Severe depression : I beg you to help me 🙏

[Diogo]

Hello @French.cat , I´m on the same boat as you, except for the suicidal thoughts.

What have helped me was first trying to reduce serotonin(which for me it helped the most Creatine), still haven´t tried good Pregnenolone but I´ve been using Aspirin for some time now and everytime I take one, I feel very calm.

It increases Allopregnenolone in the brain due to PPAR activation.


Thyroid(T3) really helped also but ir needs to be taken intermittently. In my case, whenever I start drionking coffee non stop and my eyes are bulging out a bit, I know I have to take thyroid.

The hard part in all of this would be to ocupy your mind. Do you have any tangible goals? Something you would like to do, perhaps a little something you used to like as a child/kid but with time passing by you ended up leaving it behind?



I was always that kid who wanted to know more, try more, achieve more but never could because I could simply not concentrate.

Always had that little flame calling for me to read but I could never focus on what was written because my vision would start to be blurred.

All this combined with severe depression, no parents around, extreme bullying and, not to later on, alcoholism, gave me a soup of despair but

I never lost hope!

Focused a lot on things neurogenesis, learning a craft that stimulates my mind.

After 1 year of neurogenesis, I am 1000% better, am on my 3rd book since(only started actually trying to actively read for 3 months now, not the full year), which the lhe current is from Victor Hugo.


Old me could read 2 full phrases with difficulty on a very good day and now I´m reading Victor Hugo.



NEVER GIVE UP

 

[Metabolism_Red]

goats milk, grass fed ground beef, pregnenolone (i use haiduts stressnon 5-10 mgs on wrist), lifting, nature walks, coffee, redbull, nicotine, sunlight, prayer, music, dance. Most of all, leave toxic environments and spend more time in nature. Its unbelievable how much of a negative effect toxic people can have on our mental health. My mother is also toxic and i feel like a different person when she is not around me.

 

[French.cat]

iHerb ships pregenenolone to France (MRM's is micronized and works well). (Though you may not be in France come to think of it..) This has been a game-changer for a couple of my female clients with mood issues (some were pretty severe). I would start there. It does sound like you have a gut issue, so that would definitely be the first area I would look into addressing ASAP.

Thanks again for your advice @chrstn4o. What would you recommand to start with ? I was thinking of 50 mg daily, up to 400. I truly have all the symptoms of oestrogen dominance so I think that could help a lot.

 

[chrstn4o]

Thanks again for your advice @chrstn4o. What would you recommand to start with ? I was thinking of 50 mg daily, up to 400. I truly have all the symptoms of oestrogen dominance so I think that could help a lot.

Can't recommend an amount to you but I've seen women get really good results with 50 to 100 per day, split over morning and evening meals. I'm personally also experimenting with topical preg in a mix with ethanol and caprylic acid and that seems to have a very positive effect on mood and sense of wellbeing. Also if you haven't used EFT/tapping yet, I would start using the technique daily on all unproductive emotions that arise. Search YouTube for: Dawson church basic EFT recipe. A video explaining how to do it will come up.

 

[Herbie]

@French.cat
I found that listening to interviews with Ray Peat always made me feel that everything would be ok and everything would get better in life. He emitted a sense of hope and stability and that there is plenty of opportunitie to make up for lost time.

 

[French.cat]

Can't recommend an amount to you but I've seen women get really good results with 50 to 100 per day, split over morning and evening meals. I'm personally also experimenting with topical preg in a mix with ethanol and caprylic acid and that seems to have a very positive effect on mood and sense of wellbeing. Also if you haven't used EFT/tapping yet, I would start using the technique daily on all unproductive emotions that arise. Search YouTube for: Dawson church basic EFT recipe. A video explaining how to do it will come up.

Thank you for the answer. I'll start with 50 mg of pregnenolone on a daily basis, then 100 mg, and raise it over time to see what's best for me.
I'll also buy thyroid glandular supplement as recommended. Those two, with magnesium, are gonna be my health starter :)
I also eat waaaaay to much PUFA's so I need to cut them down for fighting oestrogen dominance. Thanks again, to everybody !!

 

[French.cat]

@French.cat
I found that listening to interviews with Ray Peat always made me feel that everything would be ok and everything would get better in life. He emitted a sense of hope and stability and that there is plenty of opportunitie to make up for lost time.

I totally agree

 

[chrstn4o]

Thank you for the answer. I'll start with 50 mg of pregnenolone on a daily basis, then 100 mg, and raise it over time to see what's best for me.
I'll also buy thyroid glandular supplement as recommended. Those two, with magnesium, are gonna be my health starter :)
I also eat waaaaay to much PUFA's so I need to cut them down for fighting oestrogen dominance. Thanks again, to everybody !!

Don't forget copper is very often elevated in depression, and in women in general. If you haven't eaten much meat in your life I'd consider zinc as essential as Mg. Also don't forget you need to balance Mg with calcium.

 

[French.cat]

Don't forget copper is very often elevated in depression, and in women in general. If you haven't eaten much meat in your life I'd consider zinc as essential as Mg. Also don't forget you need to balance Mg with calcium.

I drink 1L of milk and eat 50 gr (at least) of cheese everyday ! So I guess I'm good with calcium :) And I was keto not long ago so I am bored with meat now ^^ I have chicken or red meat (little portion like 100 gr) once a day but I'll buy some bone broth to drink with!

 

[Vileplume]

Hey @French.cat, do you have access to goat’s milk? Like you and others in this thread, I felt like I was falling apart and couldn’t digest anything, for a few years. The most easily digestible food I’ve ever had is goat’s milk (raw or pasteurized) and I’ve healed a lot by making goat milk most of my diet.

 

[Peater]

Have you tried something like a Red Bull with a salty meal or snack? Sorry you are going through this but there are some amazingly intelligent and compassionate people on this forum.

 

[mostlylurking]

I had anorexia at 13 for two years, and bulimia nervosa from age 20 to 28. Later on, in 2015, I've been diagnosed with ADHD and Anxiety.

All of these (bulimia nervosa, ADHD, and Anxiety) point to a thiamine deficiency.

To begin with, I would say that I felt desperate, severely depressed, anxious and hopeless for the most part of my life.

These symptoms also point to a thiamine deficiency.

I don't remember anything, I can't focus even while in the cinema, or reading a book. It's like brain fog all the time and anxiety for anything.

Points to a thiamine deficiency. It's pretty scary when you lose your short term memory and have brain fog. I've been there.

13 Signs of Thiamine Deficiency (B1)

Cliff notes: Thiamine deficiency was not solved decades ago by enriching grains and is alive and well. The implications of this have a huge impact on modern day health and disease. It's always been amazing to me that a country with an endless food supply and resources can coexist with so much...

butternutrition.com

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome Information | Mount Sinai - New York

Learn about Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, find a doctor, complications, outcomes, recovery and follow-up care for Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

www.mountsinai.org

The medical industry likes to promote the idea that Wernicke's encephalopathy is the result of alcohol abuse (which results in thiamine deficiency), but there are other things that cause thiamine deficiency besides that, including inability to absorb nutrients, and thiamine functional blockage from pharmaceutical drugs. My own experience was the result of heavy metal toxicity which used up my thiamine, then Bactrim antibiotic taken for a UTI. Wernicke's encephalopathy is serious and needs to be addressed to avoid long term damage (Korsakoff Syndrome).

I think I have food intolerances, because I had massive crying crisis later on.

Food intolerances can be caused by leaky gut. Leaky gut can be the result of thiamine deficiency; you need thiamine (and magnesium) to maintain gut wall integrity. Thiamine is also needed to maintain the blood/brain/barrier integrity. A thiamine deficiency can allow things into the brain that are best kept out of there (like iron).

Or maybe that's just too much carbs for me, and I can't manage to balance my blood sugar properly.

Thiamine is needed to use sugar/carbs for energy (oxidative metabolism). A thiamine deficiency can cause high blood sugar. Diabetics are known to be thiamine deficient.

Well, stress and anxiety are massive reasons for me, and I think bananas and milk calm down my mental breakdown thanks to tryptophan, among other reasons.

Bananas are known to be a high serotonin food. In many people, with compromised metabolisms, consuming tryptophan increases serotonin. Ideally, tryptophan converts to niacin but if things aren't working right, it converts to serotonin instead.

There is an abundance of misinformation about serotonin on line and in medical papers. I find Ray Peat's articles the most helpful.

Serotonin, depression, and aggression - The problem of brain energy.

Serotonin research is relatively new, but it rivals estrogen research for the level of incompetence and apparent fraudulent intent that can be found in professional publications. This is partly because of the involvement of the drug industry, but the U.S. government also played a role in setting...

raypeat.com

Tryptophan, serotonin, and aging

Beginning with the industrial production of glutamic acid (sold as MSG, monosodium glutamate), the public has been systematically misinformed about the effects of amino acids in the diet.

raypeat.com

KETO was the only thing that ever cured my depression for a month,

People with thiamine deficiency tend to do better (at least in the short run) on a KETO diet because this diet omits carbs/sugars and carbs/sugars deplete thiamine.

If someone cured his/her depression, just PLEASE, tell me where to start. I'm 31 years and I want to live, it's time to live !!!

I cured my depression (and a LOT of other things) via high dose thiamine.

Depression, Anxiety, and the Chronically Hypoxic Brain - Hormones Matter

Abnormal thoughts, emotions and all forms of mental activity are produced by electrochemical reactions that are exaggerated by a mild degree of hypoxia or pseudo-hypoxia.

www.hormonesmatter.com

I've started taking magnesium supplement during lunch time. I hope it will help with sleep and hard articulations such as cervicals (they are so painful !!).

I've found a lot of benefit from taking magnesium glycinate. I take 3/8teaspoon in the morning and another 3/8th teaspoon before bed. It helps with a lot of things.

Magnesium Status and Stress: The Vicious Circle Concept Revisited

Magnesium deficiency and stress are both common conditions among the general population, which, over time, can increase the risk of health consequences. Numerous studies, both in pre-clinical and clinical settings, have investigated the interaction of ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Thiamine supplementation improves a person's tolerance for magnesium. And thiamine supplementation requires magnesium.

Why Thiamine Supplementation Requires Magnesium - Hormones Matter

Magnesium is absolutely essential for normal thiamine activity in the body. Thiamine activation depends upon sufficient magnesium stores.

www.hormonesmatter.com

My usual dietary habits are : no breakfast, light lunch (so coldness and brain fog), several cups of coffee and infusions, and junk food at night (like 1000 calories in one serving, to catch up the calories I did not consume during the day). I used to work in my brother's restaurant but I stopped yesterday. It's such a relief !! Because I stoped at 11pm, and I think it's waaaaaay too late to eat.

This sounds like a great way to ruin your health and your life.

I felt soooo good having orange juice, I felt warm and calm, even if I got a blurred vision again.

The orange juice is good for you. You need it. It has many positive attributes. But it does contain sugar and you need thiamine to metabolize the sugar. The OJ isn't causing the blurred vision, but a thiamine deficiency might be.

Unfortunately, I decided to stop OJ because I was afraid of blood sugar spikes and its effect on my anxiety (blurred vision terrifies me, I'm afraid of being diabetic, do you know where that could come from ?

I'd suggest continuing the OJ and to also supplement with some thiamine. I use high dose thiamine hcl. Others use TTFD thiamine. There's good arguments for each.

suggested reading:

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 found that listening to interviews with Ray Peat always made me feel that everything would be ok and everything would get better in life. He emitted a sense of hope and stability and that there is plenty of opportunitie to make up for lost time.

 

[Regina]

I agree with the thiamine and mag glysinate.
Have you ever tried Gaba powder?

https://www.nowfoods.com/products/supplements/gaba-powder

It's cheap and tastes okay.
I find it incredibly thermogenic for like every cell in my body and down my legs and arms.

B2 is helpful for blurred vision.

 

[Peater]

Without wanting to turn the thread into a laundry list of supplements i wonder if Pantethine could be useful too.

 

[Greyfox]

Have you tried quitting starches? While I realise they can be beneficial it took me a long time after going on the ray peat way of eating before I realised starches were causing severe brain fog and depression. You could notice some changes in as little as a few days if they are negatively affecting you. They aren't for everyone. Especially if digestion is already bad.

 

[mostlylurking]

Without wanting to turn the thread into a laundry list of supplements i wonder if Pantethine could be useful too.

Well, I doubt it would help here. It's used to lower cholesterol and triglycerides. Since cholesterol is protective, I don't really see the point of trying to lower it.

 

[mostlylurking]

I agree with the thiamine and mag glysinate.
Have you ever tried Gaba powder?

https://www.nowfoods.com/products/supplements/gaba-powder

It's cheap and tastes okay.
I find it incredibly thermogenic for like every cell in my body and down my legs and arms.

B2 is helpful for blurred vision.

Here's an article about thiamine and Gaba:

Thiamine Deficiency and Delirium

Thiamine is an essential vitamin that plays an important role in cellular production of energy from ingested food and enhances normal neuronal actives. Deficiency of this vitamin leads to a very serious clinical condition known as delirium. Studies performed ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

"There are two main enzymes, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH) and alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (alpha-KGDH) that require thiamine as a cofactor in the Kreb’s cycle. The main function of the pathway is the generation of a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which provides energy for numerous cellular processes and reactions.20 A decrease in ATP production in the brain leads to an increase in production of toxic metabolites of dopamine and inhibition of catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) activities, which is a vital enzyme for synthesis and breakdown of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex.21,22 Thus, an increase in the level of dopamine may lead to delirium, including hallucinations and delusions.22 In addition, proper functioning of PDH is essential for the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine as well as for the synthesis of myelin.20 Low levels of acetylcholine have been linked to delirium as well as the severity of cognitive impairment associated with delirium.14,23 The citric acid cycle and alpha-KGDH play a role in maintaining the levels of the glutamate, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), and aspartate.24,25 GABA is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, and a decrease in the levels of this neurotransmitter and an increase in its amino acid precursor, glutamine, leads to neuronal excitation and hence delirium.14"
-end paste-
So thiamine is key for GABA production.

Thiamine Deficiency and Vision Problems - The Nootropics Nurse

Explore the connection between thiamine deficiency and vision problems. Learn about the role of thiamine (vitamin B1) in maintaining healthy eyesight

thenootropicsnurse.com

Vision Problems Associated with Thiamine Deficiency​

A deficiency in thiamine can lead to a range of vision problems, which may vary in severity based on the extent of the deficiency and the duration of the condition.

Some of the vision-related symptoms associated with thiamine deficiency include:

1. Blurred Vision: Individuals may experience blurred vision or difficulty focusing on objects, making it challenging to read or perform daily activities.
2. Nystagmus: Uncontrolled and involuntary eye movements, known as nystagmus, may occur, leading to visual instability and discomfort.
3. Photophobia: Increased sensitivity to light, causing discomfort or pain in brightly lit environments.
4. Visual Field Changes: Thiamine deficiency can affect the visual field, leading to the loss of peripheral vision and reduced awareness of the surrounding environment.
5. Eye Pain: Some individuals may experience eye pain or discomfort due to thiamine deficiency, which can further affect visual clarity and overall eye health.

-end paste-

B2 is important too. I take a small amount, 4Xday.

Riboflavin (B2) & Eye Health | The Optical Journal

Riboflavin (B2) is a water-soluble vitamin required for a large number of cellular processes, including oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions responsible for energy production, metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, proteins and ketone bodies. It’s also solely responsible for the fluorescent-yellow...

www.opticaljournal.com

Riboflavin (B2) and Eye Health

B2 deficiency is linked to formation of blood vessels in the clear covering of the eye (vascularization of the cornea).

Age-related cataract has proven to increase in those who are vitamin B2 deficient. One Australian study of both men and women suggested the incident of age-related cataract was 50% less likely to have cataracts in those in the highest riboflavin intake than those in the lowest riboflavin intake.

 

[Peater]

Well, I doubt it would help here. It's used to lower cholesterol and triglycerides. Since cholesterol is protective, I don't really see the point of trying to lower it.

True, I was thinking more of the increase in Coenzyme A.

Although it isn't the same as pantothenic acid it is a derivative of it so even if diet was sufficient one might not convert it properly. It was just a thought. It seems easy to unbalance B vit supps and end up chasing your tail!

 

[mostlylurking]

True, I was thinking more of the increase in Coenzyme A.

Although it isn't the same as pantothenic acid it is a derivative of it so even if diet was sufficient one might not convert it properly. It was just a thought. It seems easy to unbalance B vit supps and end up chasing your tail!

Evidently, thiamine deficiency is alarmingly common.

Thiamin deficiency, altered circadian rhythm, and adrenal fatigue

Have you been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue? Have you recently removed processed foods from your diet and had a tough go of it? Have you ...

synergyhw.blogspot.com

A Disease Of Modern Civilization Threatens Eradication Of All Life On Planet Earth While World Leaders Are Distracted By The Contrived Crises Of The COVID/Great Reset

Thiamine acts as a metabolic stimulant.

Beyond Deficiency: Using Thiamine as a Metabolic Stimulant - Hormones Matter

Thiamine is functioning as a metabolic stimulant to restore energy metabolism inhibited by factors unrelated to nutritional status.

www.hormonesmatter.com

I've been high dosing thiamine hcl (1 gram, 2Xday) for over 2.5 years. I do supplement with other b's (niacinamide, riboflavin, biotin), and I have taken a b-complex for several months (no longer take it). I have experienced MAJOR improvement from the high dose thiamine hcl. I personally have not been chasing my tail, but I did research and added some other vitamins that turned out to be helpful.

The information that I have read has left me with the understanding that when high dosing thiamine, standard doses of some other supplements are advised (i.e. riboflavin, magnesium, perhaps additional b's); high doses of the other supplements are not necessary.

 

[Peater]

Evidently, thiamine deficiency is alarmingly common.

Thiamin deficiency, altered circadian rhythm, and adrenal fatigue

Have you been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue? Have you recently removed processed foods from your diet and had a tough go of it? Have you ...

synergyhw.blogspot.com

A Disease Of Modern Civilization Threatens Eradication Of All Life On Planet Earth While World Leaders Are Distracted By The Contrived Crises Of The COVID/Great Reset

Thiamine acts as a metabolic stimulant.

Beyond Deficiency: Using Thiamine as a Metabolic Stimulant - Hormones Matter

Thiamine is functioning as a metabolic stimulant to restore energy metabolism inhibited by factors unrelated to nutritional status.

www.hormonesmatter.com

I've been high dosing thiamine hcl (1 gram, 2Xday) for over 2.5 years. I do supplement with other b's (niacinamide, riboflavin, biotin), and I have taken a b-complex for several months (no longer take it). I have experienced MAJOR improvement from the high dose thiamine hcl. I personally have not been chasing my tail, but I did research and added some other vitamins that turned out to be helpful.

The information that I have read has left me with the understanding that when high dosing thiamine, standard doses of some other supplements are advised (i.e. riboflavin, magnesium, perhaps additional b's); high doses of the other supplements are not necessary.

Yes I think it was your posts I saw Thiamine Pyrophosphate mentioned in, I ordered some. It's quite low dosed so I'll see how it works but keen to try.