@wondering 365 wrote:

Last Friday, I had a stress event that has triggered this last bout of anxiety and insomnia… is this simply norepinephrine and/or a cortisol spike that doesn’t come back down that keeps me ramped up. It’s awful.

Cortisol is one of the anti-stress responses. Cortisol allows the mind to ignore fear, to focus on the task at hand that one needs to do in order to survive. Cortisol helps prevent norepinephrine signaling from getting so out-of-hand that a person panics. It allows a person to remain calm, cool, collected. When I see a person feeling panicky, desperate, or overwhelmed by a stress, I know that person is unable to produce adequate cortisol in response to stress.

Norepinephrine is the signal for anxiety/fear and/or anger/irritability. Norepinephrine is also the wakefulness and alertness signal. Norepinephrine is the primary distress signal. It signals that something is wrong and that the mind needs to attend to it in order to survive.

When a person has had a stressful experience, anxiety and insomnia, norepinephrine is the lead signal the brain produces upon recognizing the threat that event poses.

In the stress response, norepinephrine is released when the brain recognizes a threat. An increase in histamine and pro-inflammatory cytokines then may occur, depending on the level of threat to self. Then the adrenals are signaled to rally the body to prepare it to handle the stress. A whole cascade of events occur to allow the person to adapt to the stress and survive. When these processes are off, unable to function with coordination, a person can and often becomes ill.

@wondering 371 wrote:

ok, and in your experience, psyhotherapy helps control this response that triggers the excessive norepinephrine production… guess I’ll give it a try.

The interventions with the least risk include:

• Life-style changes
• Exercise
• Improving nutrition (including the use of nutrient supplements – not herbal products)
• Psychotherapy
• Helping others (altruism)
• Meditation, Yoga, and other stress-reducing practices
• Education (including self-education such as reading self-help books)

Once we start attempting to modify a person’s physiology with hormones or medications (including herbal products), or other medical interventions, there is a higher level of risk. But then, some people may need to take the risk in order to restore function if the other measures don’t help.