better

[Nienna]

Yeah, that is the protocol from Dr. Rodger Murphree's book "Beating and Treating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome", we found that it is a useful guide. Most people do fine with 5 HTP, just very rarely the protocol has to be modified because it can give insomnia (I'm one of those).

I was taking 100mg fo 5 HTP at lunch-time and 100mg. at dinner-time and 1/2 an hour before bed along with 800mg of magnesium citrate and 3mg of melatonin. This is what it took for several months to help me to go to sleep and then whenever I woke up to go right back to sleep.

Lately, I have cut back to just the 100mg at lunch-time and dinner-time with the magnesium and melatonin as above because of the insomnia psyche was referring to. (thanks for letting us know about that, I wasn't sure if it was just me) Sometimes if I don't feel really slleepy enough at bedtime I will either add another 3mg of melatonin or 100mg of 5 HTP. It si really working good for me this way.

I think we each need to experiment to see what works best for us and then continually adjust as needed. To me it seems that maybe my serotonin levels are straightening out and so I need to modify what I am doing to compensate for this.

 

[gaman]

On another note: I can sympathize with you about your feelings of late. I've been in that situation many times (more in the last 2 years it seems). You say it is hard on your partner, and you have trouble pulling yourself up to do anything on your own. I don't know if this helps or not, but I have pulled myself up by my bootstraps more often, not by finding my own reasons to do it for myself, but by realizing that I was putting a load on my partner. Thinking that I was draining someone else because I could not find the wherewithal to get going on my own was enough to kick myself in the arse to get going.

I'm not saying that you are draining your partner here. Your situation may be different but in my case, I thought I was and that is very distasteful to me to allow that to happen because of my (non)-actions. It was enough to shake off the fuzziness and spend every bit of energy I had to right the situation.

Hang in there and get it done!

Thanks, Azur. I'm trying to think that way to help with overcoming my selfishness and thinking of what this is doing to my wife. That helps.

 

[gaman]

I thought the quote below summarises nicely how one should go about taking 5HTP. The quote was taken from here. :)

Thanks, Vulcan. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

 

[shijing]

On another note: I can sympathize with you about your feelings of late. I've been in that situation many times (more in the last 2 years it seems). You say it is hard on your partner, and you have trouble pulling yourself up to do anything on your own. I don't know if this helps or not, but I have pulled myself up by my bootstraps more often, not by finding my own reasons to do it for myself, but by realizing that I was putting a load on my partner. Thinking that I was draining someone else because I could not find the wherewithal to get going on my own was enough to kick myself in the arse to get going.

I'm not saying that you are draining your partner here. Your situation may be different but in my case, I thought I was and that is very distasteful to me to allow that to happen because of my (non)-actions. It was enough to shake off the fuzziness and spend every bit of energy I had to right the situation.

Hang in there and get it done!

Thanks, Azur. I'm trying to think that way to help with overcoming my selfishness and thinking of what this is doing to my wife. That helps.

I think its also good to let your wife know that you're trying, even if you feel like you're not winning at the moment. When you recognize that your behavior is hard on her, I think she'll appreciate it if you say something like 'I know that I'm hard to be around right now, and I really don't mean it, but I want you to know that I'm working on it and that I appreciate your patience with me.'

I hope you notice a difference after trying the 5HTP -- I started on it about 10 days ago, and I think I can feel the difference. I feel like my mood has been a lot more stable since I started, so I think its worth a shot.

 

[RedFox]

Yeah, long story though to provide full info. Short version is I have historically had some other episodes like this but not this bad. Synopsis Went on E/E 100% (Mon. and Thu., plus nightly pipe and meditation) and 100% detox diet plus sauna and was doing absolutely great and noticing many benefits (this was after having spent months getting of strong doses of 2 meds that never did any good anyway). Then lots of things happened and over a period of 2 weeks was totally off the diet and most of the E/E and I went into a spiral down to where I can't muster the strength or enthusiasm for anything (even to get a job). I finally got to where I went on the diet again about 4 weeks ago (with great help from my wife -- this has been really hard on her) but haven't been doing all the supplements fully yet.

It seems the long and short of my life is never having the strength to overcome / persevere during hard times. Looking back it seems like I've only ever done things I've had some enthusiasm (if that is the proper term) for and never developed any strength otherwise (at least when I'm alone).

Hi Gaman
Sorry to hear your having a hard time of it, but its good to see you back :)
It might be worth considering that you may have gone too quickly into 100% E-E and 100% detox......detoxing too quickly will give a herxhimer reaction leeding to fatigue and mood problems (as all the toxins get stirred up in your system before elimination). The same with E-E it can have (or so it seems) a physical, mental and emotional reaction that's very similar.
Perhaps only doing the pipe breathing and POTS, or even just the POTS every night is all you need right now? I have only been doing the full program on and off the last few months, and even went a month without doing the full program at all. What I do stick to however is doing the pipe breathing and POTS every night before sleep.
So maybe this physical and mental crash is your bodies way of telling yourself 'too fast!'? A natural breaking system.....perhaps you could consider not taking it as a personal failure then? :)
Go easy and be gentle on yourself......this includes not beating yourself up for not previously being gentle on yourself!!!
One thing of note that has helped quite a lot (or so it seems) along with everything else in regard to my depression is vitamin D.

Oh, don't forget the thread Depression As A Stepping Stone (to Soul Growth)

Your doing fine

 

[gaman]

I think its also good to let your wife know that you're trying, even if you feel like you're not winning at the moment. When you recognize that your behavior is hard on her, I think she'll appreciate it if you say something like 'I know that I'm hard to be around right now, and I really don't mean it, but I want you to know that I'm working on it and that I appreciate your patience with me.'

That is one thing I thought to do and have done so a couple of times, but it is hard in one way because I feel like I'm making excuses and I've put her through so much already.

I hope you notice a difference after trying the 5HTP -- I started on it about 10 days ago, and I think I can feel the difference. I feel like my mood has been a lot more stable since I started, so I think its worth a shot.

I've been taking it steadily for the last couple of nights and I'm up to 300 mg tonight. I have noticed some change today, and even though I couldn't go to sleep until this morning and woke up often, I only slept until around noon and have felt better and been able to stay out of bed all day.

 

[gaman]

Hi Gaman
Sorry to hear your having a hard time of it, but its good to see you back :)
It might be worth considering that you may have gone too quickly into 100% E-E and 100% detox......detoxing too quickly will give a herxhimer reaction leeding to fatigue and mood problems (as all the toxins get stirred up in your system before elimination). The same with E-E it can have (or so it seems) a physical, mental and emotional reaction that's very similar.

Hey RedFox, thanks for the info. It especially didn't occur to me that the herx stuff could have negative mental and emotional (as opposed to physical) consequences although I should have gleaned that. One MAJOR thing I did wrong was let some bad circumstances cause me to drop the diet all the way at once and that had major consequences and sent me into a tail spin. I was doing so much better and the BOOM, when I stopped the diet and went back to eating crap I nose dived quick!

I appreciate all the support.