostics to understand what hormones/neurotransmitters are off but NOTHING will help refill your reserves except time and completely powering down.
Here are the 7 stages of adrenal issues:
www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/seven-stages/There is a lot of good info on the web about
adrenal fatigue—but this website also has good info.
The risk you run in not "powering down" to allow your reserves to rebuild (which happens VERY slowly and naturally—there is no magic pill or Rx or alternative tx) is that the more your reserves are depleted, the less energy you will have to function in any normal capacity. And this doesn't sound like a big deal, until you are forced to allocate a specific amount of energy for EVERY action: showering, getting dressed, making a meal, grocery shopping, paying bills, MUCH LESS the big stuff like working a full day's work, laundry, walking the dog, doing anything social…
A young woman wrote an article awhile back referring to this as the "spoon theory" where you start the day with a certain number of spoons and each activity (even mental activities) costs a certain number of spoons. And as the days go by, you start the day with fewer spoons. Next thing you know, all you've done so far is get up and grab some breakfast and you're basically done for the day. You're out of spoons.
What this means for you, my friend, is no more games… exciting movies… no jumping out of airplanes… no relationship drama… no major surgeries… ;)
it's far easier said than done. But there are quite a few people here who are faced with the same challenges so ask any questions you want.
Also, regarding your tx—I think 6 mos is very, very short. Most of us here dealing with the multiple conditions you have been in tx for at least a year.
Hope this helps!
-p