Hi everyone, I've been starting to wonder lately if my problems related to depression and anxiety and other cognitive issues comes from some sort of dopamine imbalance, and what can someone recommend me if you had a similar experience or if you have knowledge in this field.
When I'm depressed I have the common cognitive issues associated with it, but when I try hard to motivate myself I can somehow overcome those symptoms, I start to speak more fluently, my memory starts to improve, I feel more social and more "me". The thing is, after a day or two of trying to keep motivated, I start to feel like the balance is going to the other edge, and I feel easily overwhelmed, more easily irritable, some kind of nerve tension, my libido is edgy too, and more dispersed in my thoughts, at night I start to have poor sleep, nightmares or awakening and not being able to sleep so easily. What makes me think is a dopamine thing is how the music overwhelms me, that "feels good" associated with music, is an instant dopamine rush in my brain, that again makes me feels very uneasy and stimulated rather than just feel good... It just feels dizzy in my head. Keep in mind that my mother is full schizo, so I might have some genetic issues regulating dopamine.
So, if I start to feel functional, with no depression and cognitive issues, it may be to a dopamine upregulating to normal levels... but maybe my brain can't hold the normal levels so it gets saturated.
And if I'm depressed, I will be like a zombie, not suffering from any over excitability in my brain, but barely enjoining life or having really hard time to focus and socialize.
These are the two stages of my life, so I've been starting to think about the possibility of micro-dosing some kind of anti-psychotic , especially at night to be able to get some restful dopamine-free sleep. But I'm afraid of ending again like a fat zombie with a downregulation in dopamine, or even worse, triggering some psychosis for the first time and ending schizo. But I'm at a point in life where I have to take control and make some hard decisions, so I need most of me and my brain, and I can't just embrace depression again as my safe place to avoid facing my problems.
So I need some insight about what would be the most risk-free step for me to take in improving these symptoms.
NAC helps somewhat, Melatonin helps me fall asleep, the rest of supplements are not that noticeable as these two.
Edited by Adr1n, 05 July 2016 - 06:30 PM.
