You’re not lazy. You’re not crazy. And you’re not alone – even if you feel like it right now.
If you’ve been told you’re “just stressed” or handed a prescription for antidepressants after saying you’re tired all the time, it might be time to take a deeper look at what’s really going on beneath the surface.
Living out of balance for too long eventually catches up with all of us. What starts as stress, poor sleep, or irritability becomes full-blown exhaustion mentally, emotionally, and physically. Many patients in their 40s or 50s come to me saying, “I don’t even recognize myself anymore.”
They’ve spent decades in a chronic fight-or-flight state, and now their nervous system just…quits.
We call it burnout. Or a midlife crisis. But in East Asian medicine, it’s more accurately seen as nervous system exhaustion. You’ve been running on yang energy – doing, pushing, working – and now you’re out of yin, the restorative, grounding energy that helps you recover.
One of my patients, a successful business owner and parent of two, came in saying, “I can’t do this anymore. I’m so tired I can’t think. And I feel like I’ve lost who I am.” Her functional blood work showed low cortisol, depleted B vitamins, and sluggish thyroid function. Her Western doctor offered an antidepressant, but no one addressed the real issue: her nervous system was in total overload. We used acupuncture to restore her parasympathetic system and a blend of adaptogenic herbs to rebuild her resilience. She told me later, “It’s like someone turned the lights back on inside me.”
When it comes to mental health, we often forget that the mind lives in the body. Anxiety, depression, and burnout often have physical roots: thyroid dysfunction, adrenal fatigue, nutrient depletion and trauma stored in the nervous system.
That’s why at Colorado Natural Medicine & Acupuncture, we use a functional approach to nervous system exhaustion (burnout) that is both holistic and energetic. We use tools like:
- Acupuncture to calm the nervous system and rebalance the body’s parasympathetic/ sympathetic responses
- Adaptogenic herbs to nourish depleted adrenal glands and gently boost resilience
- Vitamin B support to restore cellular energy and brain function
- Lifestyle coaching to encourage sleep, movement, nutrition and restorative practices
In Chinese medicine, the goal is to promote a heart-centered, healthy life. The kidneys are believed to help balance and anchor nervous system energy with the mind to draw it inward towards the heart. But for many people, when their mind starts spinning, they become disconnected, dysregulated and exhausted. I’m not trying to merely “fix” your symptoms of overwhelm and burnout but to bring your nervous system back into balance so you can feel like yourself again.
If you’re running on empty and struggling to find balance, I invite you to explore a more complete approach. Nervous system exhaustion is real, but you don’t have to suffer through it. Let’s restore your energy, rebalance your system, and help you remember what it feels like to feel good again.
New to our practice? Call (303) 688-6698 or visit our website to schedule a free 15-minute consultation with Dr. Graves to learn more about burnout and how a functional approach to health can leave you feeling replenished, balanced and restored.
Based in Castle Rock, CO, Dr. Adam Graves, ND, LAc, is the founder of Colorado Naturopathic Medicine & Acupuncture.
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