Morning Anxiety …Anxiety Disorder and Food

I typically wake up with severe anxiety in the morning. Yesterday evening I came across some information that might be helpful for anyone who shares this condition with me.

Apparently cortisone levels are high in the morning, after you have been sleeping all night….well all night may be more or less accurate depending on your insomnia….

Cortisone is the stress hormone. It is usually released when your brain senses some kind of threat.

I guess that low blood sugar must be seen as a threat by our “reptilian brain”. That is the part of brain that is focused on survival. It is in our subconscious and focuses on food, sex and safety and threat.

So when you have not eaten in 10 or 12 hours, this part of the brain is looking for food in terms of survival. I assume this accounts for the cortisole hormone being released at high levels in the morning but I am still planning to research it more for you all and myself.

So this video I was watching was saying that if you already suffer from anxiety disorder then your cortisone will likely be really super high in the mornings, sending your stress and anxiety in the body way off the charts.

This also means that any time your blood sugar is low, your stress hormones go up….just something to think about.

If you are curious what I was watching, it was a Teal Swan video about anxiety. Although all of this basic information about cortisole is public domain, her particular take on it spoke to me.

Anyway I guess we are supposed to eat something right away in the morning….even if you keep something by your bed like a bannana, granola bar and bottled water.

Eating in the morning is not something I ever think of or have desire to do. But I am going to try for a week and see what changes there are…if any. I will let you know.

I cannot start doing this until October 3rd or so when my food stamps go in, as I am currently saving what food is left for the kids. But I will do it from about Oct 4 through the 11th and then let you know.

If there is anyone else with severe anxiety in the morning that wants to experiment with a change in their morning routine in any way, food related or otherwise, and then let us know about it here, feel free.

You can even write a guest post for me or send a pingback to this post on your blog post.

Blessings

Annie