Adrenal Fatigue 2: Depression and Suicide

Suicide outcome a possibility: as SSRIs don't work for Adrenal Fatigue.

I have treated several burned out, completely exhausted senior executives who have slammed themselves against the wall for years. Their common denominator: Don't tell anyone how bad this really is for me. I need to keep working.

One who comes to mind is out of state, has had several brain scans, is refractory to all meds given in any reasonable way, and becomes toxic, overdosed on even small doses of meds, especially SSRIs. He was thinking of suicide everyday. Hopeless is the operational word.

If you have read some of my past remarks on the profound relevance of metabolic measurements in clinical practice you will all appreciate that this very bright fellow/client had done his homework on himself: Lab tests on liver metabolic pathways from Mayo Clinic [comments by Howard Coleman of Genelex}, red cell phospholipid analysis from Hopkins, excellent ION panel from Metametrix, and three sets of SPECT brain scans over four years from Amen Clinics.

What we see, after careful review of these excellent materials, is clear evidence of a “metabolic brain” associated with clinical evidence of some of the following symptoms:

He has many symptoms from my most recent post and many of these:
Thanks to Nat Jones RPh for this and the previous post lists

1. I often have to force myself in order to keep going.
2. Everything seems like a chore
3. I am easily fatigued.
4. I have difficulty getting up in the morning (don’t really wake up until about 10AM).
5. I suddenly run out of energy.
6. I usually feel much better and fully awake after the noon meal.
7. I often have an afternoon low between 3:00-5:00 PM.
8. I get low energy, moody or foggy if I do not eat regularly.
9. I usually feel my best after 6:00 PM.
10. I am often tired at 9:00-10:00 PM, but resist going to bed.
11. I like to sleep late in the morning.
12. My best, most refreshing sleep often comes between 7:00-9:00 AM.
13. I often do my best work late at night (early in the morning).
14. If I don’t go to bed by 11:00 PM, I get a second burst of energy around 11:00 PM, often lasting until 1:00-2:00 AM. Sometimes I just stay up all night.

These clinical findings above match with one important piece of laboratory evidence I didn't yet share with you:

A previous report: adrenal cortical insufficiency….cortisol has been in the tank – he has blown his adrenal cortex. But the follow up on the adrenal fatigue was missed because he looked so depressed. He became a “psych case” and multiple reviews missed this essential contributory factor.

The good news, with a variety of adrenal support nutrients and some specific hormone support, he has a positive prognosis.

Heads up: SSRIs did not touch his suicidality.