You could also be on the autism spectrum
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Folks, I really want to thank all of you for responding. It means a lot.
I’m in intense-work-travel-mode right now (part of the problem? LOL) and can’t spend a lot of time on the laptop. But I really appreciate all of the above.
Anecdotally, from what you guys have shared, it does seem like chronic stress can lead to what I’m experiencing, and it may show up in hormones. I’ll try to get a full workup done this year and take a look, but my preference would be to solve by learning to better manage stress rather than any kind of hormone supplement/therapy.
Meditation being an example - if I could learn to sit still and breathe for 5 minutes and reset myself a few times a week that could make all the difference.
@dchris your story is incredible and I’m deeply sorry for what you guys have gone through.
@FuzzyFella I could indeed be. I won’t speculate. Seems like I’d “always be this way” if so, which isn’t the case - I’ve developed this response in the past few years.
@atlas13 while I’ve never thought about it, I also am just fine in high-stress situations. In fact this came up recently with my wife. An actual high-stress sitch came up and my wife wanted to freak out a little. I didn’t get it, and was actually bothered by her response, as I was just focused on calmly getting a first aid kit and keeping everyone’s mind off it. I felt the panic was counter-productive and said so.
Whereas, drop a water bottle and I’m 3 feet in the air, as people have said in this thread.
@BrandonCrawford absolutely true about being “busy”, and it is part of that chronic stress load. Life really is good for me, but I have a lot of irons in the fire at any moment and often feel like if I stop thinking about one of them, I’ll just forget, and mess it all up. So even when I can’t work productively on it I just keep it in mind and stress over it lol.
@Frank_C your mention of carb cravings comes into play here. My wife and I definitely resort to “carb therapy” at the end of the day, after chronic stress. I didn’t realize chronic stress drives that craving, only that it “fees better” to eat carbs after the kinds of day we tend to have. Knowing is half the battle - this is actually massive for me. Thanks.
OK I missed some responses but I did my best in the constraints. I’ll go seize the day now but thanks, again, everyone!
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Was just coming here to say this. I also had this symptoms when my testosterone was low. Definitely chalked it up to high cortisol.
I noticed it mostly when i would be riding my mountain bike, any sense that i was going to fall, or any kind of surprise action would make me have a very heightened reaction. It was like a normal reaction, to a “jump scare” but about 100X as potent. Check test, check cortisol
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I am the absolute last person to be actually qualified to give advice, so take it with a grain of salt, but I do think some people are just wired for action. At least for me, this mental framing helps. I’m not losing it, my body is just responding to a lack of stimulus