svm7910
12-21-2008, 07:31 PM
In the hopes that this will help someone else in pain, the following is my experiences with anxiety/depression and what I now believe to be the cure.
Ever since I was around 6 or 7 years old, I have been dealing with excessive anxiety in various degrees. When I was a child, I was terrified of walking down hallways, lunch rooms, and certain other situations. As I grew older, the situations which triggered extreme anxiety changed, but the underlying story was still the same. I have always felt as though the slightest things would put me over the edge, be it a cup of coffee, a less than optimal night's sleep, or something going wrong at work. It seemed as though my anxiety had its own agenda and there was nothing I could do about it. As I grew up, my anxiety got worse, a lot worse. In college there were times I was so anxious that I would almost say my imagination was getting closer to hallucination, that is how real it felt. There were times when I had that sensory-disconnect, which I'm sure others can relate to, when you don't even feel like you're in reality any more. To make this very long story short, suffice it to say my anxiety progressed into depression, panic attacks, and lots of drinking (which was literally the only way I felt like I was enjoying life...which is rather sad).
During college, I finally gave up my pride and realized I needed help, so I went to the school psychologist. They had me do progressive relaxation exercises, we talked about my past, and went the behavioral modification route. It helped a bit, but in reality, all it did was take my anxiety down from a level where I contemplated killing myself to a level where I was still in pain, but not end-it-all pain. He told me I had the symptoms of social anxiety and generalized anxiety disorders, recommending I go on meds if I didn't get better. I didn't like the idea of prescription meds, so I continued to suffer for years and years after. A few years after college I had an extremely stressful white collar job, which ended up giving me ever worse anxiety than I experienced in college. I basically gave up, resigning myself to see another doctor for medication. This new doctor gave me the same diagnosis, that I had GAD and needed to go on Effexor XR. The drug worked great, but to be honest I'm not sure which was worse, the side effects or the original anxiety. It made me incredibly sweaty, gave me cotton-mouth, killed my sex drive, and sorta made me feel like a zombie. I did this on and off several times, until I couldn't take the side effects any longer and quit the medication altogether.
It's now several years later (again) and I believe I have found my own cure. I seriously cannot believe that either of the two doctors I sought help from couldn't give me the advice I found on my own. My cure is that for one reason or another, my body seems to be deficient in amino acids (they are what make up protein) and the B vitamins. I literally had an experience where I felt like I was on the drug ecstasy after taking both, I literally couldn't stop smiling and laughing. After doing lots of research and reading, it seems like certain people don't get the amino acids they need from their diet (even if the food contains them), due to many reasons which I won't go into here. Basically certain AAs are what your body needs to make the neurotransmitters you need to feel good. For example, your body cannot make serotonin without the amino acid L-Tryptophan being ingested. The three major "feel good" neurotransmitters are serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. What I've learned is that a great deal of mental illnesses involve inadequate amounts of these three in your brain. The great news is that almost no one's body is actually incapable of making these feel-good transmitters, the vast majority of people can produce them just fine. The issue is that all three of these transmitters need the raw amino acids to be produced by our bodies. I'm not gonna go into the whole chemistry behind everything, there is a ton of information on the web if you look for it.
Here is what has made me feel 100x better:
- I take L-tryptophan every night (1000mg), which is what your body needs to produce serotonin.
- Every morning I take a Free Form Amino Acid Complex (contains 20 different AAs) and Vitamin B complex (with vitamin C in it)
- And that's it, I feel as though someone "turned off" my anxiety switch !!!
I have no idea if it's just me with this issue or if this will help a lot of people, so I seriously hope someone out there writes back saying they feel better too ! Best wishes.
Ever since I was around 6 or 7 years old, I have been dealing with excessive anxiety in various degrees. When I was a child, I was terrified of walking down hallways, lunch rooms, and certain other situations. As I grew older, the situations which triggered extreme anxiety changed, but the underlying story was still the same. I have always felt as though the slightest things would put me over the edge, be it a cup of coffee, a less than optimal night's sleep, or something going wrong at work. It seemed as though my anxiety had its own agenda and there was nothing I could do about it. As I grew up, my anxiety got worse, a lot worse. In college there were times I was so anxious that I would almost say my imagination was getting closer to hallucination, that is how real it felt. There were times when I had that sensory-disconnect, which I'm sure others can relate to, when you don't even feel like you're in reality any more. To make this very long story short, suffice it to say my anxiety progressed into depression, panic attacks, and lots of drinking (which was literally the only way I felt like I was enjoying life...which is rather sad).
During college, I finally gave up my pride and realized I needed help, so I went to the school psychologist. They had me do progressive relaxation exercises, we talked about my past, and went the behavioral modification route. It helped a bit, but in reality, all it did was take my anxiety down from a level where I contemplated killing myself to a level where I was still in pain, but not end-it-all pain. He told me I had the symptoms of social anxiety and generalized anxiety disorders, recommending I go on meds if I didn't get better. I didn't like the idea of prescription meds, so I continued to suffer for years and years after. A few years after college I had an extremely stressful white collar job, which ended up giving me ever worse anxiety than I experienced in college. I basically gave up, resigning myself to see another doctor for medication. This new doctor gave me the same diagnosis, that I had GAD and needed to go on Effexor XR. The drug worked great, but to be honest I'm not sure which was worse, the side effects or the original anxiety. It made me incredibly sweaty, gave me cotton-mouth, killed my sex drive, and sorta made me feel like a zombie. I did this on and off several times, until I couldn't take the side effects any longer and quit the medication altogether.
It's now several years later (again) and I believe I have found my own cure. I seriously cannot believe that either of the two doctors I sought help from couldn't give me the advice I found on my own. My cure is that for one reason or another, my body seems to be deficient in amino acids (they are what make up protein) and the B vitamins. I literally had an experience where I felt like I was on the drug ecstasy after taking both, I literally couldn't stop smiling and laughing. After doing lots of research and reading, it seems like certain people don't get the amino acids they need from their diet (even if the food contains them), due to many reasons which I won't go into here. Basically certain AAs are what your body needs to make the neurotransmitters you need to feel good. For example, your body cannot make serotonin without the amino acid L-Tryptophan being ingested. The three major "feel good" neurotransmitters are serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. What I've learned is that a great deal of mental illnesses involve inadequate amounts of these three in your brain. The great news is that almost no one's body is actually incapable of making these feel-good transmitters, the vast majority of people can produce them just fine. The issue is that all three of these transmitters need the raw amino acids to be produced by our bodies. I'm not gonna go into the whole chemistry behind everything, there is a ton of information on the web if you look for it.
Here is what has made me feel 100x better:
- I take L-tryptophan every night (1000mg), which is what your body needs to produce serotonin.
- Every morning I take a Free Form Amino Acid Complex (contains 20 different AAs) and Vitamin B complex (with vitamin C in it)
- And that's it, I feel as though someone "turned off" my anxiety switch !!!
I have no idea if it's just me with this issue or if this will help a lot of people, so I seriously hope someone out there writes back saying they feel better too ! Best wishes.