Mental dysfunction, past Ritalin overuse

[Gfh]

I'm 22 years old (female), and I've struggled in various ways since I was a teenager. I have mental symptoms that are really hard to explain fully because they've changed overtime. I can't talk to people normally because of intrusive thoughts and intrusive emotions that make me lose control and do inappropriate things (like getting overly excited and talking in a really weird pitch or getting a facial spasm that looks like a creepy leer). Normally I feel like I'm not really thinking with my own brain -- when I "think" it's typically me subconsciously imagining someone else commenting on me and saying something really trite, like I'm thinking through a Reddit post (internet overuse does also play a role ...). I have ADHD, social phobia, and have been diagnosed with dysthymia. Some of my issues/experiences have made me think I might be on the spectrum. I had anorexia when I was 14 (which was the onset of some dysfunctional behavior/thought patterns), and selective mutism when I was 6-7 years old.

I've been considering a lot why I currently have these problems. I've had pretty bad IBS in the past, so it could be a gut issue. I also have posture issues (forward head, mild scoliosis, pain and tension when I try to stand straight ...). I guess the list could go on. But there are two possibilities that I think play a big role and one of them is my past use of Ritalin. When I was 11 or so my father started giving me Ritalin. I don't remember very clearly, but I think at one point he was giving me 3 (or maybe 4) pills a day. The pills weren't prescribed to me, but from a large stash that were meant for my brother, who refused to take them. I think I took them for a year or more but I don't remember exactly.

The other possible cause is that my maternal grandmother smoked through her pregnancies. My mom has some issues that are like mine, and my aunt has ADHD. My brother has ADHD, like me. If all my grandparents' descendants have this problem, there should be a connection, I think.

Some of what @Diokine has written here, especially about posture/nerves/inflammation makes me feel like there could be a connection ... Though I'm kind of all over the place since I don't really know what the cause is.

 

[Yann]

ADHD seems to be an enegy and/or hormone issue in front lobe of the brain. I think improving nutrition in general would help.

Pregnenolone & DHEA:
The frontal lobes of the brain are involved in focusing attention and planning, and these hormones [pregnenolone & DHEA] stabilize the major frontal lobe nerves. - Ray Peat

Pregnenolone:
Men and woman alike report feeling a profound mood of resilience and an increased ability to confront challenges successfully. - Ray Peat

Dopamine:
Making sense: Dopamine activates conscious self-monitoring through medial prefrontal cortex

Making sense: Dopamine activates conscious self-monitoring through medial prefrontal cortex - PubMed

When experiences become meaningful to the self, they are linked to synchronous activity in a paralimbic network of self-awareness and dopaminergic activity. This network includes medial prefrontal and medial parietal/posterior cingulate cortices, where transcranial magnetic stimulation may...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Vitamins A & D:
Serum Levels of Vitamin A and Vitamin D and Their Association With Symptoms in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Frontiers | Serum Levels of Vitamin A and Vitamin D and Their Association With Symptoms in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: To measure levels of vitamin A (VA) and vitamin D (VD) and the symptomatic association of their co-deficiencies on attention deficit hyperactivity...

www.frontiersin.org

Vitamin B6:
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a pyridoxine-dependent condition: urinary diagnostic biomarkers

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a pyridoxine-dependent condition: urinary diagnostic biomarkers - PubMed

The data obtained in children with different forms of epilepsy allowed us to consider epilepsy as an inborn error of pyridoxine (vitamin B6) metabolism (Dolina et al., 2012). Mutual interconnections between ADHD and epilepsy indicate that such an approach is reasonable for ADHD. To check such an...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Ignoramus]

Do you drink caffeine? Maybe try having a break and see if that helps. Cyproheptadine and a lot of sleep might be helpful. How is your sleep in general? Have you ever tried meditating?

 

[Gfh]

Do you drink caffeine? Maybe try having a break and see if that helps. Cyproheptadine and a lot of sleep might be helpful. How is your sleep in general? Have you ever tried meditating?

Nowadays I only occasionally drink coffee. I have gotten hyperactive by drinking it in the past ... but it's a different hyperactivity than what I normally experience.

I have tried Cyproheptadine. I'm not entirely sure why, but I stopped using it after a while. I don't remember it helping much, but maybe I should've tried different dosages.

I tend to sleep a lot when I can. Yesterday I went to sleep at 00:30 and woke up close to 11. When I have a lot to do, I tend to sleep much less because I need to stay up to get things done. But on most days, I sleep a lot. For several years as a teenager I was sleep deprived, either because of Ritalin or because of poor time management and the fact that I didn't think sleep was important.

I have tried meditating, but I don't like it much. It has helped, but it's been so difficult to build the habit that I've sort of decided against it. Also sometimes I literally do not know how to meditate. For example, if I tried to focus on the dantien, I would become really frustrated after a while when I start becoming aware that I don't know what it means to "focus" on it.

 

[Gfh]

ADHD seems to be an enegy and/or hormone issue in front lobe of the brain. I think improving nutrition in general would help.

Pregnenolone & DHEA:
The frontal lobes of the brain are involved in focusing attention and planning, and these hormones [pregnenolone & DHEA] stabilize the major frontal lobe nerves. - Ray Peat

Pregnenolone:
Men and woman alike report feeling a profound mood of resilience and an increased ability to confront challenges successfully. - Ray Peat

Dopamine:
Making sense: Dopamine activates conscious self-monitoring through medial prefrontal cortex

Making sense: Dopamine activates conscious self-monitoring through medial prefrontal cortex - PubMed

When experiences become meaningful to the self, they are linked to synchronous activity in a paralimbic network of self-awareness and dopaminergic activity. This network includes medial prefrontal and medial parietal/posterior cingulate cortices, where transcranial magnetic stimulation may...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Vitamins A & D:
Serum Levels of Vitamin A and Vitamin D and Their Association With Symptoms in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Frontiers | Serum Levels of Vitamin A and Vitamin D and Their Association With Symptoms in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: To measure levels of vitamin A (VA) and vitamin D (VD) and the symptomatic association of their co-deficiencies on attention deficit hyperactivity...

www.frontiersin.org

Vitamin B6:
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a pyridoxine-dependent condition: urinary diagnostic biomarkers

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a pyridoxine-dependent condition: urinary diagnostic biomarkers - PubMed

The data obtained in children with different forms of epilepsy allowed us to consider epilepsy as an inborn error of pyridoxine (vitamin B6) metabolism (Dolina et al., 2012). Mutual interconnections between ADHD and epilepsy indicate that such an approach is reasonable for ADHD. To check such an...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Thank you

 

[Ignoramus]

Nowadays I only occasionally drink coffee. I have gotten hyperactive by drinking it in the past ... but it's a different hyperactivity than what I normally experience.

I have tried Cyproheptadine. I'm not entirely sure why, but I stopped using it after a while. I don't remember it helping much, but maybe I should've tried different dosages.

I tend to sleep a lot when I can. Yesterday I went to sleep at 00:30 and woke up close to 11. When I have a lot to do, I tend to sleep much less because I need to stay up to get things done. But on most days, I sleep a lot. For several years as a teenager I was sleep deprived, either because of Ritalin or because of poor time management and the fact that I didn't think sleep was important.

I have tried meditating, but I don't like it much. It has helped, but it's been so difficult to build the habit that I've sort of decided against it. Also sometimes I literally do not know how to meditate. For example, if I tried to focus on the dantien, I would become really frustrated after a while when I start becoming aware that I don't know what it means to "focus" on it.

Maybe try the type of meditation where you just let all your thoughts go and exist in nothingness; have you tried that? Whenever a thought comes up you just let it go.

It sounds like you are an Ne type (enfp?). Maybe the goal should be to try and 'utilise' this way that your brain works, instead of fighting against yourself. Do you do creative work at all? Maybe you would have an advantage in these areas...

 

[Gfh]

Maybe try the type of meditation where you just let all your thoughts go and exist in nothingness; have you tried that? Whenever a thought comes up you just let it go.

It sounds like you are an Ne type (enfp?). Maybe the goal should be to try and 'utilise' this way that your brain works, instead of fighting against yourself. Do you do creative work at all? Maybe you would have an advantage in these areas...

I might try meditating like that. Somehow I overcomplicate things, which is not good for meditation.

I'm more familiar with the enneagram than MBTI -- I am an enneagram 4, which is also creative. But most of my creativity is "inward" and goes towards daydreams/fantasies. When I try to be artistic, I get stuck and become perfectionistic, which is miserable ...

 

[mostlylurking]

Multiple things point to a thiamine deficiency. I've had thiamine deficiency issues for over 60 years. I think my thiamine deficiency was initially caused by heavy metal toxicity via mercury amalgams placed in my mouth when I was 7-9. Do you have mercury amalgams? Heavy metals block thiamine function. These include: mercury, aluminum, lead, cadmium, arsenic.

I had anorexia when I was 14 (which was the onset of some dysfunctional behavior/thought patterns)

Prevalence of thiamin deficiency in anorexia nervosa - PubMed

and Thiamine deficiency secondary to anorexia nervosa: an uncommon cause of peripheral neuropathy and Wernicke encephalopathy in adolescence - PubMed

also:

How Can Something As Simple as Thiamine Cause So Many Problems? - Hormones Matter

Is thiamine deficiency too simple to explain the devastating nature of the systemic adverse reactions to some vaccines and medications?

www.hormonesmatter.com

I've had pretty bad IBS in the past, so it could be a gut issue.

IBS is linked to thiamine deficiency (TD). TD causes digestive tract problems by creating inadequacy of the autonomic nervous system; difficulty swallowing (lack of peristalsis), low stomach acid, slow to no peristalsis to move the food along the digestive tract, lack of digestive enzymes, and more. Likewise, gut disbiosis that lowers the absorption of nutrients lowers the available thiamine. Also, many prescription drugs, including many antibiotics, block thiamine function.

SIBO, IBS, and Constipation: Unrecognized Thiamine Deficiency? - Hormones Matter

Is it possible that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is simply a symptom of an underlying vitamin B1 or thiamine deficiency?

www.hormonesmatter.com

I also have posture issues (forward head, mild scoliosis, pain and tension when I try to stand straight ...).

I had scoliosis for over 25 years; I was diagnosed with a short leg and fitted with orthopedic shoes with a 5/8" shoe lift. It has now resolved and I am normal (age 71). I've read that thiamine deficiency can cause scoliosis by causing the electrical impulses that go down each side of the spine to not be equal, which results in curvature of the spine. This has to do with the autonomic nervous system which doesn't work properly if there is a thiamine deficiency.

What Is Scoliosis? - Hormones Matter

Is inefficient oxidative metabolism causing the exaggerated asymmetric outgoing signals to the body responsible for scoliosis?

www.hormonesmatter.com

Some of what @Diokine has written here, especially about posture/nerves/inflammation makes me feel like there could be a connection

These symptoms are classic thiamine deficiency symptoms.

Thiamine, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Pain - Hormones Matter

Research into fibromyalgia demonstrats mitochondrial dysfunction in muscle tissue, skin and white blood cells. Thiamine can correct this.

www.hormonesmatter.com

Here are some links to information about thiamine:

You searched for thiamine - Hormones Matter

www.hormonesmatter.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFqXidfUsI0vm73xsBMIQdQ Elliot Overton has wonderful educational videos about thiamine

I have also found the information on Dr. Costantini's website to be very helpful: HDT Therapy

 

[Gfh]

Multiple things point to a thiamine deficiency. I've had thiamine deficiency issues for over 60 years. I think my thiamine deficiency was initially caused by heavy metal toxicity via mercury amalgams placed in my mouth when I was 7-9. Do you have mercury amalgams? Heavy metals block thiamine function. These include: mercury, aluminum, lead, cadmium, arsenic.

Prevalence of thiamin deficiency in anorexia nervosa - PubMed

and Thiamine deficiency secondary to anorexia nervosa: an uncommon cause of peripheral neuropathy and Wernicke encephalopathy in adolescence - PubMed

also:

How Can Something As Simple as Thiamine Cause So Many Problems? - Hormones Matter

Is thiamine deficiency too simple to explain the devastating nature of the systemic adverse reactions to some vaccines and medications?

www.hormonesmatter.com

IBS is linked to thiamine deficiency (TD). TD causes digestive tract problems by creating inadequacy of the autonomic nervous system; difficulty swallowing (lack of peristalsis), low stomach acid, slow to no peristalsis to move the food along the digestive tract, lack of digestive enzymes, and more. Likewise, gut disbiosis that lowers the absorption of nutrients lowers the available thiamine. Also, many prescription drugs, including many antibiotics, block thiamine function.

SIBO, IBS, and Constipation: Unrecognized Thiamine Deficiency? - Hormones Matter

Is it possible that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is simply a symptom of an underlying vitamin B1 or thiamine deficiency?

www.hormonesmatter.com

I had scoliosis for over 25 years; I was diagnosed with a short leg and fitted with orthopedic shoes with a 5/8" shoe lift. It has now resolved and I am normal (age 71). I've read that thiamine deficiency can cause scoliosis by causing the electrical impulses that go down each side of the spine to not be equal, which results in curvature of the spine. This has to do with the autonomic nervous system which doesn't work properly if there is a thiamine deficiency.

What Is Scoliosis? - Hormones Matter

Is inefficient oxidative metabolism causing the exaggerated asymmetric outgoing signals to the body responsible for scoliosis?

www.hormonesmatter.com

These symptoms are classic thiamine deficiency symptoms.

Thiamine, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Pain - Hormones Matter

Research into fibromyalgia demonstrats mitochondrial dysfunction in muscle tissue, skin and white blood cells. Thiamine can correct this.

www.hormonesmatter.com

Here are some links to information about thiamine:

You searched for thiamine - Hormones Matter

www.hormonesmatter.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFqXidfUsI0vm73xsBMIQdQ Elliot Overton has wonderful educational videos about thiamine

I have also found the information on Dr. Costantini's website to be very helpful: HDT Therapy

Thank you for the insight and the resources. It seems to explain a lot. I've wondered why so many more issues came up after having anorexia.

I'm not sure whether I've had mercury amalgams, but I have had a metal crown when I was approx. 8 years old (not anymore).

I have been taking Allithiamine (by Ecological Formulas) and it has seemed to help. Recently I upped my dosage to 100mg/day. I think I'll experiment with going even higher. I hope that'll help ...

 

[mostlylurking]

Thank you for the insight and the resources. It seems to explain a lot. I've wondered why so many more issues came up after having anorexia.

I'm not sure whether I've had mercury amalgams, but I have had a metal crown when I was approx. 8 years old (not anymore).

I have been taking Allithiamine (by Ecological Formulas) and it has seemed to help. Recently I upped my dosage to 100mg/day. I think I'll experiment with going even higher. I hope that'll help ...

Have you had any root canals? What happened to the tooth with the metal crown? Dark fillings of unknown content are probably mercury amalgams. They are less expensive than composite fillings.

Part of my heavy metal load was caused by my mother's set of Club Aluminum cooking pots & pans. Old house dust during renovation work also contaminated me (with lead). It's helpful to carefully evaluate pretty much everything to ascertain if it is a source for heavy metals going forward. Antiperspirants, antacids, vaccines, prescription drugs, etc. It's important to protect yourself from further contamination.

I settled on taking high dose thiamine hcl after getting a headache from a single capsule of Allithiamine. I follow Dr. Costantini's protocol and it has made a huge difference in my life. It's my understanding (and experience) that thiamine hcl works just fine and does get into the brain but you have to take a much higher dose of it than the Allithiamine. If you are tolerating Allithiamine, that's great! It would be good to take the one without any excipients though.

Here's a video of Dr. Chandler Marrs discussing thiamine for your consideration:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKmiZkiEPI