L-theanine?

[snowpea]

So I just picked some up at Whole Foods after reading about it.

In the past I've been on Effexor, Wellbutrin, and Paxil. I found if they helped at all, they made me feel bad in other ways sort of like a zombie. Plus I'm a special effects/prothestics make up artist, and I don't know if anyone else has found this but, I found it very hard to work on them. My creativity totally disappeared. Xanax would certainly help to calm me down - but it never cured anything, it was more like a band-aid.

So, I've decided to go about this the healthy way, and I was very interested in l-theanine. I'm hoping this does the trick! Has anyone had any positive experiences with it?

[Belle]

Never tried it in capsule form, but am a green tea convert. I drink that as well as peppermint tea, I find them both relaxing, good for digestion and upset stomach. Everytime I have anxiety, a good tea fixes it right up, it's amazing actually so it's definately part of my feel good routine. But green tea is abit yukky tasting, if you can get your hands on a herbal tea shop and buy fresh leaves it's better than the manufactured tea bag kind.

[niq]

I've looked everywhere for them but haven't been able to find any.
For now I am just drinking lots of tea. I find it helps a little.

[Stainboy]

It does sound interesting, I've always found peppermint tea quite nice and relaxing but haven't found a flavour of green tea I like enough to drink regularly. It's okay with lemon but I'd rather it be a bit more than okay ;)

I drink a lot of "the usual" black tea which I know has caffeine so isn't recommended for anxiety but I'm so used to it that honestly I think the psychological comfort of having it outweighs any benefit I'd get from avoiding the caffeine by avoiding it.

[scott1908]

Hi

I have been suffering anxiety for the last 5 years on and off, I cannot say i have it constantly but it can be triggered off quite easily for some reason. I have tried all sorts of relaxation/vitamins/health foods etc with no real effect to be honest.
I had my anxiety triggered around 3 weeks ago and it lasted for a couple of days before it began to settle down then happened again so i did quite a lot of research on the internet of people who suffered anxiety and there experiences including different treatments etc,
I found L-theanine mentioned quite a bit along with magnesium and vitamin B-complex's
I then researched even more on them and different peoples stories to see what i came up with.
Basicaly i ordered all 3 from a health store online, i now take 1 magnesium/calcium tablet aswel as a 150mg L-Theanine tablet before breakfast, and 1 L-theanine and 1 B-complex at teatime before my dinner.
I must say that i find my self in a more relaxed state in the mornings when i wake up and also am not waking in the early hours like i was before and not being able to get back to sleep easily. also during the daytimes i am not having as many negaative thoughts as i was..

I AM NOT ENCOURAGING ANYONE TO TAKE THE ABOVE TABLETS OR AM I SAYING MY MORE RELAXED STATE IS BECAUSE OF THE TABLETS I TAKE!!

i found it also helped when i was in contact with other anxiety sufferers to share our thoughts/feelings etc etc.

if anyone would like to message me regarding this post then i would be more than happy to recieve it and will always reply

Scott x

[Stainboy]

I've found magnesium to really help with my restless legs, I know it wasn't a placebo as I started taking it for something else and noticed a reduction in it.

I've not been eating well for quite a while so probably lack a lot of nesessary vitamins, the B ones would probably be an especially good idea for me.