Intense Fight Or Flight Reaction

laleto12

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Joined
Nov 1, 2019
Messages
474
Hello guys, I am a 20 years old male.

And this is a cry for help. (I was actually writing a long a** story of my life but I got tired because English is not my native language so this is just a super short problem-focused questions. Maybe I will post that story one day when I feel ready)

3 years ago I was clearly over-exercising and undereating so I think one day I had a panic attack out of a super dumb situation and my heart is not the same since.

Its been 3 years not sure how to explain this but I "feel" my heart. Like its always there, beating. There were very bad times and there were good but especially these days I have this intense fight or flight reactions when I am stressed where my heart literally POUNDS and my hands and my feet shake, Armpits dripping sweat and my feet are freezing.

These feel like classic adrenaline situtations, I dont know what to do anymore, Its like everywhere.
I play games, I feel this, I try to drive a car, these symptoms again. But what really pissed me off lately, I have a new girlfriend that I like, but sex is kinda big deal for me because I was virgin till like a week ago, but when we try to have sex again I feel super stressed and therefore erectile dysfunction. Normally I have an OK libido and my erections are normal but when im with her i feel stressed to have sex my penis goes limp.

I feel extremely helpless I just dont want to live like this forever, I was always somekind of anxious but these symptoms are killing me.
Diet wise: I dabbled with various of diets but I realized that I am clearly an orthorexic person so these days I try to eat whatever I want (unless its full of PUFA and I try to eat nutritious foods) and to appetite (which is kinda low though).

Does anyone have any idea what I am experiencing? I clearly have some physical and psychological problems I know, but I just need a path to resolve these.
 

redsun

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2018
Messages
3,013
Hello guys, I am a 20 years old male.

And this is a cry for help. (I was actually writing a long a** story of my life but I got tired because English is not my native language so this is just a super short problem-focused questions. Maybe I will post that story one day when I feel ready)

3 years ago I was clearly over-exercising and undereating so I think one day I had a panic attack out of a super dumb situation and my heart is not the same since.

Its been 3 years not sure how to explain this but I "feel" my heart. Like its always there, beating. There were very bad times and there were good but especially these days I have this intense fight or flight reactions when I am stressed where my heart literally POUNDS and my hands and my feet shake, Armpits dripping sweat and my feet are freezing.

These feel like classic adrenaline situtations, I dont know what to do anymore, Its like everywhere.
I play games, I feel this, I try to drive a car, these symptoms again. But what really pissed me off lately, I have a new girlfriend that I like, but sex is kinda big deal for me because I was virgin till like a week ago, but when we try to have sex again I feel super stressed and therefore erectile dysfunction. Normally I have an OK libido and my erections are normal but when im with her i feel stressed to have sex my penis goes limp.

I feel extremely helpless I just dont want to live like this forever, I was always somekind of anxious but these symptoms are killing me.
Diet wise: I dabbled with various of diets but I realized that I am clearly an orthorexic person so these days I try to eat whatever I want (unless its full of PUFA and I try to eat nutritious foods) and to appetite (which is kinda low though).

Does anyone have any idea what I am experiencing? I clearly have some physical and psychological problems I know, but I just need a path to resolve these.

I had a history of undereating/crazy diets and exercising from when I was a teen (14-18). I always had high adrenaline symptoms. I would also try to lose fat and I would get even colder as I did it. I would also have crazy high anxiety anytime something stressful happen and this includes the crazy fast pounding heart, sweating palms, cold extremities...

I also took a lot of zinc (50mg) and I think this aggravated the problem (lowering iron). In the end, chronic dieting and fad diets means less absorption of iron because you are intaking less iron. Heavy exercise causes increased loss of iron (through sweat and especially if you do a lot of running, increased hemolysis of RBC).

Only after I started taking iron glycinate was I finally able to get some relief and calm down, feel warm, and have less anxiety and psychological overstimulatio/anxiety (stress). I also had problems with mental stamina and that improved as well.

In a nutshell, you are underfed and could be deficient in a lot of nutrients for sure but its going to take time to undue that. Feeding regularly spaced meals with plenty of carbohydrates. You should investigate possibility of low iron. I think its highly likely considering you have many risk factors. Iron will improve many things if you are truly iron deficient including anxiety.

Low iron can reduce GAD enzyme (makes GABA from glutamic acid), and also P5P (active B6) is a cofactor for this enzyme as well. It can also lead to a low dopamine, high adrenaline state. Dopamine is vital for controlling your mental state and thus keeping you tolerant to stress (reducing anxiety).

Low serum concentrations of vitamin B6 and iron are related to panic attack and hyperventilation attack - PubMed

Effect of latent iron deficiency on GABA and glutamate neuroreceptors in rat brain

Effect of Oral Iron Administration on Mental State in Children With Low Serum Ferritin Concentration

A good multivitamin would also be effective to help you get more vitamins in the diet and also trace minerals you could be low on as well. I highly recommend that alongside a diet with plenty of easy digestible carbohydrates and proteins to calm down your stress state.
 
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OP
laleto12

laleto12

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2019
Messages
474
I had a history of undereating/crazy diets and exercising from when I was a teen (14-18). I always had high adrenaline symptoms. I would also try to lose fat and I would get even colder as I did it. I would also have crazy high anxiety anytime something stressful happen and this includes the crazy fast pounding heart, sweating palms, cold extremities...

I also took a lot of zinc (50mg) and I think this aggravated the problem (lowering iron). In the end, chronic dieting and fad diets means less absorption of iron because you are intaking less iron. Heavy exercise causes increased loss of iron (through sweat and especially if you do a lot of running, increased hemolysis of RBC).

Only after I started taking iron glycinate was I finally able to get some relief and calm down, feel warm, and have less anxiety and psychological overstimulatio/anxiety (stress). I also had problems with mental stamina and that improved as well.

In a nutshell, you are underfed and could be deficient in a lot of nutrients for sure but its going to take time to undue that. Feeding regularly spaced meals with plenty of carbohydrates. You should investigate possibly of low iron. I think its highly likely considering you have many risk factors. Iron will improve many things if you are truly iron deficient including anxiety.

Low iron can reduce GAD enzyme (makes GABA from glutamic acid), and also P5P (active B6) is a cofactor for this enzyme as well. It can also lead to a low dopamine, high adrenaline state. Dopamine is vital for controlling your mental state and thus keeping you tolerant to stress (reducing anxiety).

Low serum concentrations of vitamin B6 and iron are related to panic attack and hyperventilation attack - PubMed

Effect of latent iron deficiency on GABA and glutamate neuroreceptors in rat brain

Effect of Oral Iron Administration on Mental State in Children With Low Serum Ferritin Concentration

A good multivitamin would also be effective to help you get more vitamins in the diet and also trace minerals you could be low on as well. I highly recommend that alongside a diet with plenty of easy digestible carbohydrates and proteins to calm down your stress state.
Thank you for your time and your response. Those symptoms that you mentioned are the same as mine.
I did a carnivore diet for 7 months and red meat is a staple of my diet for years so I dont know if I am deficient in iron, it could be if i cant absorb it but idk.

Sometimes meat makes me feel good sometimes it doesnt. TBH the food group that I crave the most is dairy nowadays, but when I overdo it, it causes me some problems so idk what to eat anymore. All of these dieting and placing an extreme amount of attention of how I look got me having a ***t*y relationship with food.

And when it comes to the supplements, oh god, I dont know how many supplements I have tried over years thinking; this time it might be "the cure" which it never was. So its super bad loop for me I just want to get rid all of supplements. Recently I think I took too much of "ray peat" supplements which probably lowered my estrogen a lot and I think I was having some problems due to that. So Once again, I've dropped all supplements. I just dont see much of a difference taking them anyway. The only ones that I can think of right now are Vitamin D which makes me insomniac and magnesium spray which makes me have vivid dreams. Other than that, among hundreds of various supplements, nothing.

Thanks!
 

redsun

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2018
Messages
3,013
Thank you for your time and your response. Those symptoms that you mentioned are the same as mine.
I did a carnivore diet for 7 months and red meat is a staple of my diet for years so I dont know if I am deficient in iron, it could be if i cant absorb it but idk.

Sometimes meat makes me feel good sometimes it doesnt. TBH the food group that I crave the most is dairy nowadays, but when I overdo it, it causes me some problems so idk what to eat anymore. All of these dieting and placing an extreme amount of attention of how I look got me having a ***t*y relationship with food.

And when it comes to the supplements, oh god, I dont know how many supplements I have tried over years thinking; this time it might be "the cure" which it never was. So its super bad loop for me I just want to get rid all of supplements. Recently I think I took too much of "ray peat" supplements which probably lowered my estrogen a lot and I think I was having some problems due to that. So Once again, I've dropped all supplements. I just dont see much of a difference taking them anyway. The only ones that I can think of right now are Vitamin D which makes me insomniac and magnesium spray which makes me have vivid dreams. Other than that, among hundreds of various supplements, nothing.

Thanks!

Thats good that you ate a lot of red meat. Problem is excess exercise will increase inflammation a lot and keep it high so with normal iron intake in the diet you can still end up low because absorption is strongly reduced. But if iron is okay, its possible copper is what is needed more. I still think it is at least iron and possibly copper. And a carnivore diet, if one does not eat liver regularly, is heavily skewed toward zinc so you can end up low on copper as a result of carnivore as well and this will negatively affect iron utilization.

Yeh I agree and feel your pain in regards to fad dieting and bad relatioships with food. In the end its best to curb our obsessive need for control via diet or other means and eat as normally as possible without restricting too much of anything. Too much dairy you screw yourself, too much fiber, too much this or that, you become progressively worse with time.
 
OP
laleto12

laleto12

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2019
Messages
474
Thats good that you ate a lot of red meat. Problem is excess exercise will increase inflammation a lot and keep it high so with normal iron intake in the diet you can still end up low because absorption is strongly reduced. But if iron is okay, its possible copper is what is needed more. I still think it is at least iron and possibly copper. And a carnivore diet, if one does not eat liver regularly, is heavily skewed toward zinc so you can end up low on copper as a result of carnivore as well and this will negatively affect iron utilization.

Yeh I agree and feel your pain in regards to fad dieting and bad relatioships with food. In the end its best to curb our obsessive need for control via diet or other means and eat as normally as possible without restricting too much of anything. Too much dairy you screw yourself, too much fiber, too much this or that, you become progressively worse with time.

Yeah problem with supplements when you take them they mess up with other things so I might be messed up totally lol :D
And I have eaten quite bit of liver when I was carnivore, and other organ meats as well. Its always some kind of an assuming game at this point which bums me out a lot.
 

redsun

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2018
Messages
3,013
Yeah problem with supplements when you take them they mess up with other things so I might be messed up totally lol :D
And I have eaten quite bit of liver when I was carnivore, and other organ meats as well. Its always some kind of an assuming game at this point which bums me out a lot.

Yes that's why blood tests to determine whether or not we need something are best and safest way route to improving ourselves and minimizing unwanted effects. I do get a good reset of my system and feel lighter and better when I take out everything that I take as a supplement. Maybe thats what you need, a good few weeks of only food.
 

Nomane Euger

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Joined
Sep 22, 2020
Messages
1,407
has you consider others factors,sleep,sunlight,increasing yourself esteem through praticing things that you care about and getting better at it?i used to get awfull heart feeling when i was making money on a certain video games,to the point where just thinking about it would trigger the heart feeling,a word related to the subject would trigger it.i stopped the game,occupied my mind with others things that interested me,took sun for the multiples benefits including the deep relaxating effect,it progresssivly disapear,also i think its relevant,when your though/feeling related to thjat manifest,let them pass,do not overeact and aggravate the reaction you get from it,as much as you can.good sleep,specifically good rem sleep,make me feel like i put things in the past,a streak of good night sleep always fix any emotional burden i carryed even for month sometimes
 
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