Still Learning....

Well, we made it through the holidays. Praise God for that! ;) :D
And as I catch up on my blogging a little, I feel the need to once again kind of "explain" about all this jibberish I'm blogging about. I feel like I've explained quite a few times about what is "going on" with me. But the truth is, I'm still LEARNING what is going on with me.
And I feel it's important to share because there are many women out there who are going through the same thing or close variations of what I'm going through.
So in a nutshell, this is it:
I have panic attacks (physical symptoms that make me feel like I am having a heart attack/ dying/etc)
The panic attacks are due to a few things, namely Traumatic events in my life and stress (emotional things)
The stress and traumatic events have thrown off one of my hormones (if not more) called my ADRENAL
My *adrenal* is linked to my *kidneys* and my *heart*.
Having low or fatigued adrenals makes me tired and it makes my metabolism and other things work in overdrive. It can cause (and I'm sure probably IS causing) my body to be depleted of nutrients. This causes me to have to eat more often, eat healthier, etc. I also, of course, take herbal supplements to even out my adrenals. They help tremendously. And I am starting a new "diet" so to speak that is geared more towards adrenal fatigue :)
On a daily basis, I might exhibit the following symptoms as a result of these intertwined issues:
Extreme fatigue
Getting winded easily (like after going up or down my stairs)
Racing heart if I exert myself (like maybe from going up the stairs)
Anxiety
Panic attacks (which are all but gone, thank goodness)

The panic attacks have caused me to suffer from *agoraphobia* This is a totally mental thing that I have to cope with and heal from. Agoraphobia, as I may have said before, is the fear of going places (for fear of having panic attacks). You see, I had so many in such a quick period of time (from everything being so off with my body) that now my body and brain is scared to basically get in my car and go somewhere. There is no actual danger that my brain is fearing, just the fear of having god-awful panic attacks.

Here is a "quick" explanation for another reason why I have anxiety and panic attacks :) I haven't had panic attacks for weeks, thank the Lord, but just 6-8 weeks ago, they were almost every day.

Thankfully, I have an abundance of resources at my disposal. And one of them are my uncles. The uncle I've never discussed before had a good explanation for me as to what's going on with my brain.
He explained that, when a person is put through traumatic events (see previous posts for all my trauma stories ;) :-P) there is a place in their brain that houses those memories.
Those memories are SUPPOSED to disperse through the brain so that that portion of your brain can in turn handle future stressful events. But sometimes they literally get stuck. And then that part of the brain gets overwhelmed and can't handle anymore. Thus, the reason I felt like I couldn't even handle the "stress" of getting my daughter to preschool on time a couple of months ago. Through specific therapies that have to do with rapid eye movement, these thoughts/memories/ etc can literally be dispersed where they're supposed to be and the person won't feel so overwhelmed by the every day stresses of life.

Is that enough boring, medical jargon for you? I totally understand that this is not a blog everyone can appreciate, much less enjoy, but I want to put it out there in (hopefully) the most entertaining and understandable way possible. Because I KNOW there are other women out there going through similar experiences. And if I can help just one of you, then this blog has served it's purpose! :)
God Bless!
Melissa