Losing Faith In Ray Peat

[Xisca]

Are we too extreme? No because the mainstream are the extreme and hurtling towards extinction and we are trying to shift the course in a balanced direction.

One extreme leads to another....
After ruining lands, we decided to create national parks: both type of land exclude the human being!
No extreme agriculture = no nead for reserve for nature!

Apply the same for taking thyroid or progesterone or high levels of vitamines...
You can take zinc, and then learn that too much creates a problem with copper....
You can take too much calcium, and not enough greens for magnesium....

Modern people want to avoid sodium, big mistake ok, but if you take sodium more than to taste, you can have TOO MUCH sodium, and it also has consequences!

Then you learn more and more and find that it is increasingly difficult to get the balance.

 

[livesimply]

Yes, most here are way too extreme. Relax and simplify.

Health is a journey, and most problems can be reversed, but it's not going to happen overnight. Change one thing at a time and learn by trial and error. If you're changing everything at once, you won't be able to tell what's working from what isn't.

Totally agree with this!! Thanks for your SANE reply.

 

[schultz]

Have you ever considered leaving your job and staying home with your kids? You come across as being quite stressed. Is this the life you want? Do your kids go to school? Maybe they would benefit more from being with their mom and maybe you would benefit more from being with your kids?

(Don't take this as being judgmental as I don't know you and what your lifestyle is like. I'm just giving food for thought.)

 

[Xisca]

Now I tell you my story with RP, I was told as a child I would get diabetic if I went on eating sugar.
I ended at 50 on a low carb diet, though with lots of bananas....
No sugar, no grains and almost no starch, as my bananas are ripe.

I was REALLY better. Now I decide that I want my body to burn sugar, because I understood that my mother looked at sunflower as sun god!
But my guts are bad on carbs.... I still cannot have gluten, but the problem was more than gluten.
So, I tried sugar, and well not that bad but not that good. Tried rice and potatoes, well, same...
And then my guts started to protest.

So, one side good one side bad.
Then I also have the GAPS diet book.
Yes, I am not autistic, but I think I just escaped from birth.
And sugar is a big no, and hooney a big yes!

Now I eat as much honey as most people here eat sugar, and my belly says a big YEEEEEESSSSSS.
So I do not have to tske care of any belief, I have found my best sugar.
I used AT THE SAME TIME informations, and not only RP informations, AND my FELT SENSE.
My body knows something, and I cross my inside world without the outside world, to a guess that I try.

A half kilo pot of honey makes a 2 days supply.... for me.
RP proof, GAPS proof, Xisca proof.

My belly says yes, my mind says "probably raw honey has enough antioxidants and enzymes and anti-bacteria stuff, so that the bad bugs that would eat sugar and ferment it in my belly, CANNOT feast that much on honey"!

Then starch.

I love warm boiled potatoes with cold butter.
It melts and it makes like a baby puree in my mouth...
I can have some starch if taken with saturated fat.
I guess that the SF is protective, as hiding the glucose and making bugs job harder for feasting on it.
My best take is homemade mayonnaise, I can even make it with butter or coconut oil! Some olive oil is fine too.
Most people here I should not, but I produce avocados, and they help do the mayonnaise.

My carb problem seems to almost solved.
I wanted to show you my example of thinking after perceiving, and how I acted and tried.
Also hope some who are similar to me can have a short cut to what will be their solution.
And hope to help a future HappyMom!

 

[Such_Saturation]

That's because your mother never allowed you to get real dirty, like having mud baths. My kids were obsessed with digging. They were so adorable. The also loved the creepy crawlies. My youngest wanted to be an entomologist. They were convinced that there was gold to be found or precious gems. We also travelled around the country panning for gold and precious gems because of this obsession. I still have their rock collection. They would dig for hours on end in the backyard, at school and local creeks looking for their precious treasure. They are still playing with big earth machines for their living?

I worked surrounded by instrumentation and I was sick from the positive charge build-up in my body. I would have images about rolling in wet mud. I did not understand the relevance of these images. It was only when I started gardening barefoot and look at the science that I realised that it was my body's cry for negative charges. It feels so blissful. Sunshine and soil on the skin. I swear my need for food could be decreased by substituting food for light and soil. Not that I am advocating this as a new fad for people to attempt. I just know it feels good for me and it felt so healing when my body was so inflamed.

No I did get real dirty, it's the gardening that would have been stressful.

 

[Daniel11]

Mothers are truly the real unsung heroes of this world!!

Have you tried working with the Red Light Therapy, i was on NDT and other hormones for over 3 years, after using the Red Light for short time i was able to get completely off the the NDT and other hormones, i also no longer take any vitamins and i feel wonderful. Other people on the forum have talked about how the Red Light has changed their life.

The spectrum of light, its focus and power are key to its effects, i hold over the thyroid for 5-8 minuets, then over face, eyes and forehead for another 3-8 minuets.

The specific light i use is called Red Light Mini, from Red Light Man.

Red Light Device Mini - Red Light Man

Here is link to info about using the red light for healing the Thyroid.

Light therapy improves hypothyroidism - Red Light Man

I have been studying light therapy for years, this was the first device made properly with the right nanometer range in the visible light spectrum and enough energy.

 

[StrongMom]

Mothers are truly the real unsung heroes of this world!!

Have you tried working with the Red Light Therapy, i was on NDT and other hormones for over 3 years, after using the Red Light for short time i was able to get completely off the the NDT and other hormones, i also no longer take any vitamins and i feel wonderful. Other people on the forum have talked about how the Red Light has changed their life.

The spectrum of light, its focus and power are key to its effects, i hold over the thyroid for 5-8 minuets, then over face, eyes and forehead for another 3-8 minuets.

The specific light i use is called Red Light Mini, from Red Light Man.

Red Light Device Mini - Red Light Man

Here is link to info about using the red light for healing the Thyroid.

Light therapy improves hypothyroidism - Red Light Man

I have been studying light therapy for years, this was the first device made properly with the right nanometer range in the visible light spectrum and enough energy.

Yeah, i have been researching red light therapy recently but was a bit overwhelmed by the range if products in the market. I am more than willing to try that product! Thanks

Thanks everyone for the strong feedback; i am still in the process of digesting all, will reply.

I always love the responses from mothers: most reasonable, understanding and balanced...

 

[Lucenzo01]

Maybe you shoud try the aminoacid protocol posted by haidut. It can be a good way to start, trying to eat easily digested foods, Some fat-soluble vitamins in the right ratio are always good-specially A and E. Good luck.

 

[InChristAlone]

I disagree that supplements aren't useful if diet isn't perfect. Things like ascorbic acid and niacinamide have shown much good for people no matter the diet. Just because diet isn't awesome doesn't mean they won't help you.

 

[bluewren]

Great post, @Daniel11

 

[Ashoka]

I can't say I'm much of anyone to give out advice, but here's my thinking. In many fundamental ways, Ray Peat has similarities to other dietary advice out there. He does stress food quality for instance, and in many examples, variety. In fact he has a concept of variety in his thinking many other health figures don't allow, so especially if you feel stressed with limiting certain types of food, it may not be worth it. (I agree that much of what he suggests can seem restricted as well, but that isn't how I understand it as applied to concrete situations.) What are some more general things that many people even outside Peat circles agree on? Getting enough calories and protein, light exposure, safe supplements, stress reduction. There is no truly dogmatic element here: each element of your diet can be interpreted on its own basis according to your own experience and your own feelings. There is also a persistent attitude towards learning throughout all this, I believe.

Otherwise it's hard for me to even guess without knowing more about you, but it seems that you've been hypothyroid for a while and that you often have a lot "going on": children, full-time job, health difficulties. I'm not trying to totally write off a lack of progress, but let's say the first year of RP is mostly learning and getting it wrong. Then you've had two more years of probably improving on that but still with some important errors. There are surely many things you haven't tried, or haven't given a second chance. Working through doubt is itself part of the challenge before us, because its physical manifestation is anxiety. We are necessarily committed to a long term process of growth, or understanding the potential for our recovery and developing this faith you say is now missing. In my own experience improvements seem to occur at a slower pace, although this isn't necessarily the case either.

 

[StrongMom]

I guess I said "faith" even without thinking about it that deeply, but it is true. RP and his work were the things keeping me alive and giving me hope in life after having two sick kids, a broken marriage, my own health issues, a stressful job, etc. I cannot quit my job; I am the bread winner for the family. I might reconsider changing my job though. When i have so many things going on, chaning my job by itself looked very stressful. But perhaps that is the only thing at this point I can change.

The other thing I always wondered is how your family and friends are thinking about RP's work? Are they supportive? I am alone in this journey. My husband does not believe or care; he thinks that I am wasting time in the kitchen, doesn't like the food I cook. He always wants to go and eat something unhealthy. RP lifestyle itself distanced us apart, at least contributed. Moreover, he is constantly sabotaging the RP diet I provide to the boys when I am not around; I just cannot trust him. What is worse, whenever something goes wrong with the boys, i take the blame. It is always because of the food or medice I give to the boys. Even though things might take time and improve over time, nobody around me is giving me chances to make mistakes. I can make mistakes on my own body and suffer from it, that is fine, but if it is your child, there is no room for a mistake. I already question myself, try to read and improve, but when you hear that especially from people very close to you, it hurts.

I don't have any relative living nearby. Sometimes my mom comes and stays with us to help. She does help, but again she does not believe in the RP lifestyle. My parents and/or my husband all have very starch based diets and there is no way I can make them understand or respect me. It is much easier when you are alone but when you have kids it is really complicated. @Ella @schultz @livesimply @Dessert_All_Day

 

[Ella]

I am alone in this journey.

Those of us that choose the path less trodden have always and will always feel like a lone wolf howling into the wind. Your husband is an ignorant man and juvenile. It seems you have three boys to contend with Don't punish yourself for this man's ignorance. Women are blessed with incredible strength. Don't allow him to break your spirit. He may be on the autism spectrum himself gauging by his lack of empathy and clearly does not recognise how hard you are working to look after your children's financial and health needs.

Why is he not providing financial support to the children and yourself?

How does he justify feeding junk or a substandard diet to children on the autism spectrum? Why does he not understand or your mother understand that these children have very clear and specific nutritional demands?

How can they object to feeding children high quality and nutritionally dense foods? Yes, I understand it is whole other ballgame when children enter the equation but I don't understand this great divide between your husband on what the children should be eating. It's not like you are advocating some bizarre food fad.

RP lifestyle itself distanced us apart, at least contributed. Moreover, he is constantly sabotaging the RP diet I provide to the boys when I am not around; I just cannot trust him.

but again she does not believe in the RP lifestyle.

What is a RP lifestyle?? What precisely do they object to? The problem is that there is something clearly wrong with your husband in that he does not support you financially and emotionally choosing to place an enormous amount of energy in undermining your efforts in being a dutiful and responsible mother.

Clearly, this man does not have yours and the children's best interests at heart. If this man remains under your roof, you must distance yourself emotionally from him. Recognise that he is the problem. The best advice I can give you is to make sure that you are in charge of your finances. Leaving him as you said is complicated. Open a bank account that he does not know about and put money into it and don't touch it. If you are the only one working, you don't want to be funding his lifestyle if he is not contributing and worse making your life difficult and miserable. What usually happens with these men, is that as soon as they see that you are immune to their emotional sabotage, they either weaken (because it scares the ***t out of them) or become more vicious in attacking your good efforts. He is feeding off your energy and this may be the reason why your health is failing. You need to cut off his energy supply.

Toxic people are more damaging than any other toxin that you are likely to encounter in the environment. Toxic people are coming from such a low energy state and it is this state that attracts them to high energy people. They will suck the life force from you if you are not strong.

I am truly sorry for your predicament and we can spin our wheels trying to find solutions and sometimes; time is the only solution.

High starch diet is not necessarily bad and if devoid of pufa can be very healthy. If your boys tolerate starch from potatoes and bread (sourdough) and have no issues, then they will be fine. I am guessing, these are not the carbs you meant - probably those dreaded chips fried in oil

A high carbohydrate diet will demand higher Vitamin B levels. Not isolated B vitamins but whole food B vitamins. Liver is an excellent source of whole food b vit and much more. If you have removed gluten and grains from the diet, then you should be giving them more liver and greens. I know you already know this. If they are flapping their arms then their B requirements will be higher.

In autism we see an imbalance between zinc and copper. This arises from high copper levels and inadequate zinc levels in the mother. A likely scenario is that of a mother following a vegan diet. Zinc is highly bioavailable in red meat, oysters, shellfish while copper is very high in vegan type diet. Also the lack of sulfur proteins will inhibit liver detoxification processes. This is why foods like milk, cheese, egg yolks (especially raw yolks), meats, organ meats, shellfish and gelatin are so beneficial for detoxification. Also if we can dampen inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, we slow down the loss of minerals like zinc and selenium. Patricia Kane's research shows a 4 to 1 ratio of omega 6-3, while RP states at 1 to 1 ratio with plenty of cholesterol in the diet.

Again I caution at trying to supplement especially when it comes to correcting the zinc/copper ratio. You need to be doing labs as you need to know what you are dealing with. Over-supplementation is a far more dangerous state than a deficiency state. In a deficiency state, cells and enzymes can adapt by using less preferred metals.

If the only testing you do for your boys is to optimise zinc and copper you would have achieved a lot in upgrading their health.

If their copper level is high; their behaviour will be over the top. The behaviour in adults is scary enough and adults understand what is going on. Tiny children have no idea why they are feeling off and trying to rationalise with them does not work. If there is tension between father and mother, they will pick up on this and .may seek to stay in their private little world rather than engage.

Have faith in that your children will grow up strong and robust. The life-force in humans especially tiny ones is beyond comprehension. This is the reason I place enormous value in the life-force and not synthetic dead things like supplements. I have witnessed tiny little prem babies no bigger than the palm of your hand grow strong and sturdy. Babies that have had tragic beginnings, like the little girl whose wedding I attended a year ago; was born with all her internal organs outside her body. She is a mother herself now. Gave birth to a little boy in January. Children don't come to us equipped with a manual. Parents make mistakes all the time and some parents make really bad mistakes. Mother nature knows humans are stupid and makes allowances for mistakes and is very forgiving. That life-force is greater than anything we know in this universe. So place more faith in your abilities as a mum; your radar and intuition are solid. Please know, I did not intend to overwhelm you. Address what is the priority in your life - looking after yourself first and foremost.

More importantly, don't mention anything about RP to your husband or mother. If he tries to attack you, don't take the bait. Walk away, say you need to run an errand, don't be in the same space. Don't play ball with him and see how he responds. Find a space that makes you feel safe, even if it is in your car listening to music. Walk around the block. This way you cut off his energy supply and conserve your own and get some exercise and headspace.

Is your husband at home minding the children while you work? Is this why you don't trust him? It is hard to understand exactly what role your husband has and you don't need to explain. I am just concerned for your welfare.

 

[James IV]

You don't NEED supplements to heal. Most sick people don't digest enough quality food to properly utilize many minerals anyway, so adding supps may make things worse. Any metabolic enhancement supplement like thyroid or caffeine, will only require more food.

Make sure to have a constant supply of carbohydrate all day and night. This is the most important thing you can do. No supplement will help if you do not have a steady supply of dietary energy. Eat lighter if you are in the go, so digestion will be complete and efficient. If you need to eat a few bites every hour, so be it. Fruit is an easy option for this since it's portable and easy to digest. But small amounts of starch can work too. Just don't eat so much that it makes you sleepy, unless you have time to sleep. Fighting sleepiness is stressful. If you must go hours without food.
Eat some fat with your carbs to keep the sugar in the blood longer.

At the end of the day, when you have time to relax and digest, eat a large meal or two, with lots of protein, but also plenty of carbs and fat. A "regular" meal. This will keep your cells supplied through the stress of nighttime.

Do this EVERYDAY for a few weeks and you will begin to see improvements. If you miss meals or let yourself get hunfmgry or worn down, you will set yourself back days, if not a week, in healing.

 

[Daniel11]

Sleep ~ Red Light ~ Psychology

Neuroscience has made great leaps in understanding the brain in the last few years, one thing is known for sure that when we sleep the brain is very active, during sleep is a time of the great neurogenesis.

Research in to what is happening when we are dreaming has revealed some amazing information.

When we sleep our brain is not being bombarded with sensory information that is coming from outside your brain, instead your brain is generating the sensory experience itself, its hallucinating.

The first stage of dreaming when we first fall asleep is called hypnagogic dreaming, then there is deep sleep dreaming and the third stage just before we wake up is called hypnopompic dreaming.

We are thinking during all stages of dreaming, though mostly unconscious. During REM sleep dreaming is when we have the dreams we remember most.

The name for this stage of sleep REM (rapid eye movement) comes from the fact that during it our eyes are darting left and right underneath are eyelids, as if we are seeing life events unfold in our minds eye.

When we enter REM sleep large waves of electrical activity wash over the brain. In scientific exploration of dreams, one idea is that dreams play a roll in memory consolidation, firming up memories of things that are important to us and erasing irrelevant information.

Sleep on a whole is involved in this process, but the part that dreams play a roll in this integral process is just starting to be understood.

Dreams are a way by which the brain can integrate traumatic or emotional material with more neutral memories, weaving the information together, thereby decreasing the emotional response to the content of the trauma.

This stage of REM sleep plays a key roll in consolidating these memories, when they are consolidated they are more easily recalled especially when they resulted from negative experiences. There is a connection between REM sleep and emotional remembering,

REM sleep is the time of night when the brain cells that pump neurotransmitters involved in mood regulation are most strongly inhibited. That means that during REM sleep when we are most likely to dream, our brain contains only low levels of the chemicals that signal anxiety and other emotion states, at the same time there is an increased activity in the brain that encode, consolidated and retrieve emotional memories.

There is also increased activity in the cells that provide the body with acetylcholine a neurotransmitter that acts as a neuromodulator with a large number of functions including arousal and attention, during REM sleep there is more acetylcholine produced then any other stage. Effected are the amygdala and hippocampus along with other regions in the brain of the limbic system that are the seat of our emotional life, especially when it comes to memories.

REM sleep brain waves look a lot like they do when we are awake and alert, the amount of time we spend in REM sleep increases through the night with the longest amount of time just before we wake up.

Dreaming plays an important role in our processing of emotions, During REM sleep our brains work through past emotional experiences stripping away the anxiety and stress from the semantic content, leaving us the useful information that we want to take away from the experience.

Dreaming takes a messy emotional memory washes away the fear inducing parts and leaves a clean readable trace, one that is more emotionally neutral in its place.

Evidence points to the fact that limbic regions of the brain that contain emotional memories are very active during REM sleep and that mood related neurotransmitters are at there lowest levels, this combination suggest that we relive our memories but we don't feel the emotions they contain when we dream. At the same time when we are heathy and dreaming are brains are low with adrenaline and full of acetylcholine a neurotransmitter the titrates and modulates our attentional system, that means the memory can be reactivated and strengthened and dissociated from the emotion.

When ones endocrine system is stressed most often from an under-active thyroid, the adrenaline levels do not drop during dreaming. When we are healthy and dream, levels of adrenaline and norepinephrine are low, that allows are brains to process the days events stripping away emotions from the content of the experience.

If the dream process is interrupted we tend to experience the same emotions over and over, even during waking hours, in the context of a past events this is not adaptive and is one of the least comfortable human experiences.

Sleep is a time when we should be producing biochemicals that help us relax and heal our bodies, instead when our endocrine system is stressed we are doing just the opposite.

“The healing abilities of our brain is less effective because our adrenaline levels are still high, when the brain replays the traumatic event, the association between the content of the memory and aversive visceral physical reaction gets strengthened rather then weakened every night.”

When we do not get enough sleep or have lots of interrupted sleep it decreases the amount of REM sleep dream time, and is part of the cause for much of the range of uncomfortable emotional feelings we human beings experience.

I have found and i have seen with many others that shining the red light for 5-10 minuets over the eyes, lower and upper forehead, behind the ears and over temples about 3-5 inches away and sometimes pressing against those areas, helps clear uncomfortable emotions and feelings similar to what REM sleep dreaming does, thereby also acting as a potent antidepressant and excellent for anxiety. Also just great for positive happy feelings in general.

The red light may also stimulate neurogenesis and of course we should work to heal our thyroid and have proper nutrition all contributing to a good a nights sleep and all the benefits that come with that.

The combination of shining the Red Light on the Thyroid for 5-8 min then the face and head area for 3-8 min 1 2 times a day, very quickly produces positive changes in the body and mind.

Kids, Moms even Dads enjoy the beautiful spectrums of color the light emits.

Red Light Device Mini - Red Light Man

*Main Source for the information on the science of dreaming is from the lectures; Lessons from Neuroscience, by Professor Indre Viskontas. University of San Francisco, San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is adjunct professor of Psychology at the University of San Francisco and holds a PHD in Cognitive Neuroscience from UCLA.

 

[schultz]

I guess I said "faith" even without thinking about it that deeply, but it is true. RP and his work were the things keeping me alive and giving me hope in life after having two sick kids, a broken marriage, my own health issues, a stressful job, etc. I cannot quit my job; I am the bread winner for the family. I might reconsider changing my job though. When i have so many things going on, chaning my job by itself looked very stressful. But perhaps that is the only thing at this point I can change.

The other thing I always wondered is how your family and friends are thinking about RP's work? Are they supportive? I am alone in this journey. My husband does not believe or care; he thinks that I am wasting time in the kitchen, doesn't like the food I cook. He always wants to go and eat something unhealthy. RP lifestyle itself distanced us apart, at least contributed. Moreover, he is constantly sabotaging the RP diet I provide to the boys when I am not around; I just cannot trust him. What is worse, whenever something goes wrong with the boys, i take the blame. It is always because of the food or medice I give to the boys. Even though things might take time and improve over time, nobody around me is giving me chances to make mistakes. I can make mistakes on my own body and suffer from it, that is fine, but if it is your child, there is no room for a mistake. I already question myself, try to read and improve, but when you hear that especially from people very close to you, it hurts.

I don't have any relative living nearby. Sometimes my mom comes and stays with us to help. She does help, but again she does not believe in the RP lifestyle. My parents and/or my husband all have very starch based diets and there is no way I can make them understand or respect me. It is much easier when you are alone but when you have kids it is really complicated. @Ella @schultz @livesimply @Dessert_All_Day

I understand now why you need to work. When you said in a different post that your husband worked as well, I assumed he was making decent money.

The man you are with now, he is the one that is part of the "broken marriage", as you put it? If you have problems with your relationship then that can disturb every other aspect of your life. I don't want to presume too much, but I could see this being your main issue. Your partner should help remove some of the burden from life, not add to it. Together you support each other. Though again, I don't want to make too many assumptions on what your marriage is currently like.

Stress can cause a lot of health problems. If you're stressed out a lot I am sure your kids can sense it and it may be affecting them as well. You should work on every aspect of your life that causes you stress, starting with the easy things. Taking part of one day a week to organize meals, like some other members mentioned, could be one way you cut down on stress. In the past I would write down what we would eat for dinner for the entire week and that way I could go out and get all the ingredients for those meals in one day and know exactly what we were going to have. This way I didn't have to scramble to do it each night and try to come up with things day of. If there are leftovers then that takes care of one meal for the next day as well.

Does your husband have any interest in health at all?

Reading over my response here, it comes across as though I am lecturing you or something (or maybe I'm being self-conscious). I did not think of it like that when I wrote it, but was hoping it came across as advice, or not even that but 2 equals merely discussing. An outside perspective can sometimes help I suppose.

Your kids have a mom who seems to be trying very hard, and they are lucky for that.
Good luck with everything.

 

[Ashoka]

The other thing I always wondered is how your family and friends are thinking about RP's work? Are they supportive? I am alone in this journey.

I think given your situation, maybe in the future it makes sense to not explicitly talk about RP to friends/family unless they're open to it. I think if people attach the information you give to a specific personality (Ray Peat) they're more inclined to believe it's some kind of cultish knowledge, right? What I partly tried to express above is that plenty of the information and knowledge that's discussed here is already known: food quality, eating sufficiently, the importance of certain foods like organ meats, not using vegetable oils, etc this is widely acknowledged. So there's no point even saying half this information is Ray Peat's - he simply puts a lot of it together in a coherent way so that, basically, we can do more with it. As Ella said, it's not as if you're advocating a bizarre food fad. When in the future this comes up, perhaps you can let friends/family know that many of these basic things are well-established these days. In general, it's worth changing one's language as a persuasive technique. Despite that type of persuasive technique, it can still be difficult. It helps if you can get a doctor to corroborate some of the more specific interventions like supplements.

 

[StrongMom]

Well, after reading all those supportive posts, I couldn't sleep last night. I decided to take the morning off in the middle of the night, but couldn't sleep in the morning either. I don't know what to say or do. Rationally I need to get a divorce I guess, but again it is complicated. He is helping me in so many other ways; I cannot image managing the life with two little kids by myself. For example, night-times. I suffer from insomnia, as you might know from my other posts. One of my boys wake up and many times cry for something ridiculous. Then he wants to sleep with me or my husband; my husband sleeps with him so that I can get some sleep. When you have insomnia, it is very difficult to manage night-time awakening of children. Many times I do quite well diet-wise or supplement-wise and fall into sleep, but once they wake up crying, it is very hard for me to go back to sleep, stress just hits me.

 

[InChristAlone]

I hear ya on the sleep situation. I went 2 yrs nursing my baby every 2 hrs. It nearly killed me, I didn't have much left to give anyone after that but for some strange reason I carried on nursing, but I did night wean so I could manage to get my health back, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have been bed bound. I slept in a different room and my husband took care of the one that doesn't sleep well when I'm around. So I hear ya on not wanting to give up the help during the night. Do cherish your sleep even if it means staying in an unhappy marriage I think the support is necessary for stressed Moms, either that or find a relative you could move in with? But still you'd have to figure out night time. Sometimes cosleeping can solve issues, but with my one child I cannot sleep next to him at all. We wake each other up because he has to be right next to me. My other one I can sleep with every night. Have you tried cyproheptadine? it's been my godsend I've been on it 6 months and I can't count how many times I slept soundly as compared to waking up with adrenaline when I wasn't on it. It does wipe you out at first, but that feeling goes away for the most part if you push through. I also tape my mouth shut because mouth breathing can also wake me up in a panic.

 

[StrongMom]

I hear ya on the sleep situation. I went 2 yrs nursing my baby every 2 hrs. It nearly killed me, I didn't have much left to give anyone after that but for some strange reason I carried on nursing, but I did night wean so I could manage to get my health back, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have been bed bound. I slept in a different room and my husband took care of the one that doesn't sleep well when I'm around. So I hear ya on not wanting to give up the help during the night. Do cherish your sleep even if it means staying in an unhappy marriage I think the support is necessary for stressed Moms, either that or find a relative you could move in with? But still you'd have to figure out night time. Sometimes cosleeping can solve issues, but with my one child I cannot sleep next to him at all. We wake each other up because he has to be right next to me. My other one I can sleep with every night. Have you tried cyproheptadine? it's been my godsend I've been on it 6 months and I can't count how many times I slept soundly as compared to waking up with adrenaline when I wasn't on it. It does wipe you out at first, but that feeling goes away for the most part if you push through. I also tape my mouth shut because mouth breathing can also wake me up in a panic.

I have not tried cypro; i am not ready to try another supplement, especially one causing weight gain at this point. I take benadryl, it helps most of the time, but i guess last time the stress level was too high. My son sucks his pillow when sleeping, it is very hard to sleep with him with this constant sucking noise.

Mouth taping is one thing I was totally alienated when I mentioned to my husband and parents. I am, myself, scared as I have LERD, silent reflux, the reflux goes all the way up towards the windpipe. Sometimes I wake up like choking. I am not sure if mouth taping does anything to that but i am just scared. This reflux thing is something I did to myself after the RP. I figured I need to eat before going to bed. Over time, before bed snacking turned to something more than a meal, like around 1000 cals. I developed a fear that if i don't eat a lot before going to bed, i am not going to make through the night. I am just working on it, just trying to reduce the amount at least.