Hi,
I have lurked here forever, and have always respected the minds here. This is my first post.
I have tried tons of supplements and I'm trying to figure out now what all this evidence means.
My symptoms were anxiety, brain fog, and feeling distant from others. Always felt different and away from the pack. Also a bit of paranoia - thinking ppl were out to get me, or didn't like me etc.
It was a specific feeling, I was able to tell "bad days" by a physical feeling that always accompanied the same mental feelings.
I think it might be serotonin, due to the following, but I am wondering at some of the curiosities.
Sam-e changed some things - I felt more social and like others, yet the end result of the sam-e run was more anxiety, so I quit that.
Rhodiola was amazing for awhile, then it wore off. Rhodiola took away the restelssness, made me happy in whatever moment I was in, and more close to others, yet not the real warm closeness.
Tryptophan (300mg AM, 300mg PM) was great, for about 2 weeks it changed my life. Mental fog went away. I wanted to be with others, and part of a community. I talked better, and I understood abstract concepts better. I felt that warm closeness with others. It was amazing. I was happy where I happened to be, doing what I happened to be doing. During week 3 it tapered off significantly. I am still not as irritable, but the effect was way worn.
I still take it, maybe 500mg AM and 500mg PM now.
When it was working better, the tryptophan reminded me of how I felt when I was young. More carefree, and happy.
Side note, an amino acid blend (like a protein shake) will also make me feel calm and happy. They contain tryptophan as well, but you'd think that the other aminos would compete too much.
So the questions are there - first, what do I do to increase serotonin like it was during the first two weeks of the tryptophan?
Why would a protein shake come close to the tryptophan?
Is this a digestive thing? Or just plain serotonin?
As a side note, I take a pretty high dose inositol, 4G / day - and did all through this story. Once I tried to quit that and had such horrible (2-3) days that I started it again. Day one of quitting the inositol was awesome, days 2-3 sucked pretty bad.
Just was hoping some of this might spark an idea / memory / experience.
I do take fish oil, vit D, vit c, zinc, magnesium glycinate and a quality B vit.
Thanks!
NonD
Edited by Nondirective, 11 February 2016 - 03:17 AM.