When Did You Last Actually Stop? What Chronic Stress is Doing to Your Adrenals

Why the cranky, exhausted, wired-but-tired cycle is not a character flaw and what to do about it.

I want to describe someone to you.

She snaps at her kids over something small the spilled cup, the shoes left out again and immediately feels guilty. She is exhausted but cannot get to sleep. She is running on caffeine and willpower and a quiet background hum of anxiety that she has started to think of as just her personality. She catches every cold that comes through the school and takes twice as long as everyone else to recover. She knows she needs to slow down. She cannot see how.

I see her in clinic every week. And I recognise her, because on the weeks when I let too much time pass between my own acupuncture appointments, I start to become her too.

This is not a weakness or a character flaw. This is what happens to the adrenal glands under chronic, unrelenting stress and once the cycle starts, it feeds itself.

What the Adrenals Actually Do

The adrenal glands sit just above the kidneys and produce some of the body’s most critical hormones cortisol, adrenaline, DHEA and aldosterone among them. They are designed to manage stress: when a threat appears, they flood the body with cortisol and adrenaline to sharpen focus, increase heart rate and mobilise energy. When the threat passes, levels drop and the body recovers.

The problem is that the adrenal glands cannot distinguish between a genuine physical threat and the relentless low-grade stress of modern life, the never-ending to-do list, the mental load of running a household, the constant digital stimulation, the poor sleep, the financial pressure, the guilt of never quite doing enough.

When stress is constant, the adrenals are constantly firing. And over time, they begin to struggle to keep up.

The Cortisol Cycle and How It Unravels

In a healthy stress response, cortisol follows a natural daily rhythm: high in the morning to get you going, gradually declining through the day, low at night to allow sleep. When this rhythm is disrupted by chronic stress, the pattern flattens or inverts, low in the morning (hello, struggling to get out of bed) and elevated at night (hello, lying awake at midnight with a racing mind).

Then comes what I call the pregnenolone steal.

Pregnenolone is the master precursor hormone, the raw material from which the body makes cortisol, progesterone, oestrogen, testosterone and DHEA. Under chronic stress, the body prioritises cortisol production above everything else. It essentially steals the pregnenolone that would otherwise be used to make sex hormones and diverts it into the cortisol pathway.

The result? Progesterone drops. Oestrogen balance shifts. Thyroid function slows. DHEA the anti-ageing, energy and mood hormone declines. And suddenly you are not just tired and stressed. You are hormonally depleted, emotionally fragile, cycling irregularly, and wondering why everything feels so hard.

Meanwhile, the chronically elevated cortisol suppresses immune function. This is why the person running on empty catches every cold going around and takes weeks to recover. The immune system is one of the first things sacrificed when the body is in prolonged survival mode.

Why Winter Makes Everything Worse

In Chinese Medicine, winter is the season of the Kidneys and the Kidneys are intimately connected to the adrenal glands. The same deep reserves of Jing (constitutional vitality) that the Kidneys govern are the same reserves that are depleted by chronic stress and adrenal burnout.

Winter asks us to slow down, turn inward, conserve energy. But for the person running on cortisol and adrenaline, winter just feels like more of the same exhaustion with less sunlight and more illness. The body is asking for rest. The nervous system is screaming for it. But the world keeps going.

This is why so many people hit a wall in July and August. It is not just the weather, not just the low Vit D levels (this is huge though). It is the accumulation of months of not stopping.

My Favourite Herbs and Nutrients for Adrenal and Nervous System Support

Herbal medicine is one of the most effective tools I have for adrenal burnout. These are the herbs I reach for most often in clinic, used in combination, tailored to the individual, and prescribed in therapeutic doses.

• Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata): a beautiful nervine herb for the wired-but-tired state. Calms the mind, reduces anxiety and restlessness, supports sleep without sedating. Particularly useful for the racing-mind-at-midnight pattern.
• Wolfiporia (Poria cocos): a medicinal mushroom used extensively in Chinese Medicine to calm the Shen (the mind and spirit), support the Spleen and nourish the Heart. Deeply settling for anxiety, overthinking and emotional exhaustion.
• Rehmannia (Rehmannia glutinosa): one of the great Kidney tonics in Chinese Medicine. Nourishes Yin and Blood, supports the adrenals, and is particularly indicated when there is dryness, heat or depletion alongside exhaustion. A foundational herb for long-term adrenal recovery.
• Zizyphus (Ziziphus spinosa): another classic Chinese sedative herb, used specifically for insomnia, palpitations and anxiety arising from Blood and Yin deficiency. Wonderful for the person who cannot switch off even when exhausted.
• Dong Quai (Angelica sinensis): the great female tonic herb of Chinese Medicine. Nourishes Blood, regulates the cycle, supports the hormonal system and gently warms the body. Particularly useful when the pregnenolone steal has affected progesterone and oestrogen balance.

These herbs do not work like a sleeping pill or a stimulant, they work with the body’s own regulatory systems over time, rebuilding what chronic stress has depleted. They are best prescribed by a practitioner who can tailor the formula to your specific presentation.

The Nutrients I Reach For First

Alongside herbal medicine, there are three nutrients I consider absolutely foundational for anyone dealing with adrenal burnout and nervous system depletion. They are not glamorous. But in my clinical experience, they make an enormous and consistent difference.

• Magnesium: without doubt my number one nutrient for the nervous system. Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic processes in the body and is essential for the production and regulation of cortisol, the function of the HPA axis, and the activity of GABA, the calming neurotransmitter that tells the nervous system it is safe to rest. Under chronic stress, magnesium is rapidly depleted. Low magnesium means poor sleep, muscle tension, anxiety, headaches, constipation, heart palpitations, and a nervous system that simply cannot down-regulate. Most people under chronic stress are deficient, often without knowing it. I use this in clinic almost universally for adrenal presentations and the form matters enormously. I reach for magnesium glycinate for sleep, anxiety and muscle relaxation, and magnesium threonate when cognitive function, brain fog or mood are part of the picture, it is the only form shown to cross the blood-brain barrier effectively. Cheap magnesium oxide from the supermarket shelf will not give you the same result.
• B Vitamins: the entire B complex is the fuel of the nervous system, from  adrenal and neurological health, energy metabolism and nerve function, production of serotonin, dopamine and GABA. The entire B complex works synergistically, which is why I prefer a good quality activated B complex as the foundation and add individual Bs where the clinical picture calls for it.
• CoQ10: coenzyme Q10 is essential for mitochondrial function, the process by which every cell in the body produces energy. Under chronic stress, mitochondrial function declines significantly. This is why adrenal burnout feels so physical: it is not just hormonal, it is cellular. The fatigue is coming from inside the cells themselves. CoQ10 supports energy production at this fundamental level and also acts as a potent antioxidant, protecting the adrenal glands and mitochondria from oxidative stress. I particularly reach for CoQ10 when patients describe that deep, unrelenting fatigue that nothing seems to touch, the kind where even a good night’s sleep does not restore them.
• Creatine: this one surprises people. Creatine is often associated with athletes and gym performance, but it is one of the most important sources of rapid cellular energy production in the body and one of the most underused nutrients in the treatment of fatigue and burnout. Creatine works by replenishing ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the primary energy currency of every cell. When the body is under chronic stress and ATP production is compromised, creatine acts as an immediate energy reserve, allowing cells, including brain cells and adrenal cells, to keep functioning under load. Research is increasingly supporting creatine for cognitive function, mood, and fatigue reduction, not just physical performance. I reach for it particularly when patients are mentally and physically depleted, when brain fog and poor concentration are prominent, or when recovery from exercise or illness is unusually slow.

As with herbs, the quality and dose of these nutrients matters enormously. What you pick up off a supermarket shelf is rarely the same as a practitioner-grade supplement. If you want guidance on what to take and how much, this is exactly what we work through in a naturopathy consultation.

What Actually Helps Beyond Herbs

Herbal medicine is powerful but it works best alongside lifestyle changes that give the adrenals a genuine chance to recover. The things that make the most consistent difference in clinic:

• Acupuncture: one of the most effective nervous system resets available. It directly regulates the HPA axis (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway), reduces cortisol, activates the parasympathetic nervous system and promotes deep restoration. Patients often describe it as the best sleep they have ever had. Regular treatment through winter is genuinely transformative.
• Blood sugar stability: cortisol spikes with every blood sugar crash. Three balanced meals with adequate protein and fat, no skipping breakfast, reducing sugar and refined carbohydrates. This alone can significantly reduce the cortisol burden on the adrenals.
• Sleep before midnight: the most regenerative sleep happens between 10pm and 2am. Getting to bed before midnight is not an optional extra for the adrenally depleted, it is medicine.
• Saying no: genuinely, practically, without guilt. The adrenals recover in the space created by less, not more.

You Do Not Have to Wait Until You Collapse

The patients who recover from adrenal burnout most effectively are the ones who come in before they hit absolute rock bottom. If you recognise yourself in this post, the crankiness, the guilt, the exhaustion that sleep does not fix, the recurrent illness, please do not wait until you cannot function.

A naturopathy or acupuncture consultation is where we start to unravel what is actually going on and build a plan that fits your life. Not a plan that requires you to do more. A plan that actually gives your nervous system permission to rest.

Book an appointment here

Or call 9589 4549.

xx Marta

Naturopath, Acupuncturist, and founder of Shine Health Wellbeing Centre, Black Rock

Helping you Shine from Inside Out