ten pounds in ten weeks, weeks three and four

Hortensia

Here's the new thread - we can update this thread for a couple of weeks, then I'll start another one. It's so nice to hear what other folks are doing, and the folks who aren't dieting or exercising as a part of this group, your input is very helpful. I appreciate Kensei and Mincan for instance for their advice.

beksbks

Thank YOU Hortensia for giving me another motivator!!!!

Mincan

Well, I shouldn't be gaining anymore weight now. I quit taking that terrible anti-depressant Mirtazapine. Those electric shock "brain shivers" were enough to through me off the deep end, extremely fing scary! Anyway, I have replaced it with something that may be of use to all of you guys, man I really want to support you all.

Anyway, this may help those of you that may be also suffering from anxiety, depression, insomnia, and excessive carbohydrate cravings, and if you aren't being treated with Traditional Western medicine for them yet. Otherwise, you might want to try it in low doses, perhaps 50mg every other day at bedtime or something or other. Anyway, this is my post from today on the ADHD forum I belong to, forgive the manic nature of the post!

5-HTP!

Jesus, I don't know why I took so long to act on the things I was reading about it months ago.

My history, I've been depressed for over 10 years, and only when I had an in-patient episode this past September have I been getting anything to try to combat it.

I've been on the SSRI Escitalopram (Cipralex/Lexapro) for about a month and a half, all it did was kill my sex drive and ability to do anything sexual.
I've been on Wellbutrin another month and a half, all it did was exacerbate my anxiety and elevate my blood pressure.
I've been on Imipramine for one day, all it did was confuse me and put me into a severe hypertensive episode (woke up in the morning with blood pressure 190/90 and a pulse of 130 a minute, THIS WAS WAKING UP!)
I've been on Mirtazapine a week, all it did was put me to sleep all day, make me eat all day, and worst of all electric shock sensations whenever I tried to relax or sleep. One night I couldn't sleep for 2 hours due to an electric shock every single time I was about to doze off. Extremely scary.

None of these things helped my GAD, OCD, PTSD, or depression.

In comes 5-HTP. The first night I bought it I took one 100mg tablet. After an hour and a half, not only was my anxiety gone, but my mood was so elevated that I started dancing and singing out loud to music and feeling exhilarated. It wasn't mania, cause I've had that before. It also gave me a nice sleep, a little groggy, but not as bad as Mirtazapine (which I was still getting out of my system then as well) and the electric shocks only happened twice and very soft ones and gone forever now...

Today is my fourth day on it and my anxiety is gone. I don't worry about stupid **** anymore, so I think my negative OCD is gone, as I don't linger on thoughts that bother me, my mood is too good for that, as I want to enjoy things. It's motivated me to do the things with OCD that make me happy, like organising stuff and having things neat, as well as washing my hands frequently again...etc. It's reduced the somatic effects of Ritalin, especially the heart rate has slowed down all day. (I usually get 10 minutes or so about 45 minutes into a dose where my heart rate goes up, stroke volume increases, before going down again; on wellbutrin, this would continue the entire time of the dose! By evenings I was a nervous wreck!) It is somewhat calming and sedating, which is why I take my 100mg dose around midnight, it calms me down in the early morning hours and motivates me to sleep a little earlier than usual.

I am hesitant to say it's either all the 5-HTP or all placebo. Placebo has never taken away my anxiety, only made it worse. Now I feel like I'm ready to try to find a job and get started on things. I've felt this way for a long time but my anxiety has stopped me. I'm finding I'm way more social now, as anyone may tell from my recent postings, I'm posting on forums a lot more.

Important stuff to remember. Do not take this if you are on an MAOI, Tricyclic, SSRI, antihistamines, cough syrup, etc, anything that effects seratonin. You may get seratonin syndrome. Also, you shouldn't take more than 100mg a day. The bottles will sometimes say 100mg three times a day but this is crap. Anyone taking more than 200mg a day is sure to get either nausea, headache, dry mouth, or other elevated seratonin symptoms.

There's a lot to look up on the internet to know what will be best for you. You can usually tell by what it does for you. For some people it will make them more sleepy (me) and decrease appetite (me) and increase sex drive (me ). Some people says it does the opposite of these things in all three categories to them. This may effect what you take it for or if it will be effective for you. You may not have a seratonin deficiency. Also, if you have done something that has temporarily lowered your seratonin levels, like pulled an all nighter, done LSD, etc this may bring it up to a good level but then continuing to use it might be too much and give you side effects, so it's pretty cool to know what it is effecting you. For instance, I took too many yesterday and got a headache from it, and was extremely focused, it double whammied my Ritalin. Not going to do that again. However, I felt no anxiety which really surprised me, I'm very sensitive in changes of perception and it usually freaks me out, but with the lowered anxiety and calmness and lower somatic reaction, I was OK with it.

So I don't know, if you are trying to get off an SSRI, like Prozac, I've read in low doses (25-50mg daily) it might help with the withdrawal effects very effectively. If you are looking for a new anti-depressant, give it a try! what do you have to lose? Just start off low and see how it goes!

I will come back here to let people know if my ravings were all for naught. I doubt this is placebo though simply because its so reinforceing. Maybe it has a "poop-out" after awhile, but everything I've read says it tends to differ from anti-depressants in this feature. Some people only take 50mg 4-5 times a week and feel great! I'm suspecting 100mg at a time might be too much for me, I can definitely feel it!

(To emphasis (not to endorse) the power of this stuff, I did check the erowyn vault for experiences using this in a recreational/synergistic fashion with other drugs and alone, and have found that people said it makes cannabis highs feel like the first time, with more euphoria/less anxiety AT LOW DOSES! People that roll LSD (never tried it here) said the same thing, it makes it seem like your first trip, and will build up depleted seratonin reserves afterwards. Some idiots tried taking huge doses of it alone (500mg+ at once) and become very spaced out and have mild audio and visual hallucinations (less than cannabis) but generally do not feel good on the come down.)

Another note, this suppliment raises seratonin levels in the entire body, I've learned that seratonin is primarily stored in blood platlets and that it may not all go to your brain, this is why too much is not good, because too much seratonin in the body is not good. SSRIs, etc, block re-uptake, leaving more synaptic seratonin available in the brain, completely different mode of action, perhaps why there are less and different side effects from using this. AKA appetite suppression rather than stimulation, good sleep rather than insomnia, lower anxiety rather than more. Jesus, why wouldn't someone use this first? You can get 60 100mg tablets for like 8 bucks here.

Okay, I'm done my hyperfocusing rant!

So anyway, the reason it might be of help to you good folks here is that if you have any lower-than-needed seratonin your head, this will improve your mood, help you sleep, and decrese anxiety. However, it also has been tested on obese patients and people wanting to lose weight, and it is shown to be a modest appetite suppressant as well as reducing cravings for carbohydrates. I have read many online personal accounts of this curing binge eating disorders and the like and helping people keep their mood and motivation going when on a low-calorie diet, because it's common knowledge when you enter a caloric deficit on a daily basis, this will lower your brains seratonin levels!

So try it out if you think it will be safe for you. I encourage everyone to only try 50mg daily at first just to see how it effects you.

Hortensia

Mincan, I'm glad it is helping you. It's amazing how different we all are, and how we have to finely tune our meds and diet. I tried 5-HTP before, didn't help me much, but at the time not much was wrong with my and my life.

I have a question for you all - I gave three deep tissue massages today, 180 minutes of hard work. I always equate a deep tissue massage with 30 minutes of light weights, so I'm figuring my 180 minutes of deep tissue equates to 90 minutes of light weights. It's hard work but it isn't aerobic, however it does build muscle mass. This is right off the top of my head, but I wonder if any of you would have a better idea of how I could figure out how many calories I use when I give a deep tissue massage.

skeeter1

Deep tissue massage?

I like your idea of exercise.

Skeeter

Hortensia

I've been doing it for 26 years - getting to be one of the oldest massage therapists around.

beksbks

I'm sorry girl, I don't care how you count it, I just want one!!!!

Hortensia

well, you're in California too. Where are you? It can be arranged, depending on location!

Bryan

Okay, today is one week.

Went from 210.5 to 204.5 = a loss of 6 pounds.

Yes, yes, I know. I'm on atkins, a lot of the loss was water. That's fine, I know what happens next.

Bryan

Mincan

Atkins...ugh...

Perhaps the most popular wrong way to do it.

I'm extremely sorry I have to say that.

Edit: When your finished, you'll probably become pre-diabetic, have damaged kidneys, and never look at eggs or most kinds of meat again and become a willing Fruitarian or somesuch.

ten pounds in ten weeks, weeks three and four

Share this