Hi there everybody,
I hope everybody's having a good day!
To cut a long story short, I've suffered from depression on and off since I was 12, along with OCD and pretty much constant anxiety, anger issues etc. I'm also struggling with finishing my Masters thesis because although I pretty much ignore my friends in an attempt to focus, don't use social networking, and sit in the space space for like 10 hours, much of that time is often lost due to disconnecting and going to a dreamworld in my head or else getting emotionally worked up about something and bursting into tears/having an anxiety-induced meltdown that takes hours of my concentration away.
I was diagnosed with Aspergers a few months back and did a lot of research in academic journals about the biochemical imbalances in people with autism, digestive difficulties, autonomic nervous system hyperarousal etc. and wondered if my depression and OCD was somehow related to the 'brain wiring' issue with autism. In an effort to avoid going on medication, as recommended by the psychologist who diagosed me and my doctor, I somehow wound up on the pheonix rising forum for chronic fatigue syndrome, which I don't have (I have a whole bucket of energy actually, not that I'd want to say that to them given their own tragic difficulties) and found an amazing thread from a lot of people pooling their experience and knowledge of supplements for anxiety, along with a lot of people saying they'd cured their lifelong mood issues. Anyway, seemingly for most of them, a big part of this has been resolving issues with the methylation cycle. A friend had mentioned this to me, after he himself recovered from ME and depression by following a methylation protocol, and many of the guys at Pheonix rising are clued up on Aspergers (a couple of them have told me they have it and many others there have sensory processing issues).
So anyway, I've been giving the supplements a bit of a try the past month, starting off with Inositol and vege Vitamin D3, Biotin, Probiotics, Lysine, Magnesium, Calcium that kind of stuff along with a teaspoon of turmeric in warm milk every day. I also started using an SAD machine at the end of the first week.
Within maybe a week of starting this I was feeling super happy for the first time in a long time, pretty chilled out... then I introduced vitamin B6 at 100mg and ended up in an emergency appointment at the doctor's after having a panic attack for the first time in my life (I was later told by people at Pheonix rising that many users there cannot handle B6 in large quantities and have to start off in very, very low doses - one guy told me he takes just 6mg per day precisely because it can trigger anxiety in higher amounts). I have since removed the B6 temporarily, to give my body some time to adapt to the other stuff before re-introducing it in low doses (it's needed for the methylation cycle) ).
I was also told that many people, i.e up to 50% of people have trouble absorbing folic acid due to mutations in the MTFHR gene, and 25% of people approximately cannot absorb it at all, so I began supplementing with its other, more absorbable form, folate, about a week ago, as it too is essential for methylation apparently.
At pheonix rising they also told me the vitamin B12 supplements I've been taking ever since the doctor told me my vitamin B12 is only just slightly above deficiency levels and that I have half the minimum number of platelets, were most likely ineffective, because cynanocobalymin is poorly absorbed by the body, and to take another type of B12, methylcobalymin, (which apparently I can't spell). Oh, and to keep a bottle of niacin handy to counter-act any 'overdoses' when starting up the methylation cycle.
So I stopped taking the crappy vitamin B12 and yesterday my 5000mcg of methyl B12 arrived in the post. I took 2 tablets yesterday and one today.
I feel seriously weird. I can honestly say I cannot remember the last time I was SO focussed. I mean I know having Aspergers we're like super fixated anyway, but this is a whole other level. It's like my brain has just totally calmed down and I am just super focussed, super efficient, working away on my thesis, barely distracted at all and totally unemotional. It's really soon to make any conclusions about the results though.
As Aspergers and CFS sufferers are obviously battling different conditions, I would really appreciate any experience/advice from anybody with Aspergers who has tried this stuff themselves (sorry, but if you want to give me your opinion on whether or not it should work in theory, I'm not interested - I've been through that whole convo re other issues. I am only interested in actual experience or fact-sharing, not speculative personal opinions, thankyou).
I have seen videos of parents on youtube getting B12 injections for their autistic kids, some of whom made miraculous improvements. I would be interested how these supplements have impacted people, if it has.
Thanks in advance!
09 Aug 2016, 12:45 pm
