3 replies to this topic

[newbie8787]

As far back as I can remember I've had terrible anxiety. Even at 6 or 7 I would throw up from stress over school, little league baseball or talking to a relative I hadn't seen in awhile. Throwing up in the shower before school became part of my routine. Sometimes I'd throw up every few hours for 4-5 days straight if I was worried about grades or a big test or something. For the longest time I thought it was a physical problem. I went from doctor to doctor and none of them could figure it out. Finally, the summer before my second year of high school a doctor prescribed 50 mg of Zoloft after seeing a history of mental illness in my family. For the first year it was a godsend. My anxiety was completely gone. I was able to focus in school, got straight A's for the first time. I started making friends easily. It was great.

Then the side effects started creeping in. ED, delayed ejaculation, lack of motivation. It felt like my happiness was at a constant 3-4 on a scale of 1-10. I never got excited about anything. It made me a feel like a zombie. Stupidly I would go cold turkey for awhile, the side effects would go away, the anxiety would slowly return and I'd start up again. For 8-9 years I did this without any problems. In the last year or so it pooped out on me. I've been off it for 6 months now. My anxiety is still low but I've had terrible brain fog and zero motivation. I played online poker for 5 years and I completely lost the ability to focus and think ahead. I always lose my train of thought when talking to friends and I have tip of the tongue syndrome real bad. My GF of 2 years left me and I'm back to living with my parents at 25. I feel lost.

So I'm trying to clear my brain fog and boost my motivation while keeping my anxiety low. Here's what I've tried:

-Piracetam, Aniracetam: I am a non responder. Piracetam at any dose just makes me sleepy. I've tried anywhere between 800 mg and 10 g's and the same thing always happens.

-ALCAR: I don't notice much

-Sulbutiamine: This was awesome for about a week but I can't get it to work anymore

-DMAA: I was taking jack3d as a pre workout and it made me feel amazing until it stopped working

-Wellbutrin: When I took this alongside Zoloft I didn't notice any boost in motivation. I recently took it without the Zoloft and it gave me terrible anxiety.

I noticed I have a bit of a gut even though I'm pretty skinny and work out 3-4 times a week. I thought this might be from either elevated cortisol from the anxiety or inflammed/leaky gut from being obese during my teen years and acid reflux. So I've taken these:

-PS: 400-800mg a day

-Vitamin C: 1000-2000 mg a day

-Dhea: I took 25-50mg for short periods of time.

-Glutamine: 3-5g's a day

-Bovine Colostrum: I forget the exact dosage but I took Jarrow's formula as directed

-All kinds of Probiotics

-Turmeric/Curcumin: Crappy Nature Made brand

I thought I might have some sort of adrenal fatigue

-Ashwagandha

-Rhodiola

-Maca

What I'm taking now:

-SAM-E: 400-600 mg a day. This seems to help a bit with overall mood.

-Omega-3: I go back and forth between a high DHA product and a regular Fish oil with higher EPA. So far I like the EPA better.

-85 Billion CFU probiotic

-Vitamin D: 5000 iu

-ZMA: Mostly because I think I'm magnesium deficient. I also just got some epsom salt

I have an adrenal support formula on the way.

My diet is pretty good. I have gluten maybe once a month. I'm trying to cut dairy out. I still have most of a 10 lb bag of whey protein left :(. I've tried kale smoothies but they just make me tired. I occasionally take a greens powder.

After reading about a connection between SSRI's and testosterone I had my levels checked. My insurance won't cover anything more than a basic blood panel so I had to pay out of pocket. I've had it checked 3 times and I always end up between 315-340. My doctor says its in the normal range and there is nothing wrong with me. Yeah I'd be normal if I were 75. I'm tempted to get a on a cycle of test and see how I feel. I'm just worried about the legality and messing with my hormones and fertility.

Between supplements and diet my brain fog is about 20-30% better. My motivation is still low. I have trouble getting out of bed each day. I don't know how much of that is my brain chemistry and how much is just feeling shitty about losing my job, girlfriend and freedom. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[superM]

Get your free test tested.

[Tom_]

First of all you need to try stuff slowly give it time and figure out if its working or not. The above his haphazard as hell :L

Why don't you try a mix of SAMe, L-tryptophan, vit b6 and vit c. This will hopefully get you out of the dumps without causing or prolonging the effects of the SSRI.

Your testosterone levels are fine...you aren't showing any symptoms..unless you neglected medical symptoms. Injecting or using it is a bad shit bad idea.

As a side note, adrenal fatigue doesn't exist.

[deeptrance]

The nature of your anxiety sounds like it's often triggered in social situations. Buspar (buspirone) is often prescribed for helping with social anxiety, and it has some anti-depressant benefits as well. It has fewer of the nasty side effects of most other psych meds. So I recommend asking your doc about it.

Obviously you shouldn't be taking SSRIs, they make you miserable and I know how you feel because I went through trials of at least 6 of them before I finally decided I'm never allowing one of those things to pass through my lips again. If you can be assertive with your doc and insist that you not be given another one then you can look at other approaches to dealing with anxiety.

Adaptogens (certain herbs) can be useful for anxiety for some people. It looks like you haven't tried that route thoroughly yet. You'd want to give some time to things like bacopa and ashwagandha although you did say you tried the latter. There are other herbs that might help. They tend to work very slowly and subtly, so you can't expect instant success with them, but over a period of months and years they can help adjust the way your body responds to stress. Rhodiola has helped me with depression and anxiety, though I confess I take about 12 different adaptogens every day so it's hard to isolate what's doing what. I'm not recommending that type of behavior for anyone else, I take responsibility for my own choice to take a ton of herbs and if there are negative consequences down the road then so be it. But so far, so awesome.

Wellbutrin is a fairly decent medication and eventually you might be able to take it at low doses and extended release, along with something for anxiety.