7 replies to this topic

[OneScrewLoose]

I feel like I am finally finding some success with what I am taking. My body is recovering from 10 years of undiagnosed celiac disease and INTENSE gastrointestinal pains, depression, anxiety, and mental stress that comes from isolation, poverty, and neglect. In addition to the pills I am about to list, I also do Tai-Chi, Yoga, and weight lifting. I bike a lot on my college campus. I meditate. I've spent over 1000 on accupuncture in the last 6 months.

I also take a very hot bath every night, which alone has done wonders. Someone recommended this "bath therapy" for me to reduce my stress. Basically, I take a bath as hot as I can take it for 21 minutes a night. In the first five or so minutes of the path, the body panics because it only knows how to deal with heat to the skin, not to the bone. After the first five or so minutes, the body gives up and releases endorphins. This cycle happens 3 times per 21+ minutes bath. After 21, it's supposed to permenantly lower the stress level of your body. This first time I did this I had a full-blown panic attack. I was crying and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I pulled through the 21 minutes though, and after a few baths it became tolerable. It's been well past 21 days now, I decieded to do it perpetually, since I have found nothing that helps my insomnia more than this. Also, I find taking 400mg of L-Theanine before the bath makes it more pleasant. The bath melts away the stress of the day.

Anyway, here's my regimen:

Morning
Trader Joes Fish Oil (450mg EPA & 225mg DPA)
Glucosamine and Chondortin w/ MSM
Perika Saint John's Wort 300mg
Jarrow's CDP Choline 250mg
Ginkgold Ginkgo Baloba 60mg
Zyrtec 10mg
Selegiline 1.25mg

Afternoon
Trader Joes Fish Oil (450mg EPA & 225mg DPA)
Glucosamine and Chondortin w/ MSM
Perika Saint John's Wort 300mg
Ginkgold Ginkgo Baloba 60mg
NOW Vitamin D-3 1000 IU

Evening
Trader Joes Fish Oil (450mg EPA & 225mg DPA)
Glucosamine and Chondortin w/ MSM
Perika Saint John's Wort 300mg
Ginkgold Ginkgo Baloba 60mg
Protonix 20mg

Bedtime
Trader Joes Fish Oil (450mg EPA & 225mg DPA)
NOW 5-HTP 100mg
Celexa 20mg
Seroquel 300mg
Bluebonnet Chelated Magnesium 250mg
Bayan Botanicals Ashwagandha 500mg

Now let me explain what each is for. The high dose of fish oil is for my skin and ADD. The Zyrtec is for a histamine problem that makes me itch when I'm stressed. Even with the zyrtec, I can draw on myself like a human etch-a-sketch as anywhere I scratch turns red. The Seroquel helps my intense anxiety, helps put me to sleep, and helps a little bit of my paranoia (though not enough at all). The Celexa, SJW & 5-HTP help my mood and anxiety. The Glucosamine and Chondroitin help with the fact that my joints constantly crack, more than anyone else's I've ever met. The Ginkgold is because my blood vessels constrict and I get very cold when I am stresssed. Question: Is ginkgold a blood thinner, vasodialator, or both? The CDP-Choline gives me a nice boost in the morning, and since I can't eat eggs, gives me the choline I need. The Selegiline helps a lot with my ADD and constentration, while lowering the anxiety I get when touching certain textures (greasy being the worst). The protonix is because I still have gastritis, esophogitis, acid refulx, and god knows what other damage from the celiac disease. I also have a hiatal hernia and the protonix makes it so I am not constantly tasting my stomach. Here are the foods I am intolerant to:

gluten
dairy
soy
eggs
nuts/peanuts

I've been told on a celiac forum that as the body recovers from celiac disease, some of the other things beyond gluten my eventually be able to be reintroduced into my diet. God I hope I can have dairy someday. I miss that beautiful, warm, frothy cup of coffee from my $200 grinder and french press. I only found out about gluten in 2007 and the other intolerances in 2008, so it wasn't long ago I was having those things. And it was long ago that I was in unberable pain.

The issue that is bothering me most right now is my intense social anxiety. I had no idea I had it up until recently because of all the other problems. But now that they have been dealt with or at least made more bareable in some way, I am finding that this is a huge issue. Let's say I go to an event one night. The next same night I sleep much more and feel like shit most of the next day. For instance, last night my friends encouraged me to read poetry at an open night mic. I did it and it was fun. But even though it was a small crowd and I had 1.5mg of ativan, it was still intensely stressful. I overslept for the first time this quarter at school and missed to classes. I had only missed one class in the whole quarter and it was intentional. I even had to drop Tae Kwon Do this quarter because I couldn't handle the social anxiety of the classroom, it was making me feel like shit the next day.

But I digress. This is my regimen so far. I also take rhodiola and the aforementioned ativan occasionaly during more intense stress. I am thinking of adding Sam-e and a multi. Also, I have picamilon and adrafinil in the mail. I'll post when I've tried those. Any opinions? Suggestions? Comments?

Thanks

P.S. Even with all this, how I feel still doesn't hold I candle to how I was feeling when this was happening, before the opposite happened and I collapsed into a nervous breakdown. I've asked many doctors, many nutritionists, many forums, and people from the company as to why it happened, and not a single person has been able to figure it out, as it wasn't supposed to do any of that. But it gave me the perspective of seeing I want from life and everything I don't compressed into 2 months. At the 2 month period, long after I stopped taking it, I was given paxil and the anxiety attacks finally stop. I don't know if I'll ever figure out what happened.

Edited by OneScrewLoose, 06 November 2008 - 03:17 AM.

[ajnast4r]

taking 5htp, sjw, seroquell & rhodiola is going to break something in your brain, guaranteed. does your doc know youre using them all at the same time?

i have celiac too... do you take any probiotics? that helped me a lot... as well as being REALLY serious about completely avoiding gluten, down to avoiding commonly contaminated foods.

[OneScrewLoose]

taking 5htp, sjw, seroquell & rhodiola is going to break something in your brain, guaranteed. does your doc know youre using them all at the same time?

i have celiac too... do you take any probiotics? that helped me a lot... as well as being REALLY serious about completely avoiding gluten, down to avoiding commonly contaminated foods.

It's working good so far. I'm feeling a lot better these days. Wouldn't the seroquel make it less of a problem, being that it is a 5th1 and 5ht2 antagonist? My goal here is to get off Celexa soon, because all the synthetic SSRIs cause my hands to shake (the higher the dose the more they shake) and I would like the full dexterity of my hands back so I can continue learning guitar. My doc is aware, and she has cautioned me. But she is also impressed with my progress, so she hasn't urged I get off it. Also, I rarely take rhodiola these days, only before tests or the night before a paper is due.

This is my stomach stack from my other thread:

L-Glutamine
BioGenesis Para Biotic Plus
Culturelle
NOW Gr8-Dopholis
L-Salivarius
DGL chews
NAG
Digest RC
Zinc-Carnosine
D-Limonene
20mg Protonix (like Prilosec)

It used to be only the Protonix, para biotic and l-slaivarius, since I've added the rest I've been feeling a LOT better and have gained 4 pounds (still only a measily 157 @ 5'11" though). If my stomach is truely the cause of my problems, once it has healed sufficiently I can lay off some of the serotonergic stuff. Keeping fingers crossed

[Steve_86]

taking 5htp, sjw, seroquell & rhodiola is going to break something in your brain, guaranteed.

How exactly would Rhodiola in combination with something (say 5-HTP) cause harm?

[ajnast4r]

taking 5htp, sjw, seroquell & rhodiola is going to break something in your brain, guaranteed.

How exactly would Rhodiola in combination with something (say 5-HTP) cause harm?

serotonin toxicity
http://en.wikipedia....otonin_syndrome

It used to be only the Protonix, para biotic and l-slaivarius, since I've added the rest I've been feeling a LOT better and have gained 4 pounds (still only a measily 157 @ 5'11" though). If my stomach is truely the cause of my problems, once it has healed sufficiently I can lay off some of the serotonergic stuff. Keeping fingers crossed

as long as your doc knows and is ok with all that concurrent use.

thats a lot of probiotics... not making you constipated?


also, how is your avoidance of gluten? i can not stress how utterly important it is to avoid contaminated foods (oats, processed foods, eating out at places that make bread etc)... that really made ALL the difference for me.

did you ever get a hormone panel done?

Edited by ajnast4r, 18 November 2008 - 06:08 PM.

[OneScrewLoose]

taking 5htp, sjw, seroquell & rhodiola is going to break something in your brain, guaranteed.

How exactly would Rhodiola in combination with something (say 5-HTP) cause harm?

serotonin toxicity
http://en.wikipedia....otonin_syndrome

It used to be only the Protonix, para biotic and l-slaivarius, since I've added the rest I've been feeling a LOT better and have gained 4 pounds (still only a measily 157 @ 5'11" though). If my stomach is truely the cause of my problems, once it has healed sufficiently I can lay off some of the serotonergic stuff. Keeping fingers crossed

as long as your doc knows and is ok with all that concurrent use.

thats a lot of probiotics... not making you constipated?


also, how is your avoidance of gluten? i can not stress how utterly important it is to avoid contaminated foods (oats, processed foods, eating out at places that make bread etc)... that really made ALL the difference for me.

did you ever get a hormone panel done?

I got a hormone panel done. Normal, and a lovely normal-high testosterone. My doc jokes about me becoming a bodybuilder.

I am very good at avoiding all contaminated foods...except for one instance. If I go to a mexican place, they often cook the corn and wheat tortillas on the same place. It doesn't seem to bother me, but maybe I'm diluting myself. I'll pay more attention to how I feel after I eat at those places.

I am not at all constipated. In fact, my stool is still kinda loose.

I recently added 400mg of Sam-e to my regimen in the morning. I take it on an empty stomach before breakfast and it helps me a lot through the day. To compensate, I am experimenting with only 10mg of Celexa. Should I be worried about the Sam-e giving me a significant boost to serotonin? My goal within the next month is to get off of the Celexa and switch my 5-HTP to Tryptophan, giving my body more control over it's own production of serotonin. I then might add inositol, once my stomach is up to it (I tried it and it hurt my stomach). I have been staying away from the Rhodiola because it became a lot less effective so I am letting my sensitivity build up.

I forgot to mention that I get lots of accupuncture as well. This helps.

I really want to work on getting quality sleep. I currently take Picamilon, magnesium and 5-htp at night. I am thinking about adding kava, but I am worried about effects on the liver. Was that overblown? I have tried ambien. Garabge for me, built up tolerance and was groggy in the morning. Lunesta is to expensive. I talked to my MD today and he told me about notriptyline and sonata and to talk to my psychiatrist about these, whom I am seeing tomorrow. Have you had any experience with those?

I think I would need a lot less of what I am taking if I got better sleep.

Thanks for your help.

[Wedrifid]

taking 5htp, sjw, seroquell & rhodiola is going to break something in your brain, guaranteed. does your doc know youre using them all at the same time?

With seratonin syndrome, very little can be guaranteed. Risk factors can be reliably predicted but actual outcomes are specific to the individual and highly variable. The above combination is akin to walking on a minefield, not walking off a cliff.

"Guarunteed" seratonin syndrome comes from combining significant doses of say, an SSRI and a MAO-A inhibitor.

[wayside]

I think I would need a lot less of what I am taking if I got better sleep.

Melatonin does it for me, I find even 1 mg before bed is enough if I am having trouble sleeping.

No idea how this will mix with all the other stuff you are taking.