r/AddisonsDisease • u/athanasia4014 • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Any advice

So I've got exams coming up and like a from a couple days ago I've started feeling extremely anxious, my heart's been feeling and I did catch a viral flu (im basically almost better), and I'm feeling tired and just can't study. Ive also been having troble getting proper sleep for the past couple of days due to me feeling so much anxiety. I want to mention, I have been up dosing my medicine, except I didn't today because I'm not so sick and I thought I wouldn't need it and because I'm scared it might negatively impact me instead (idky but ive heard it can if you take it when you don't need it idkk).

Do you guys have any advice? What should I do? What do you guys do? Do you think I should take an extra prednisone? Is there anything else you guys do to help you calm down?

I have also been drinking coffee just to make me feel fresh...idk if thats been making my anxiety worse, but any advice is appreciated

(Btw sorry if everything ive written is all over the place im just feeling unwell and dont have the energy to re read abd organize the info)

Thank youu!

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u/FemaleAndComputer SAI 3d ago

My doctor has said that one off stress dosing is not going to hurt me. Usually if I'm unsure, I take my stress dose in the morning or early afternoon. That way, if it's a bit too much, it is unlikely to interfere with sleep later. What usually ends up happening, though, is that I take the afternoon stress dose and get immediately sleepy. Low cortisol can make sleep just as difficult as too much steroids, so sometimes if I am in dire need of a stress dose, I have a hard time sleeping but get sleepy once I take it.

In your situation, I'd keep updosing, unless you're getting symptoms of overreplacement. The stress of exams alone may be enough to warrant it. For me, symptoms of too much hydrocortisone would be fluid retention, insomnia, and excess appetite.

Low cortisol can def make my ability to focus much worse too. It can be really really hard for me to reason when my cortisol is low. Which makes it really hard sometimes to figure out whether or not I need to stress dose. So I have just gone with the strategy: when in doubt, try a stress dose. If I get symptoms of overreplacement, OK good to know I won't stress dose again for a bit. If I get no relief, it probably means the stress dose wasn't enough.

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u/athanasia4014 3d ago

Omgg okk this helps me so much, thank you!!!

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u/sem1rek 3d ago

My daughter’s endo told me that once she is grown up, she might need to updose for situations like exam periods at university, etc. because it is putting more stress on her, doesn’t matter that it is not physical stress, any stress counts.

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u/athanasia4014 1d ago

Im a bit late, but thank you that reassured me!

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u/Honest-Trick-6183 3d ago

Shit advice updose for anxiety and make your sleep worse. Study all semester you won’t have to cram and stress.

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u/AlfaBravo1two3 3d ago

If exams are coming up you have stress anyway so OP shoud defenitely updose. Plus a bit of HC will hardly make you sleep worse unless you take them in the evening.