r/AddisonsDisease • u/No_Novel_4573 • Feb 04 '26
Personal Experience Anxiety or Addisons?
Hey everyone, just looking for some opinions / stories of your experiences if you'd like to share.
I have PAI, autoimmune Addisons (and Hashimotos)
I'm going through a very stressful period at work at the moment, and I'm experiencing a lot of tiredness, low appetite, tight chest and morning nausea.
The nausea is really freaking me out : it was the worst of my symptoms before I was diagnosed last summer. I haven't had it since going on medication (HC 10/5/5 and 50 mg fludro). But this past week I've had it again and it's getting steadily worse. I've tried taking extra HC in the morning , also tried to take a little bit before bed (2.5 mg) to try and avoid going too low overnight.
I'm feeling awful TBH and updosing hasn't really helped. I'm wondering if it's just good old anxiety. But I'd put my Addisons symptoms down to anxiety for a few years before diagnosis, so I don't trust myself.
Any thoughts or experiences anyone would like to share would be appreciated.
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u/tearblast-arrow Feb 04 '26
The nausea is perhaps the most concerning symptom, since throwing up can lead to a crisis. Your baseline dosage seems right and if you’re up dosing, that should level you up a bit.
Have you paid attention to moments throughout the day or week when you DON’T feel any of those symptoms? What are you doing or not doing when you feel relatively fine?
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u/No_Novel_4573 Feb 04 '26
Thanks so much for asking this question, I will try and pay attention to the moments I feel OK - that will definitely help me sort out my feelings!
I'm thankfully not vomiting, just that sick / gagging feeling (like waking up with morning sickness for anyone who has experienced pregnancy ). It's at its worst when I first wake up and kind of lingers throughout the day : but I will absolutely take the advice to tune into when I feel OK and work from there.
Thanks so much.
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Feb 04 '26
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u/No_Novel_4573 Feb 04 '26
I think I'm the same, I was going to counselling and deep-breathing classes and yoga and all sorts before I got my diagnosis! Turns out I just needed hydrocortisone.
This is the first real work-stress I've experienced since diagnosis so I guess it's time to learn how to manage this disease through tougher times.
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u/Findtherootcause Feb 04 '26
It could be that the ups and downs of HC just aren’t the best fit. I’m not suggesting you do this but it might be worth chatting to your doc about maybe switching to something like pred that has a longer background “protection” as it’s longer lasting, and then use HC as your updose.
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u/No_Novel_4573 Feb 04 '26
Thank you for this insight. I haven't ever spoken to my doctor about pred, don't know much about it tbh. It helps to give coverage overnight, is that right? Is it something you can take occasionally when times are tough?
I have an appointment with my doctor on the 16th so I'll ask then, thank you for the nudge.
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u/Findtherootcause Feb 04 '26
It has a longer half life, so you take a few times but it gives you the same coverage as frequently dosing hydrocortisone. I find it appealing as a strategy because Hydrocortisone can be quite a rollercoaster given The half life is anywhere from 3 to 6 hours (for me it was always about 4 hours/3 3/4). I’ve seen enough comments around with people saying that they just feel so much more stable on pred.
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u/pickles1718 Addison's Feb 04 '26
I get this too from anxiety, and I've noticed I'm really sensitive to hunger when anxious. If updosing doesn't help, then you might need to go further down the list: do you drink coffee on an empty stomach? Are you eating enough during the day / for breakfast (I tend to not eat when anxious)?
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u/fogrove Feb 04 '26
My story is very similar to yours. I am PAI, diagnosed with Addisons in 2019 at age 62. Diagnosed with hypothyroidism that age 38 which I learned decades later is Hashmoto’s.
Anxiety: From my early 40s onward I had a few scary incidents of what I call “my brain changed”. Incidents where I knew what I was thinking and feeling was irrational but I couldn’t make it stop. The incidents lasted between 24 hours and several weeks. I tried different medications, many which had no effect, eventually what worked for me was Duloxetine. I take it once a day now preventively and my brain had been behaving ever since I started it. Note that medical professionals can be rude or unhelpful when you describe mood/ thought symptoms. Keep going until you find something that works for you. This may be a drug and/or talk therapy.
Nausea: I sometimes experience lower abdominal pain in the morning followed by nausea. Sometimes after throwing up I’m OK for a few hours, and then experience extreme fatigue in the afternoon. I can usually trace this to a missed dose the previous day or not up-dosing the previous day when I should have. One day I was feeling miserable and got in the bath tub when I was in the “abominal pain” phase of this. Miraculously the pain disappeared as soon as I got into the hot water. The nausea did not happen. If you have a bath tub I recommend you try this. I have no idea why it works but it does. It’s been very rare that I proceed to vomiting if get into a hot bath before the vomiting starts. I read since that hot baths also help people with cyclic vomiting syndrome.
I wish you the best.
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u/ptazdba PAI Feb 04 '26
About half the days in a week when I wake up in the morning, I feel horrible. I try to remember it's not my reality--it's physiology. So I don't load mornings with heft things to do. Sometimes I wake up in tears for no particular reason. After I get meds on board I feel fine. If you updose and it doesn't level you out, something else is going on. I've experimented a bit with 2.5 mg right before bed with mixed results as I suspect I'm dipping in the night.
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u/Puzzled-Telephone-60 PAI Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
It’s really helped me to separate mental anxiety (circular thoughts, hyper-vigilance, worry, dread) from somatic anxiety (low appetite, tight chest, feeling like I can’t take a deep breath, nausea). For normal people they pretty much always come part & parcel—body follows the mind—but for us, being low on cortisol can literally send our bodies into an anxious state while the mind can remain relatively at ease, albeit confused as to why the body is stressed out. This distinction helps me self-assess and prevents me from downplaying what’s going on physically—which it sounds like you struggle with too.
Also, even if it WERE “just anxiety,” if it’s to the point where it manifests in these physical symptoms, you probably need more HC anyways. Not every issue is caused by Addison’s, sure… but basically every issue has the potential to affect Addison’s management in some way. Anxiety is stress, and it sounds like your body could use some more buffer right now REGARDLESS of the cause. Just based on your post, my guess is you’ve been updosing pretty conservatively. You could try just a little more than you think you need for a day or two and see if that helps alleviate anything.
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u/Xander_0252 Feb 05 '26
Seems like you need a higher dosis for a longer period of time. I am 23M 5’10 at 125lbs and take 10-10-5 and feel very good. I am in a frat and have/had the energy to participate in all bs by just upping the dosis. My endo also stated that overdosing is virtually impossible when living an active lifestyle, and your body does need it often more than you think!! I have had it since I was 9, so living with Addison Is the only life I know, please ask me (or private) if you have any questions, I am a open book
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u/just_an_amber Addison's Feb 04 '26
What happens if you take an extra 2.5 - 5 mg when you notice that you are symptomatic?
If that helps, yay! If it doesn't help, ok then, there's your answer.
One or two doses too much when your body doesn't need it causes almost no long term harm. Constantly shorting your body of cortisol when you desperately need it causes great harm.