Wow, that’s some stuff ya got going on, snipe.
I wonder how much modern society has to do with these issues since there is an incredible amount of stress associated with living today. I had a nervous breakdown and reading up on it I found an article that said essentially a breakdown is fried adrenals. Living with violence my whole life and having a big-time stressful job with an airline, I had burned out my adrenals and was very low on cortisol. That is why I finally collapsed, or crashed and burned would be more appropriate to call it.
So now I am taking a low dose of cortisol but it will take years, if ever, to get my adrenals back to normal. And since they really have never been normal not sure it is possible at all.
I have very low energy....enough to sit and type so could do something like that for work. But anything more than that wears me out. I sleep a lot.
I have read recently that they are starting to use cortisol for Chronic Fatigue syndrome and other conditions like that. Makes sense since cortisol is the stress hormone and is what gives you physical energy and allows you to cope with life. It also handles metabolism and burning fat, carbs, and protein.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol
I must have been low my whole life because even before I went on disability, I had just enough energy to work and come home. I’d have to have a major caffeine or sugar fix to even start or get thru a day then I would crash and burn again at home. I survived but I never thrived. It was an awful way to live, and combined with mental illness it is no wonder I eventually collapsed. Was not a pleasant time to say the least.
I believe some of the more common disorders of today even in kids such as ADD ADHD are in fact other disorders with similar symptoms but vastly different in origin within the body. Tecnology advances have maxed out some persons capabilities. The physical ailments have always been there but not the bombardment of technology related stressers.
Take ADD ADHD. How common is it really? Likely not as much as a person might think. In an average grade school possibly two kids actually have it the others have much more common Auditory Processing Disorders caused by childhood allergies, chronic ear infections etc. These disorders can trigger ADD ADHD type symptoms and schools and in some states parents get money for ADD ADHD kids. Why is it all of the sudden common? Because our technology in our entertainment and communications has vastly changed in the past four decades. I grew up watching B&W TV as did many my age. We had no video games. ADD/ADHD cases were low. I was one of the few they thought had it because I had trouble concentrating. They tried Ritalin and it really did a number.
The last night I worked I got a trouble call to a residents apartment up in the assisted living unit. An elderly woman met me in the hallway. She normally was in a good mood and had all her mental abilities. This time she was in tears. I asked her what was wrong. She said the noise oh please make it stop. I said OK take me to the noise as I wasn't hearing anything abnormal. We walked over to her wall unit A/C and she said that noise please make it stop. She was in great distress. I turned it off and she was fine.
I went to the nurse and told her. She said yea she came home from the hospital today that way. I went back down to my shop for supper. I was leaning back in a chair fixing to eat and a person behind the door I was leaning up against yelled down the hall. I about went through the ceiling. As soon as that happened the "FOG" hit. That started the two day shut down. I was aware of what was going on but could not answer questions. I called a relief worker in and called my dad for a ride home. This was after I had been dealing with the other concentration issues for months. In about two days I was more functional. They gave me brain wave test, MRI, and CAT Scans all we negative.
So what did this have to do with the elderly resident? Everything. She likely came home with an Inner Ear infection. They can drive a person bonkers and every sound is much louder than normal. The doctors missed it but a GP would have caught it. I started connecting the dots as to what was going wrong after about three years.
Months and even a year leading up to this little things were getting worse. To stay in shape I used the stairs at work. It was a 5 story building. I found myself having to tell my body "Climb Stairs" otherwise i did not have the energy. But if a fire alarm had gone off no problem because the adrenalin would have taken over and the signal and energy gotten through from brain to body. I'd be trying to do paperwork and would not be able to sign my name. It would take me a minute or two of getting my concentration to kick in. That was in a work place enviroment.
In your case and somewhat in mine stress can make disorders you normally can live with and the brain deal with become disabling. It can speed up the process of the illness and it can overtax the brain. That is why many disabled persons though capable of taking care of themselves as far as being at home can not function employed. Functioning at home may be their limit.