Anxiety adrenaline waves every AM waking me from sleep.

After I had pretty much physically recovered from my head and neck radiation, which was a horrendous experience, I developed, seemingly out of nowhere, extremely intense anxiety and panic—24/7, every day. I would wake up in a panic and stayed there each day. I constantly felt like I was going to lose control any second and felt on the edge of insanity. This went on for about a month. I tried online therapy, many support groups, meditation, long walks, a sensory deprivation tank experience, and other things to try reduce the anxiety/panic. Finally, I talked to my team at Mayo and they were so helpful and saved my sanity. They prescribed Lorazepam for the anxiety/panic and Zolpidem (Ambien) for sleep. Right now, there are only remnants of the anxiety, which I call sort of an existential dread. That’s the only label that seems to fit what I am feeling. It’s not heavy, burdensome, or incapacitating in any way. I intend to continue with the Lorazepam and Ambien for now. I feel that I am around 90% back to normal. I completed my last radiation treatment on September 8, 2023. So, it’s been a little over 6 months today. Hope that this helps in some way. Jon

I’ve had anxiety at different times of the night and morning, but my incidents are related to an adrenaline producing tumor that I’m to be imaged for soon. The spells I get are very disconcerting, because they make me feel like a sense of doom is upon me. I just hope the imaging study can pinpoint it’s location.

How long have you been symptomatic? What was it that led your doctor to suspect an adrenal tumor?
Best of luck in resolving this.

I have this also, and have had it for years. Until Covid, the feeling of doom was pretty fleeting, and as I was an active person, I could distract myself with activities.
Since having Covid my health keeps me from just about everything I had done in the past, so I find the adrenal surges and doom feelings get me down more often. I have Klonopin for the worst days, and deepbreathing helps to settle me down.
I have wondered if it was a physical ailment but Endocrinologist assures me that my adrenal function is “normal”. I expect if it had been a tumor or cancer it would have taken me out by now, as it has gone on for so long.
It’s a mystery and very hard to cope.
Good luck. You are not the only one suffering from this challenge.

Actually, I was tested for this back in 1996 after I went to the ED after following the use of a new antihypertensive for treatment of my BP; I saw a cardiologist out of the area, and she gave me samples of Plendil, which is a fast-acting calcium channel blocker, but after taking just one dose later in the day, I developed reflex tachycardia, and a headache that lasted for quite some time, so my mother finally took me to the ED. I was admitted to the cardiac telemetry floor for the next 5 days. The doctor whose care I was under before this admission said that I would be only the second person in his 25 years of practice to be dxed with a pheochromocytoma if I were, in fact, found to have one. Unfortunately, the 24 hour urine collection was initiated a day too late. It was negative for elevated epinephrine and norepinephrine, and I wasn’t surprised, because I don’t have sustained attacks, and I thank God for that, because I wouldn’t be here if I did. I was led to believe I didn’t have this, and I would undergo testing at least two more times on an outpatient basis, and both times they came back negative, because the urine was collected when a spell was not occurring and the other test collection error when I was having a spell, but that time I delivered the specimen to my local hospital’s lab where some tech took it from me and laid it on a stainless steel table, and I told him it had to be refrigerated, because otherwise the adrenaline would degrade. He said it would be fine, and that the lab people would be in a little while. Well, it wasn’t fine, and it was also under bright fluorescent lights, which further degrade adrenaline levels. Even though I also experienced what is commonly called the triad of symptoms with regard to “pheos” I was told I didn’t have this. My father died suddenly after returning home from work at the age 62, and I was told by a doctor a year ago that with a high degree of probability my father most likely died from a pheochromocytoma induced stroke/heart attack. I would have preferred having this discovered and removed when I was 43, but better late than never, so I’m grateful for it’s presence finally be elucidated. I was in the hospital in 2021, and the urine collection would be done again, but this time the levels were quite elevated, and I did have imaging, but it was the wrong imaging study, thus, even though the tumor is there, it wasn’t seen. The test I’ll be having on the 26th is specific and a contrast agent will also be used, so I’m hopeful. Sorry this turned into a book.

My daughters tell me these shaking episodes I have upon occasion early in the mornings. I just start shaking , my whole body , and this can go on for a few hours. I am aware of my shaking but not much else and then they gradually start slowing down and quit , then I have a headache and am tired. I would not call mine chills as I am not cold, just a shaking body . I am on a med to help me sleep, keep me calm but just a mild dose of ?? that I started a month ago. I was on prozac but don't want to take that anymore. I am on so many medications now for other issues I have and take meds 4 times a day. I do have copd, lung cancer, now my kidneys are causing issues, have had a heart attack and now say congestive heart failure, plus I am diabetic, my feet and ankle swell with fluid, Plus other things where medication is involved, like magnesium, and upon occassion , iron, potassiuim, . Ok , reason I wrote all this is because of the shaking spells. I've had tests done, they are seizures, don't know why , no answersThanks for listening......

I meant to say they are not seizures..........

I have learned a plethora of information through the years with regard to these tumors. They can be benign or malignant, and people who have sustained attacks don’t live long unless they’re found and treated immediately, because large amounts of adrenaline can be toxic to the myocardium. I have always had episodic attacks, but even then my BP has reached hypertensive crisis (220/114) necessitating an anti- hypertensive bolus into my I.V line to bring that pressure down quickly. Lucky for me I have no known Coronary artery disease, but this condition escaped detection by some of the best clinicians in their fields, because it’s not the first or even the second consideration that comes into their minds. My BPs never went above 96/65, and when I hit 32 they started going up to 140/90, yet not one doctor, other than a nephrologist thought to suggest that I could have a secondary (malignant hypertension) cause for this increase. It made sense to me, because there was no other reason for these elevations; I was underweight, didn’t smoke, wasn’t hyperthyroid, and didn’t have CAD. I’m slightly apprehensive about having to undergo surgery, but these spells are having a cumulative effect, and have even caused me to develop heart failure, so God willing, I’ll make it. It’s good to know I’m not alone.

Are you finally diagnosed with a tumor? I have never been able to get a doctor to go further than a few basic tests to determine why I have these adrenaline rushes. I think they believe it’s somehow just my personality.
I finally just started to think that way myself, even though I always felt something else was happening.

I do in fact have a dx of a pheochromocytoma, and I will be getting a scan next week to pinpoint it’s location, because they can be in the adrenal medulla on either kidney or somewhere else in the abdomen or pelvis. A contrast will be injected after the first set of pictures. That way the reading radiologist will compare the images without and then with contrast. If I hadn’t ended up in the hospital 2 and 1/2 years ago with very high BP after eating Kimchi, which is fermented cabbage I probably wouldn’t be getting all this attention now. Because Kimchi is a fermented product, and I wasn’t aware that people with these particular tumors must never eat fermented foods, because they have a lot of tyramine in them, and that’s why my BP went so high. There are all sorts of foods that I cannot eat, it’s quite a list.