Living on Adrenaline

Some women become very good at coping, and over time that coping simply feels like who they are and what they are known for.

They respond quickly, manage several things at once and keep moving even when they are tired. Because they continue to function, neither they nor the people around them tend to question how that functioning is being sustained. It looks like resilience and feels like capability.

What often goes unnoticed is that the energy keeping everything moving may not be coming from steady physiological reserves at all, but from repeated surges of adrenaline stepping in when meals are delayed, sleep is shortened or emotions are set aside to keep going. In your thirties and forties, as hormonal buffering narrows and sleep becomes less forgiving, this pattern becomes harder to sustain.

I recognise this pattern clearly from my years in corporate life. I was often described as a “safe pair of hands”, which felt like a compliment at the time. It meant I would handle the detail, steady the situation and quietly absorb whatever had been overlooked further up the chain. In moments of pressure, people turned towards me with the expectation that I would catch what others had dropped, manage it discreetly and carry on without drawing attention to the strain.

What I did not see then was how frequently my body was relying on adrenaline to sustain that steadiness. Busy days ran on delayed meals and compressed evenings. Sleep was shortened. There was little space to process what had accumulated. The system compensated, because that is what the body does when it perceives demand.

Adrenaline is released by the adrenal glands when the brain perceives demand, whether that demand is physical, emotional or cognitive, and its role is to prepare the body for action. As it rises, heart rate increases, blood flow shifts towards muscles and glucose is released into the bloodstream so that immediate fuel is available. Focus sharpens and reaction time improves because the system is being primed to respond.

In genuine short-term situations this response is adaptive and protective. The shift occurs more gradually when the signal to mobilise becomes frequent rather than occasional and adrenaline begins to support everyday output instead of true urgency.

When meals are delayed or skipped, falling blood glucose prompts an adrenaline release to stabilise levels. When sleep is shortened, adrenaline helps override fatigue so that you can function the next day. And if emotions are repeatedly suppressed in order to remain composed, agreeable or efficient, the nervous system does not simply stay alert, it remains in a state of activation that was never designed to be sustained.

Suppressing emotions takes effort. The jaw tightens, the shoulders brace, breathing shifts higher into the chest and words are edited before they are spoken, as the body prepares to express something and then deliberately restrains it. The stress response is initiated, but it is not allowed to complete.

When this pattern repeats day after day, that unfinished activation does not disappear. It accumulates quietly and can surface later as irritability, lighter or more fragmented sleep, heightened sensitivity to noise or conflict or periods of exhaustion that feel out of proportion to the day itself.

Each of these adrenaline responses resolves an immediate demand in the moment, yet none of them rebuild the deeper physiological reserves that steady energy depends upon.

For women who are hormonally sensitive, this build-up often becomes more noticeable across the menstrual cycle, particularly when the body has been quietly carrying more than it has had the space to release.

In the earlier part of the cycle there can be a sense of steadiness, with energy feeling more available and tolerance stretching a little further. It becomes easier to absorb a missed meal, a shortened night’s sleep or a moment of swallowing what you really wanted to say, because the system still feels capable of coping.

As the days move closer to menstruation, that steadiness can feel less dependable. The cushion that once softened everything seems thinner and the effort of holding things together becomes more apparent in the body, sometimes as heavier limbs, lighter sleep or emotions sitting closer to the surface. These shifts are often less about sudden change and more about the body revealing what it has been sustaining all along.

What appears abrupt in those days has usually been building quietly for weeks. When adrenaline has been filling the gaps left by inconsistent nourishment, limited recovery or repeated self-restraint, the premenstrual phase often brings the strain of that pattern into clearer view.

This way of functioning develops gradually and unconsciously, built day by day through shortened nights, delayed meals and moments of swallowing what you really wanted to say. It becomes normal to push through a poor night’s sleep, to skip breakfast because you are already behind and to stay composed when someone speaks over you in a meeting, even when something in you wants to respond.

After a restless night, adrenaline sharpens you enough to get through the morning. When lunch is missed, it keeps blood sugar stable enough to carry you through the afternoon. When irritation or frustration is held back, it steadies your voice and expression so that you appear calm and measured.

The effort isn’t obvious in the moment and tends to surface later instead. You arrive home more tired than the day seems to justify, you find yourself reaching for snacks even though you have already eaten and you lie in bed mindlessly scrolling on your phone, replaying the conversation with the colleague who talked at you for forty minutes without pausing, feeling drained yet somehow still wired.

If that rhythm feels familiar, it is worth recognising what your body has been doing on your behalf. It has been using adrenaline to carry the load when food, rest or expression were limited, drawing on immediate reserves so that you could continue to function. That pattern can sustain you for a long time, although the strain often becomes clearer as sleep lightens, energy flattens or the premenstrual phase feels harder than it once did.

Steadiness tends to return through ordinary, consistent shifts through eating earlier in the day before hunger becomes sharp, closing work a little sooner in the evening and allowing yourself to speak before your jaw tightens and your shoulders brace. As those patterns change, the nervous system no longer needs to generate urgency to keep you upright and energy begins to feel less like a surge and more like something quietly available.

Adrenaline remains part of healthy physiology and will always rise when it is genuinely needed, yet it does not need to carry the everyday weight of a life that already asks enough.

Over time, relying on adrenaline changes not only how you activate, but how quickly you recover.

This article is part of the Resilience Series.

Start here: When resilience changes.