Hello,
I've been suffering from depression and anxiety for many years. Been severally depressed on and off for the last 8 years.
Overall my situation also doesn't get better. My problems get worse and so my depression/anxiety also get worse.
I have tried all kinds of antidepressants in the past few years, nothing really helped.
For ADD I have been taking taking amphetamines since 2014. I also take lamictal. The reason for taking lamictal
was that I worried about glutamate and brain toxicity.
I have a very low stress tolerance and I am highly irritable.
Due to this I thought maybe one of my issues is too much glutamate. I thought that going on lamictal would make sense
cause it protects against the negative effects of excessive glutamate. I have been on lamictal since 9 months and I have no side
effects and I'm planning to stay on it. I am taking 250mg now.
Anyway,
I recently had a brain MRI done cause I have issues with muscle stiffness. One neurologist said that it's not parkinson but still
not really normal. That's why he said I should get a brain MRI.
The brain MRI itself was normal.
However, what concerns me now is that the radiologist said that for my age (mid 30ies) the brain could be a bit fuller!
Cause of this I'm now worried about brain atrophy caused by depression/stress. I heard about this before but I never really
thought much about it. I had different brain MRIs done over the years and nobody ever said anything about brain atrophy.
At the moment it's not clear if the brain has always been this way or if there are indeed changes.
But I ask myself what if there really are changes compared to older brain MRIs? What do I do then?!
I definitely feel cognitive less flexible than years ago.
What do you think about this? Are there any drugs which I could be taking to get more brain protection?
I'll discuss this with my psychiatrist next time I see him.
What also worries me a bit is that I have been taking and trying out lots of different supplements in the last year.
Now I worry what if there are interactions between any of these supplements and lamictal or amphetamines?
What if they somehow affect each other and then cause neurodegeneratice processes?
Supplements which I frequently use are:
Alcar
choline
glycine
taurine
glutamine
supplements which I was just planning to add to my regimen before my muscle issues got worse and which I then
stopped taking entirely:
MSM (for joint aches)
Creatine (my plan was to take a low dose 2-3gr daily, not sure how much sense this makes anyway)
Ribose (ribose helps with energy production in the cells, I read that this is benefical and protective for the cells)
Do you think that I should not take any of these supplements anymore simply to be safe?
My reason for taking Alcar and choline was because I thought that they help with cognition.
Glycine and Taurine supposedly work against oxidative stress and inflammation (I have joint pains).
I also know from the past that I have high levels of oxidative stress. The doctor who ran those tests
simply advised me to up my dose of Vitamin C and to add Alpha Lipoic Acid.
Vitamins which I regularly take are:
Vitamin C ~ 1gr/day
Vitamin E 800mg
B complex vitamins
wheat grass
spirulina
zinc
selenium
alpha lipoic acid 600mg
