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[BioFreak]

Hey folks,

I've started with lithium orotate yesterday, 5mg elemental lithium in the morning.
Reason:

I've tuned serotonin and dopamine systems as good as I could, there is no more improvement to be made but RLS and Depression are gone thanks to these neurotransmitters. Also, ADHD is more reduced.
Also, Acetylcholine is at its max, more would make me feel irritable. I hoped that this would help with my bad memory, but even though there were improvements... I still have no memory that I would call "very good".

My stack so far:
5-htp
b complex, with additional b6 and b1
zinc
tyrosine
msm
lysine
nac
vitamin c
o-3's
selenium
cdp-choline
alcar
choline bitarate
silicium
sodium bicarbonate
arginine

3 Times a week relatively high dosage:
d3
b12

Every now and then I am using high dose iodine if I am tired, and then there is the morning coffee and sometimes another one in the day. But I realize that coffee is not beneficial for gaba, I'll see if I can stop that.

Also, I have a hard time eating regularly, meaning that my blood sugar is not stable. I also try to address this in the future...

With meals high in carbohydrates I also take lipoic acid,
and with every meal enzymes with high activity.

As well as for my joints
glucosamine / chondroitine combo
hydrolized collagen (they actually seem to slowly regenerating, vs years of just fighting symptoms..!!)
celadrin

Once I take a protein shake, with leucine, for its anticatabolic effect (and it may be possible that it even has an anabolic effect not only on muscle mass but on cartilage as well). I am not going to the gym right now, but once I go again, I'll be increasing my protein intake.

Also, every now and then, but not more often then 1x a day, I am taking a powder with minerals in citrate form, with potassium and magnesium the biggest parts of the formula.

Quite a large stack, I know. But it works for me. I'm in the process of removing some stuff, but I know that I cant remove much without affecting the success I had so far. I've been on most of this stack for years.

Also I've been experimenting with high dosages of taurine and beta alanine, regulating down my gaba receptors in the process. Increasing gaba was like a very good idea, cause it helped with a lot of details that I could not change yet, however, since the main problem of gaba intervention is gaba receptor sensibility reduction, I went cold turkey, which I later on read that its probably not a good idea. But the withdrawal is not soo bad. The gaba system is new to me.
Anyways, I've had lots of adhd since, (2-3 days off) and light and reflections are really bothering me. In the past, increasing dopamine levels proved to be useful, but since now the gaba control effects are inhibited, its the opposite.

Since raising gaba seems to be the right way I am looking into methods to raise gaba effects it without building up resistence. So lithium could be a part of the puzzle, since it is a gaba reuptake inhibitor. I have also ordered some bacopa monniera to help keep the receptors sensible, and it is my goal through a moderate rise in gaba, and keeping receptor sensitivity intact, to hopefully get the good effects of gaba without building up resistance.

I am generally not interested in any kind of kick, I just want to be in a emotional and performance stable, productive, and efficient state of mind.

Anyways. The other reasons for my stack change is that:

• I am still having ADHD symptoms, with the most important:
  racing thoughts / impulsive thinking (I simply pay attention to what interests me the most instead of the task I want to focus on,
  not being able to connect the dots between a task and its benefits unconsciously, and its even hard consciously. Basically I keep questioning my tasks, priorities, why this should make sense etc and that leaves me cycling instead of making progress and moving forward.
  I also still have a small time window to really focus on difficult tasks, which I think is part due to neurotransmitter bursts cause gaba can't keep them in check.
  Of course since the beta alanine / taurine withdraw, those are almost unmanagable. Before, I could manage them, with effort, and brainwave entrainment, and my supps.
• I have too much drama in my life. Most of the drama can't be fixed by me doing something, however I think that I am overreacting to life circumstances big time too. So, I want to reduce my drama to a minimum.
• Also, and thats probably connected to the last point, I am showing massive avoidance behaviour. In completing tasks, social interaction, even in planing my tasks and my day.
  I think that those are anxiety issues even the anxiety does not manifest itself directly.

So... I realized that many of these effects were in check when gaba was right. In addition I realized that many of the effects I am seeking were reported by lithium orotate users. So here I am, testing out lithium orotate!

Effects so far:

Day1

• Feeling tired / sedated, started quickly, and was going away slowly until night
• definitive rise in mood
• racing thoughts have stopped (part of my ADHD Symptoms)
• seems like I can now easier "connect the dots" when thinking (I.e. connecting motivation to a task)
  (So basically, the adhd symptoms from gaba withdrawal are gone.)
• A lot less drama in my head - what I would call unconcious anxiety / inhibitory behaviour
• I could sleep all night. usually I have to go to the toilet once...

Day2

• No sedation / tired effect so far today
• positive effects seem to stay the same
• better, nicer dreams, more dream recalling, and since my dream played in the past, more recalling of that timeframe in my past
• more logical behavior
• more positive thinking

So... I am aware that much of this could be placebo, so I'll stay at 5mg and see how it goes. Also, once Bacopa is here, I will add it, But I have not yet decided at what dosage. Need to do some research.

My hope with lithium orotate and bacopa is that I will be able do address above mentioned problems. In addition, I hope that in time, I can lower 5-htp intake(because lithium is also a ssri), and because of that also lower all other substances that are needed to keep serotonin and dopamine in balance.

I have some questions:
1. how long should I stay at 5mg until its likely that the effects wont change anymore (increase/ level off)? I am wondering how long I should wait until I try out 10mg.
2. You're welcome to give me hints on what else I could do to get the symptoms I still need to get fixed under control!
3. What else could I do to improve my memory. I could do dual-n-back again, and I am regularly learning, mostly math / IT / statistics / machine learning
4. Any ideas on how to improve my adhd symptoms, get more productive, and less anxious behaviour would be greatly appreciated.
5. I also realize that lithium is a dopamine reuptake accelerator. Since I easily get RLS, I'll find out soon enough, but I am wondering whats the difference in effect between low dopamine levels, though low supply, or low dopamine levels, though fast reuptake, but enough supply. Basically the second choice sounds like the body would be more in control of finding the optimal dopamine level, if indeed the regulatory mechanisms are working good enough. If anyone has an idea about that, I'd be glad to hear it.
6. Should I increase my inostiol intake because of lithium?

Thanks!

[jadamgo]

I'm sorry to do this post this way, but I simply cannot understand what you're saying. I'm overloaded by information.

I'll answer your numbered questions, but please understand if I ask you about some information that you mentioned earlier in the post.

1. It was never my experience that 5 or 10 mg elemental lithium did much of anything. I had to bump the dosage up to 50mg daily for it to work. This makes sense -- bipolar patients often take around 100-250mg elemental lithium per day. And (unipolar) depressed patients on lithium augmentation usually take 50-100mg elemental lithium per day.
The effects, which appeared in under a week, were that I felt far more calm and confident, and I started functioning much better. Unlike my anxiety, my depression did not immediately improve. However, I was able to act in healthy, rational ways despite feeling depressed, and after a few days of taking better care of myself, the depression started lifting.

To give a more direct answer, I suggest you increase your dose by 1-2 tablets every four days until you reach a level that you find effective, OR until you reach 10 pills daily. Beyond that point, you'd be entering the prescription dosage range and your lithium use should be monitored by a doctor.

2. Meditation and exercise.

3. Piracetam; understand the spaced repetition curve; learn some mnemonic techniques; ensure you're getting at least 6 hours good sleep every night; pace yourself when you study by alternating half-hour study sessions with 10 minute breaks. Fiddle around with those times until you find what works for you.

4. Meditation and exercise. If you're already doing one but not the other, start doing the other. If you're already doing both, do more of each by doing them for shorter periods of time, more frequently.

5. Lithium is not known to trigger RLS symptoms. However, if it pushes your serotonin too high, your dopamine may drop. This is more likely to affect motivation and emotion than RLS symptoms, but either way, you can fix the problems by cutting your 5HTP dosage.

6. I do not have an answer for that.

Best of luck, and let me know if you have any questions. (You have to quote a part of my post or I won't get notified of the reply.)

EDIT: Gyaaah! Always with the fucking typos!

Edited by jadamgo, 24 August 2012 - 07:53 PM.