5 Surprising Gifts that Adrenal Fatigue Gives You

The symptoms of postpartum adrenal fatigue can leave you feeling exhausted. However, there are also gifts that come from adrenal fatigue. Read on to find out more! And, be sure to sign up for my postpartum care guide.

Upon realizing that you have the classic symptoms of adrenal fatigue (including a cortisol belly, feeling “wired but tired”, high anxiety, insomnia, and more), it may feel like your body has become your enemy.

You are not able to “push through” under stress like you used to be able to do.

You don’t get the sound sleep that you desperately need.

Or, you may not be able to lose weight.

The frustration continues to build over time as you feel further away from the body that you once knew.

However, after having adrenal fatigue for the past year and a half, and now coming out on the other side, I now know that feeling my feelings of frustration and worry were very valid.

And, I see that my resistance to it kept perpetuating my symptoms. I would research what supplements I should take, what would be the “magic answer” to fix myself, and never letting my mind rest.

I desperately needed to “solve this problem.”

Healing Adrenal Fatigue

Ironically, I discovered five months ago (from the time of writing this blog), that my efforts to “fix” and “solve” were the exact actions that were holding me back from healing adrenal fatigue.

When I went to visit family over a weekend, I had just had several nights of terrible sleep. I felt so physically in pain and had really come to fear nighttime and sleep at this point.

That evening, I had put away my phone and watched a documentary with my family. It was so nice to not be scrolling or researching, but to get to really “turn my mind off” and enjoy being present. 

I even stayed up late because I got so into the documentary! I figured for certain that I would not sleep well. Yet, since it was the weekend, I could try to take a nap the next day.

After I fell asleep, the next thing I knew it was seven hours later. I had slept through the night! For over a year at that point, I had been going to sleep at night just fine yet waking up around 2-3am with a pounding heart, adrenaline surging, and unable to go back to sleep. I would then be extremely sleep-deprived and too anxious/wired to get back to sleep.

It was a truly excruciating cycle.

New Postpartum Habits

To say I was astounded was an understatement. I felt so refreshed that I finally got some uninterrupted and restful sleep.

The next night, I stayed on my phone, researching, not letting my mind rest. Then, of course I woke up three different times during the night, having to put on some relaxing music on YouTube to try and ease myself back to sleep.

The next morning I thought, “what was the difference between these two nights?.” I then realized that while I was physically resting, I was never letting my mind rest.

I tried this experiment for the next week, and every time I let my mind rest, I would sleep 6-7 hours uninterrupted. When I woke up, I could easily go back to sleep if I had extra time before needing to be up for the day.

This was when I started embracing that adrenal fatigue symptoms were my body’s way of talking to me. I realized that I needed new routines. I needed these routines all along – even when I could be up all night studying and critically thinking, it only was contributing to stress hormones constantly pumping out, and living in a perpetually stressed state.

Postpartum adrenal fatigue is something we need to talk about more in the postpartum community, as my adrenal fatigue symptoms began five months after having my first baby. The adrenals are weakened due to the stress of pregnancy, giving birth, as well as the stress of new parenthood. 

However, if we have a strong foundation for releasing stress already, we likely can bounce back with no problem. When we don’t have those strong foundations, postpartum can be a tipping point of this stress hormone imbalance.

I have reframed adrenal fatigue to be more of a gift in learning how to better support our mind, body, and soul. Here are five of the benefits that we can receive and embrace postpartum adrenal fatigue:

1.)    You receive the gift of slowing down and genuinely resting

As detailed in my story above, I didn’t realize that rest meant not just physically laying down. It also meant resting my mind. I couldn’t be “on” 24/7.

We certainly need times during our day while we’re working to critically think and problem solve. Yet, it is very needed that we have firm boundaries on when we can truly start to unwind in the evenings.

Now, I have a strict “turning off my mind” rule for two hours before bed. Meditation is an excellent way to kick off this routine.

Observe your thoughts and imagine them as leaves floating away on a stream. Keeping a notepad and pen on your bedside table is also a great way to write something down that you need to do. And, know that you can get to it tomorrow.

2)    Your body is giving us a clear communication that something is out of balance

For me, it was clear that never turning off my mind was the first signal of what was out of balance.

However, adrenal fatigue can come from many causes. Unhealed traumas can keep us perpetually in a “fight of flight” state.

We may be over-exercising, which is causing more harm than good in keeping your body stressed out.

You may have unhealthy relationship patterns that feel chaotic and like you can never feel safe.

Your job may be all-consuming and high-pressure. This is the chance to look at all of the areas in your life that are causing ongoing stress and to reevaluate.

3)    You get to release hidden traumas and limiting beliefs

Finding the right therapist and coaches who have a background in trauma healing has been a major turning point for me.

I started EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) last year, which has rewired my brain in how I perceive the world.

I feel so much safer in my body and have changed beliefs that were not serving me.

4)    You now get to set up healthier, happier routines that benefit you and support your well-being

I never really felt like I had routines before – besides continually hitting the “snooze” button in the mornings, getting a shower, doing my hair and makeup, and running out of the door.

I was always just running around doing what I needed to do without prioritizing self-care.

Now, I set up blocks of time in my day for quiet times, the two-hour before bed rule to wear my blue-light blocking glasses and rest my mind, times for writing gratitude lists, and more.

Even in my day job, I have realized that back-to-back zoom calls were a major stressor every day.

I’ve begun blocking off time to be able to do my work, rather than multi-task on calls or do my work after-hours.

I also have weekly acupuncture time and Pilates classes where I get to focus on physical health.

5)    You get to become a new, up-leveled you!

This experience has changed me at my core. I have learned that my old ways of being, constant worry, trying to control many things, doing too much, and always problem-solving are not the way to live.

I now take things in stride and go with the flow WAY more!

Also, I have started to lose that “cortisol belly”, I sleep well most nights, and I feel much more fulfilled in my life.

I am prioritizing myself more than ever before, and now I have the privilege of helping postpartum women do the same.