Top 5 Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility Considerations: Stress & Anxiety
Stress & Anxiety Awareness
Chronic stress & anxiety will run down any human being; most people can relate to catching a cold or flu following a stressful life-event. In those with hypermobility, such events can have far-reaching effects with amplified symptoms thereby creating a frustrating cycle of pain, fatigue, anxiety, POTs, insomnia, and digestive upset (to unfortunately name just a few).
While external (environmental) stressors play a key role in symptom management, there is also an internal (hormonal) cause at play: A known correlation has been found between hypermobility and higher levels of adrenaline. Greater adrenaline production predisposes people to anxiety and enhances overall sensitivity to stress thereby perpetuating this cycle of symptoms. Whether emotional, physical, or environmental, the impact of stress is felt more intensely in people with hEDS & HSD: This internal, and very real effect, is akin to feeling deafened by music that others can barely hear.
“Sickness, pain, emotional stress, and even fatigue itself can raise adrenaline levels, and acute stresses can trigger adrenaline surges, leaving you jittery, anxious, and even more exhausted. Even sensory stimuli, such as bright lights or loud noises, can trigger an exaggerated or over-response, causing sensitivity to light and sound.”
- Dr Alan Pocinki MD, PLLC 2010 from “Anxiety and EDS-H/JHS”
To further cloud the issue, there are also arguments to be made for direct musculoskeletal sources of stress and anxiety based on how and where a hypermobile person seeks structural stability. This further drives the aforementioned adrenaline production and ensuing over-sensitivity which will be touched on further within this 5-part series.
Does this higher surge of adrenaline and over-sensitivity mean you're doomed to a persistent onslaught of pain, anxiety, and fatigue? Not at all. We are all in control of our environments to varying degrees and genetic predispositions are quite simply that: something we are predisposed to but can better manage through awareness, understanding, and choices.
By targeting the root causes of our anxiety – too much adrenalin – we can change the environment inside the brain. When we optimize our genes, we optimize our life…and when we do that, anything is possible.
- Dr. Rostenberg
