Adrenal stress is becoming a household diagnosis. And it’s easy to understand why, when you know what the adrenals do. The adrenals are two glands that sit above your kidneys, and their job is to produce cortisol (your stress hormone). The more stress you have in your life, the more the adrenals have to work, until one day they exhaust themselves and just cannot produce enough cortisol. This is when you begin to feel utterly exhausted and end up crashing into a heap. Does this sound like you? Maybe you’ve been trying to figure out if you have adrenal stress but you’re not too sure? There are many reasons why you might feel exhausted, and adrenal stress is only one of them. If you’re looking for signs of adrenal stress, I’m going to share some that you can check at home.

First, let’s touch on the topic of stress. Because everyone generally says “nah, I’m not stressed” - thinking specifically about their job or mental stress. But stress is much more than that. We live in a face paced society where we are expected to be ‘on’ all the time. We stare at our devices for most of our day, don’t get enough sunlight, rush about juggling work and children, and eat convenient food that isn’t always the best choice. We are exposed to environmental toxins and infections, and our systems are always ‘under attack’ in some way or another. Rarely do we stop and breathe to help calm our nervous systems. We don’t get enough sleep. The side effect of our modern day lifestyle is that we push our sympathetic nervous systems to the brink. And as individuals, we all have different levels of resilience to our fight or flight state, but at the end of the day, we are not meant to be in that high-alert state constantly, and we run the risk of burning ourselves out. Some will notice it earlier than others, and often many mothers will notice it when they add children into the mix. So while I speak of ‘stress’ throughout this post (and my website), it is an amalgamation of all the factors of our modern lifestyle that I’m referring to.

Signs that your adrenals are stressed

Postural hypotension and adrenals

This is a quick and easy one to test. Sit down for 5-10 minutes. Then stand up quickly. Do you feel faint or dizzy? It’s a sign your body can’t adapt quickly enough to the change in blood pressure and heart rate required when you stand up, and is a sign your stress mechanisms aren’t coping.

From a neurological point of view, you’re likely to be in a sympathetic dominant state, where you cannot switch off your fight or flight, or have reached the next phase of sympathetic dominance - FREEZE. The simple task of standing up becomes a challenge for your body to work out movement, gravity changes, and also changes in the way your heart pumps.

Test: Can you stand up quickly without feeling lightheaded or dizzy?

Fatigue after eating due to adrenal stress

I understand you already feel pretty tired. But do you feel even more fatigued after you eat? Even if you were starving before you started eating? This is what is called “reactive hypoglycaemia”, and a sign your stress mechanisms aren’t working well. High cortisol alters the way our bodies process our blood sugar, through changes in insulin levels, so those with chronic high stress will tend to have some kind of fatigue after they eat. You might like to try less carbohydrates in your meals (though it depends how stressed your system is).

Test: If you eat a meal, do you feel energised or like you need a nap?

Pupil reactivity to light and adrenal stress

When you direct light into your pupils, they should constrict and stay constricted (small). When your stress mechanisms aren’t functioning properly, your pupils will constrict as per usual (sometimes slower), but won’t stay there. They will start to fatigue and start to pop out and in. If you look into a mirror and shine your phone torch light directly into your eye, you should notice what your pupil is doing. Any movement in and out (as in the pupil gets small then big then small then big), could be a sign your adrenals are stressed. If your pupils are already small, or are large and don’t move, then you might have a very stressed nervous system!

Test: If you shine a bright light in your eye, do your pupils stay constricted or start to bounce in and out?

Poor Endurance with adrenal stress

I’m not talking about marathons or any crazy endurance athletics here. What I’m referring to is general day to day activities. When the adrenals are stressed, you might find that everything seems more difficult. After standing for long periods your body might fatigue and get achey, or you may feel like you need to sit down. Your child may seem heavier. If you do exercise, you might not be able to run as far, or lift as heavy weights as you have in the past. Everything just seems harder. If you’re finding this is the case for you, it might be your adrenals.

Test: Do you feel energised in your day to day activities?

How did you fare? The body’s stress mechanisms are convoluted, with many pathways feeding into each other. Stress and any of these symptoms are not always specifically adrenal stress, so please keep in mind these signs can be signs of ‘stress’ in your nervous system (and your adrenals under extra load may be the result of something higher up the chain).