Whats the relationship between cortisol (stress hormone) and personality disorder plus addiction?
Research on cortisol and stress has shown that people with traumatic experiences can have abnormally high levels of cortisol. It gets very complicated, but essentially, cortisol is a hormone secreted by the brain to help dampen down adrenaline levels once a crisis is over. At a conference I heard a neuroendocrinologist say that for people with high cortisol levels, encountering stress can be like “driving a car without shock absorbers.” Perhaps there are other reasons than trauma that can cause people to have high levels of cortisol. Maybe you can have your cortisol levels checked? Other than that, you can always go to the National Institute of Mental Health website and look up personality disorders. http://www.nimh.nih.gov Good luck.
