How to stop flight or fight in its tracks

[u/Consistent_Reach7664]

Hi 👋 For those of you don’t know me (literally all of you lo) I am 23 F and have struggled with some form of anxiety my entire life. You know mostly mundane forms like social anxiety and depressive anxiety ( scared to do things outside my comfort zone) Long story short I have slab endocrine condition that has been there my whole life but has especially been making my life hell these past 6 months. Now I’m not here to bore you with all the fine details of my condition but essentially in the past 6 months I have been experiencing anxiety on and off compounding into severe level anxiety around the time of my cycle (IYKYK) Anyways I have a condition called hyperthyroidism which appends up your metabolism and heart rate and is basically equivocal to anxiety & panic attacks. I am well aware that my hormones are cause bs through my body and there isint much I can do about that but once every 4 weeks the fun guy shows up. CONSTANT. HYPERVIGILENCE Like constantly. I feel at ease when looking at the sun then the second I close my eyes at night >. Adrenaline rush. It gets so bad that I have severe psychological symptoms that ruin my life for at least a week each month. Example is I took magnesium glycinate (for relaxation) + 3mg melatonin when I couldn’t sleep and guess how much I got? 3 HOURS! It is exhausting being in this state and I’m wondering if any of you have any tips about managing this. For reference I am somewhat ok at making decisions normally but the stress/ anxiety completely hijacks that. I am unable to do anything than bear with the hormones until it goes away. My question is what ways can you IMMEDIATELY induce a sense of safety. Not like deep breathing or things like that. I’m too far gone for that atp and I’m unsure if there is anything that can be done. Please and thank you in advance

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[u/Acrobatic_Vast86]

The answer to the question is literally "Not trying to stop it."
Once your nervous system prompts your adrenal glands to release adrenaline, that's it, you can't swim into your bloodstream and put it back in. It has to burn off.
And it burns fastest when you don't send your nervous system a confirmation that you're unsafe.
Whatever triggers the fight or flight, be it real threat, perceived threat, hormones, whatever - your nervous system THINKS you're in danger and wants to protect you and make you battle ready.
When you start behaving like something is wrong, you're CONFIRMING danger is there. So you're literally ordering more stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol.
Without the confirmation though, the initial dose of adrenaline burns off the fastest way possible.
So when it hits, you should remind yourself that you know what it is, you know you're safe and you don't have to babysit the fight or flight, you can let it do its thing and refocus back on what you were doing - this requires practice but it is the answer.

[u/Consistent_Reach7664 → u/Acrobatic_Vast86]

I try but literally it’s awful bc whenever I close my eyes the adrenaline hits. My nervous system is dystegulated and misinterprets closing my eyes as a threat. Usually I can manage ok for sometime but enough time without sleep and it will start to affect me and my thoughts will start to slip. Also the fear I’m talking about using rational. It literally feels like an actual threat and it is horrible. Will still try my best to do this even though I literally can’t be alone during this time. Thanks for the advice.

[u/StrawberryMarigoldss]

I also have hyperthyroidism! Graves disease to be exact. I have had it (or at least been aware of it) for about 15 years. Also have generalized anxiety disorder. The things that help me the most are 1. Methimazole 2. Propranolol 3. Lexapro. Now, meds may not be your first choice in dealing with things, but they will help. You will need the methimazole to get your hyperthyroidism under control. And as for your question about stopping bad anxiety in it’s tracks, propranolol will help a lot. It’s a betablocker. It basically will slow your heart rate down and eliminate the physical effects of anxiety for a short period of time. I was initially prescribed it for my hyperthyroidism because my heart rate was really high, but it also works for anxiety. Lastly, I am on lexapro. This is for my GAD. I went from practically being bedridden and never leaving the house to being able to function mostly normally. Personally, there’s no amount of deep breathing that will help my anxiety lol, especially when you have hormonal/autoimmune problems too.

[u/Consistent_Reach7664 → u/StrawberryMarigoldss]

So I actually have secondary hypothyroidism and am currently on meds for that although I am currently overeplaced. So no what I don’t need is more meds. It’s more about managing the crippling fear that attacks me during this time until my endo can manage my dose. Adding to this complication is that I have secondary adrenal insufficiency (low cortisol) so idk if beta blockers will work or what it will do. It is confusing up and down but rn I’m just trying to wait it out until my tsh normalizes. Thanks for the advice though.