Finding the Root Causes of Adrenal Fatigue

Being in a state of burnout can drain the joy out of life…

But there’s no need to grin and bear it!

In this article we’ll share why so many working mothers are feeling burned out, overwhelmed, and irritable (aka snappy at the kids and the partner!) and how the root causes of ADRENAL FATIGUE could be to blame.

Why Your Conventional Doc Won’t Test Your Stress Hormones

So many women are stuck in the “rat race” of what’s commonly called adrenal fatigue.

Instinctively women - especially mothers! - can feel when they are in “burn out mode”...but that’s where their instincts end and their desire to “get things done”, at work and in the home, takes over.

So first it’s important to understand the concept of adrenal fatigue. The adrenals are the glands responsible for secreting hormones such as cortisol, DHEA, adrenaline, and epinephrine. The term adrenal fatigue is a little bit of a misnomer-- it's more than your adrenals are overworked from producing cortisol levels that are very high, rather than the adrenals becoming “fatigued.” Because the term is a bit elusive, many conventional medical doctors do not consider stress hormone imbalance a ‘thing’, and so they rarely test your stress hormones, nor do they consider that your symptoms could be coming from your overworked adrenal glands.

But the thing is, when your body produces stress hormones too high for too long, this keeps your body in a state of chronic inflammation, which can cause you to hold on to fat, feel anxious and moody, brain-foggy, PMS-y, and it can make you fatigued. Over time the adrenals aren’t functioning the way they should and they stop making sufficient levels of DHEA and cortisol, leaving you to feel pretty crappy!

4 Root Causes of Adrenal Fatigue 

In our practice, we see four main root causes for adrenal issues, including:

1. Emotional stress.
2. Diet. Including eating too many inflammatory foods like sugar and processed rubbish. Or it might be not eating enough or missing meals which will cause blood sugar imbalances, which will then cause stress hormone imbalances. 
3. The third issue is dealing with chronic pain, even low levels of musculoskeletal pain or things like gut pain and migraines will keep your body constantly stressed. 
4. And number four, high levels of internal inflammation. This includes inflammation from high levels of toxins or even inflammation in the gut. This can also cause adrenal issues.

Healing the “Hustle”

While there are many physical causes, there is a big mindset piece that needs to be healed as well, if you want to heal your adrenal glands. 

It  is the idea of constantly “achieving” or “doing.” So a lot of people who are stuck in “doing” are constantly living in fear, because they feel they're not enough, or they're not getting enough, or they don't have enough. They are afraid of what will happen if they don’t keep up. 

And this is especially true for working mothers who are juggling with work and kids and their partner and their own health. These burnt-out working mums are constantly having this emotional battle of I’m not doing enough, I’m not enough, I’m failing my boss or my clients or that which is most important - my family!

And therefore they launch themselves into frantic activity and are in fact in a constant state of mental stress which also triggers the body to create stress hormones. It’s a vicious cycle that most women glamourize as  “hustling” or “being productive”.

So along with rebalancing adrenal health with targeted natural medicines, a proper diet, reducing pain, and internal or hidden inflammation, we help working mums reset their beliefs around “doing”.

We help them to accept where they're at. And until they accept and stop avoiding or pretending that they're not in this situation, they are never going to rebalance and get their calm and vitality back. 

Once they accept that we help them restructure their thinking and their lifestyle so they no longer feel compelled to run this impossible race on a never-ending hamster wheel, then the magic can happen! 

We mentor mothers to also release feelings of obligation, shame, and feeling overly responsible so that they can take better care of themselves.

Let’s face it, overachieving is baked into our psychology.  This way of thinking is deep, it’s generational, it’s cultural, and part of our upbringing. But we don’t have to let it run our lives, ruin our relationship with our family, or compromise our health!

Learn More About Adrenal Health In Our FREE Video Course

To go deeper on the topic of adrenal health, and the impact this is having on your family, register at this link for our free video course series on Conquering Hormonal & Gut Burnout & Rebalancing Naturally - https://www.chrisandfilly.fm/minicourse 

Co-Authors: Chris & Filipa Bellette are the Co-Founders of Chris & Filly Functional Medicine, which is best known for turning time-poor, burned-out & frustrated professional working Mums & Dads, into Power Parents who are present, healthy & connected to their family, their passion, and their purpose in this world. They have worked with over 2,000+ burnout clients in the last 10+ years, with their own passion for creating Power Parents coming from their own personal experience of body, mind & family breakdown, after a prolonged period of physical and mental stress.

Filipa is an accredited Clinical Nutritionist, and a Functional Medicine Practitioner, graduating from the Kalish Institute of Functional Medicine. She is also a Ph.D. thought-leader, author, and award-winner writer in Human Rights. Chris is an accredited Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practitioner, holistic personal trainer, and holds a Bachelor of Human Movement Science, and has won multiple placings in state and national level sporting competitions.

To find out if this is something we can help you with, head over to book in for a  - Free Discovery Call