Stopping this pattern of anxiety, looking for tips

[Peata]

I've noticed a pattern lately, and I could really use some help deciphering what's going on and what to do about it. Please. Any thoughts on it would be appreciated.

Around day 10 of my cycle, my emotional/mental state takes a dive. I've found things that help and can distract me out of it for chunks of time of the day, but overall there is a definite change during this phase in my cycle. It lasts for about two weeks.

Anxiety increases, negative thoughts and fears. I'm "used" to anxiety, though this is hard because for the most part I've been dealing with it nicely on Peat. But the last couple months it's been harder to process during this time. So this month, it's anxiety. Last month I had outright depression which is definitely not normal for me.

It's kind of hard to be in this state for so much time each month. Ironically, some of my other ED symptoms are improving, such as fibrocystic breasts, bloat, sex drive...

I started taking Progest-E yesterday, hoping to head off the worst of estrogen dominance symptoms which usually start in on me from ovulation time til period.

Supplements I take are vitamin E, B1, B6, 50-100 mg. zinc, calcium d-glucarate, Benadryl, Metformin, magnesium, potassium, other B vitamins, taurine.

It's hard to know what is doing what, but I noticed after starting B1 that I had an increase in motivation. No decrease in anxiety, but I've been feeling a little more energetic and willing to jump in and get projects done after I take it.

 

[j.]

Haidut recently posted that niacinamide might help.

 

[HDD]

I have some thoughts but I am not sure, but maybe it will help.

Because of my sons anxiety and fears, I have spent a lot of time thinking about why would he be like this. My thoughts are that because of my hormones during pregnancy and breast feeding, he has estrogen and/or serotonin dominance. I think anything that is a serotonin antagonist would be helpful.

My oldest daughter is pregnant. She has had such nausea and vomiting that she became dehydrated and had to go to the ER twice. They prescribed her Zofran which is a serotonin antagonist.

'Malnutrition, and specifically protein deficiency, produces an inflammatory state that involves extreme serotonin dominance. Stress or malnutrition prenatally or in infancy leads to extreme serotonin dominance in adulthood. Other functions of tryptophan are reduced, as more of it is turned into serotonin.'
(from Ray Peat http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/trypt ... ging.shtml)


I think mastemah posted about an antihistamine plus b6 working like a serotonin antagonist.

Many of the things that we do are anti-serotonin. There is a post where Peatarian names them that I will try to find.

 

[HDD]

Peatarian post-

"You could have your prolactin level checked. It's a pretty good way to see if your serotonin is okay. You don't need to fix what isn't broken and as I wrote ondansetron is not a supplement like vitamin E.

Everything Ray Peat recommends from the potato juice pudding and carott salad to milk and bag breathing and the occasional charcoal will lower your serotonin. If you don't have immediate symptoms you know or think are caused by excess serotonin you will not need any blockers or re-uptake inhibitors. "
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=249&p=1772&hilit=potato+pudding#p1772

 

[HDD]

I just read in another Peatarian post that low thyroid, high estrogen will cause high serotonin.

Peatarian's response-

"decades long dysthymia: I think that's not exactly surprising reading what you've been through. I have some trouble with the word 'depression' and even more with 'dysthymia' -- It's probably connected with your low thyroid and high estrogen which will trigger high serotonin. But then it's also possible that you were sad because your life wasn't exactly beautiful at times. Probably all together. "

More from the same thread-


"You can have your prolactin tested. After reading your post I would say: Safe yourself the trouble, its high. Bagbreathing, gelatin and progesterone will lower it.

•Estrogen - I'm taking Progest-E
Great! When did you start and how much are you using?

•Seratonin - not sure about
You can eat potato juice (recipe is in the serotonin-removal-thread). Carrot salad will help, too.
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=626&start=20

 

[j.]

Now that I took thyroid, I guess I don't see it as that big of a deal anymore, in the sense of being risky. Consider taking half a grain of T3 and T4. At first you might be more tense due to more sensitivity to adrenaline. But in a few days your adrenaline production will decrease.

 

[ilovethesea]

I would say thyroid and Progest-E would be the most important things. Do you take your pulse/temps Peata?

 

[Peata]

Haidut recently posted that niacinamide might help.

Thanks, I'll have to look up the thread.

 

[Peata]

I have some thoughts but I am not sure, but maybe it will help.

Because of my sons anxiety and fears, I have spent a lot of time thinking about why would he be like this. My thoughts are that because of my hormones during pregnancy and breast feeding, he has estrogen and/or serotonin dominance. I think anything that is a serotonin antagonist would be helpful.

My oldest daughter is pregnant. She has had such nausea and vomiting that she became dehydrated and had to go to the ER twice. They prescribed her Zofran which is a serotonin antagonist.

'Malnutrition, and specifically protein deficiency, produces an inflammatory state that involves extreme serotonin dominance. Stress or malnutrition prenatally or in infancy leads to extreme serotonin dominance in adulthood. Other functions of tryptophan are reduced, as more of it is turned into serotonin.'
(from Ray Peat http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/trypt ... ging.shtml)


I think mastemah posted about an antihistamine plus b6 working like a serotonin antagonist.

Many of the things that we do are anti-serotonin. There is a post where Peatarian names them that I will try to find.

I'm sure I had stress as an infant because of some health issues. The above is interesting - thanks for posting that. It gives some sort of reasoning behind some of the problems that have plagued me my whole life that have to do with serotonin.

I do use some Benadryl throughout the day and take more at night and recently started B6. I take 25 - 100 mg. of B6 per day. Kind of leary of taking more because of risk of nerve damage.

 

[Peata]

Peatarian post-

"You could have your prolactin level checked. It's a pretty good way to see if your serotonin is okay. You don't need to fix what isn't broken and as I wrote ondansetron is not a supplement like vitamin E.

Everything Ray Peat recommends from the potato juice pudding and carott salad to milk and bag breathing and the occasional charcoal will lower your serotonin. If you don't have immediate symptoms you know or think are caused by excess serotonin you will not need any blockers or re-uptake inhibitors. "
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=249&p=1772&hilit=potato+pudding#p1772

I'll have to look into the charcoal. That's one thing I haven't tried or done any looking into.

 

[charlie]

I take 25 - 100 mg. of B6 per day. Kind of leary of taking more because of risk of nerve damage.

I cannot take more then a few milligrams a day or I have incredibly overpowering dream recall. I think one night I dreamed the entire night. Bout drove me crazy.

 

[Peata]

I just read in another Peatarian post that low thyroid, high estrogen will cause high serotonin.

Peatarian's response-

"decades long dysthymia: I think that's not exactly surprising reading what you've been through. I have some trouble with the word 'depression' and even more with 'dysthymia' -- It's probably connected with your low thyroid and high estrogen which will trigger high serotonin. But then it's also possible that you were sad because your life wasn't exactly beautiful at times. Probably all together. "

More from the same thread-


"You can have your prolactin tested. After reading your post I would say: Safe yourself the trouble, its high. Bagbreathing, gelatin and progesterone will lower it.

•Estrogen - I'm taking Progest-E
Great! When did you start and how much are you using?

•Seratonin - not sure about
You can eat potato juice (recipe is in the serotonin-removal-thread). Carrot salad will help, too.
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=626&start=20

Bagbreathing - been doing it probably too much today.
Gelatin - Having some now in milk and honey.
Progesterone - 1/8 t. 3 x day.

I probably won't do the potato juice, but I know better than to say "never".

Thanks again, Diane, for taking the time to look all this up to help me.

 

[Peata]

I would say thyroid and Progest-E would be the most important things. Do you take your pulse/temps Peata?

Not taking them as regularly as I used to. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Peata]

I take 25 - 100 mg. of B6 per day. Kind of leary of taking more because of risk of nerve damage.

I cannot take more then a few milligrams a day or I have incredibly overpowering dream recall. I think one night I dreamed the entire night. Bout drove me crazy.

I can't split these pills too small. They come in 100 mg. I do have some crazy dreams, but I didn't connect it to the supplements.

 

[HDD]

Your welcome, Peata. I remembered Rayser or Peatarian saying something about having no more fears. So searching through their posts, I find so many helpful things that they have posted.

Since my daughter has been so sick and they prescribed a serotonin antagonist, it really had me connecting my son's symptoms. I think cyproheptadine might be the anti-histamine. Just looked for the post and found this-

viewtopic.php?f=68&t=1035&start=30#p11587

Cyproheptadine might be helpful for reducing sensitivity to intestinal irritants.

<on anti-serotonin drugs> I have known a few people who had very good results with tianeptine, and a couple who got side effects from it. I think any of the antiserotonin drugs will eventually cause side effects, and should only be used until a problem is corrected, for example when an enlarged pituitary is normalized. I think the same effects can be produced with nutrition and hormones, without the possible problems.

<can anti-serotonin drugs permanently fix a problem, even if taken only for a short while?> Yes, but it's important to keep adjusting thyroid and progesterone according to temperature, pulse, etc.

Thyroid is the best thing for controlling serotonin's effects. The drugs that act on "receptors" act simultaneously on many things; one effect of some of them is a selective "agonist" effect on the "receptor" which is involved in negative feedback, turning off the cells that produce serotonin. Wikipedia is a function of consensus; according to them, serotonin is a happy hormone, and there are no conspiracies of government -RP

Sorry I didn't post this correctly. :?

 

[Peata]

A bit of an update. On top of the "normal" anxiety during this time in cycle, something happened between Sat. evening and a little while ago that had me under acute stress. The thing is over and done now and I can finally relax, as though every cell in my being can finally relax. It's a good feeling, but it also irks me that my body reacts so fantastically bad when under stress. Here are the things that happened to me during that time period of acute stress:

My skin filled with inflammation. I know why they say stress ages you. I could feel heat in my face and on the backs of my hands. My skin was reddened, some burning. It became a little puffy and tight. Remarkably, I had no big acne break out, but I think that's because of some supplements I'm taking.

My eyes felt tight/swollen/heavy.

My stomach of course was in knots, and even my gallbladder got in a few contractions here and there from the stress.

Diarrhea. Also frequent urination - getting up in the night to go.

Pounding heart. I could feel it beating out of my chest. The thought of a heart attack crossed my mind, but I really didn't care what happened to me.

Shallow breath.

Today, had some minor aches. Felt a bit swollen.

No real desire to eat, but I tried to keep the nutrition up anyway.

Mentally/emotionally felt numb and panicked alternately.

What helped when it was all said and done:

-drinking honey in bed, from the squeeze bear bottle. That's probably the only thing that let me calm down and sleep last night. That and...
-talking about things. That's what ultimately lifted the weight and allowed things to move forward, out of that stagnation of anxiety.
-processing everything and making the conscious decision to swallow pride and lighten up. life is too short to do otherwise.

 

[Peata]

A hot bath with baking soda and coconut oil was relaxing too. I ran out of epsom salts but I used magnesium oil on my feet afterward. Very nice.

 

[Peata]

I've also upped the Progest-E dose even more, in hopes of putting the breaks on the hormone situation that brought the anxiety on the other day (the acute stress incident was just icing on an already large cake).

Also, I'm taking lots of magnesium. I want to get a better, more absorbable form though.

 

[natedawggh]

Peata... You haven't really said what your diet consists of, which is more important than all the pills and supplements. You were right on with the honey thing...if you read more ray peat you'll understand why you are getting these physiological reactions at times of high stress and why consuming healthy sugars help combat it. The swelling is from sodium retention problems and increasing your salt intake especially with orange juice at this time (as much as you want!) will really take the edge off. Increasing good protein as well would be beneficial, milk or cottage cheese, eggs, potatoes. Avoid the bad fats and starches.

 

[Peata]

Peata... You haven't really said what your diet consists of, which is more important than all the pills and supplements. You were right on with the honey thing...if you read more ray peat you'll understand why you are getting these physiological reactions at times of high stress and why consuming healthy sugars help combat it. The swelling is from sodium retention problems and increasing your salt intake especially with orange juice at this time (as much as you want!) will really take the edge off. Increasing good protein as well would be beneficial, milk or cottage cheese, eggs, potatoes. Avoid the bad fats and starches.

Diet is as much of the Peat scaffolding as I can...

Daily:
Coffee, milk, sugar, salt, gelatin, coconut oil, orange juice, cheese, honey, carrot salad

Few x week:
fruits, potato, ice cream

Weekly:
liver, shellfish, egg - - along with nonPeaty things I enjoy and tolerate such as a starch item (pizza, burger, pasta, etc.)