my 5htp experience - http://www.sjwinfo.org Forums
Topic Title: my 5htp experience
| |  "my 5htp experience"
, Fri 22 Oct 21:17
I'm just wanting to share my recent experience with 5 htp...which was nothing short of amazing. For several years i've noticed that i lacked the calmness to do some of the quieter things i used to enjoy...such as listening to music etc. After a recent ending of a relationship, I was depressed and constantly dwelling on the situation. This went on for longer than what seemed healthy so I looked into some non pharmaceutical treatments for OCD online, and this is where I found the information on 5 htp. I decided to give this a try and after taking the dosage listed on the bottle 1 50mg tab with a meal per day, I notice a very mild improvement. After looking at some dosage information online, I upped the dose to 100mg three times a day, and it was like a veil was lifted from me. The only problem i've encountered with 5 htp is the effects seem to plateau for a couple of hours, with me feeling a "calm energy" then gradually dimish and i'm back to square one til i take it again. I've recently added SJW which i'm hoping will extend and even out the effect of the 5htp.
I'd be interested in hearing other's experiences because I'm suspecting my body was lacking in serotonin for such a long time that I'm in an adjustment period and hopefully the effects will become stronger and more stable with time (I'm on my second day of the increased dosage...pretty early on I know lol)
thanks
pokie-okie
Posts: 0 | | Registered: Fri 22 Oct 2004 20:35 |
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| | "Re(1):my 5htp experience" , Sat 23 Oct 14:15:
Congrats on finding something that works... I'm starting to feel impressed with 5-HTP's mood brightening effects myself.
I wouldn't take it before because of the 'vitamin B scare' floating around, but I really don't give a hoot about that anymore. Definitely noticing a brightening of mood after taking around 100mg (and some side effects like mild heart palpitations and muscle twitching, but this is all very minor compared to the side effects of SSRI antidepressants).
Only been using 5-HTP for 4 or 5 days, but I'm very impressed with it and plan to continue using it regularly. BTW I'm also taking Wellbutrin, and I'd swear that 5-HTP has a stronger antidepressant effect! It also seems to work better for me than St John's Wort (which I took regularly for about 4 months earlier this year).
P.S. you might consider adding an extra 50mg in between the 100mg doses as a booster... from what I've read, doses up to 900-1200 mg per day have been used in clinical studies without any serious problems (although IMHO doses that high should be under medical supervision).
[this message was edited by fewtchure on Sat 23 Oct 14:39]
Posts: 66 | | Registered: Wed 28 Jan 2004 12:39 |
| | | "Re(2):my 5htp experience" , Sat 23 Oct 16:34
I am so close to giving 5-HTP a try. I'm over 6 weeks into SJW and in the beginning I felt some relief but now I don't feel any relief in my depression. I still don't know the proper dosing schedule of 5-HTP. Is it 100mg three times a day? Though I've heard people just taking 50-100mg at bedtime.
Posts: 12 | | Registered: Sat 25 Sep 2004 20:49 |
| | | "Re(3):my 5htp experience" , Sat 23 Oct 17:08
hi laurielu
The dosages I've seen most commonly are 100-300 three times a day. I tried taking 200mg this morning and I didn't experience any euphoria or extreme reactions, but my mood was very good for a much longer time (approx 8 hrs).
The effects on my sleep have mixed....a deep sleep for about four hours and another deep nap for about an hour (next time i might unplug the phone!) I've also notice that any kind of stimulant ie. coffee, ginseng seems to have a much more pronounced effect so it looks like my favorite comfort food, coffee, is gonna be out for a while :(
I'd also like to chat with anyone about the onset of their depression, if it was an ongoing problem or triggered by some event in your life, but I'm not sure about the rules of posting a yahoo id here
Posts: 1 | | Registered: Fri 22 Oct 2004 20:35 |
| | | "Re(4):my 5htp experience" , Sun 24 Oct 16:38:
I've gotten mixed sleep results too... seems harder to fall asleep, but once I'm asleep I tend to stay asleep and feel more refreshed in the morning. Also a general tendency toward more anxiety during the day, which I'm hoping will go away eventually.
My drink of choice is tea, & doesn't seem to be a problem (maybe because of the L-Theanine neutralizing the caffeine).
Today I noticed a possible side effect of constipation and some bloating, not sure it's from the 5-HTP tho (but seems likely). I'm taking a regular gelcap brand, not enteric coated. Typically I have a cast iron stomach and haven't had any nausea but from the reading I've done it seems to be the most common side effect.
P.S. my depression is both ongoing (dysthymia) and triggered by a (series of) events. Most recently, I started getting really depressed around last June and unfortunately "treated" it with illicit stimulants for a few months, which ended up making the situation a lot worse (doh... :(.
[this message was edited by fewtchure on Sun 24 Oct 16:48]
Posts: 67 | | Registered: Wed 28 Jan 2004 12:39 |
| | | "Re(5):my 5htp experience" , Sun 24 Oct 20:17
well fewtchure, sorry to hear about your digestion problems, I haven't experienced anything like that, I did sleep for twelve hours last night though :O, first time anything like that's happened in ages.
As for my depression, well I've never been diagnosed as clinically depressed but I can tell ya....at the beginning of this year i was deeeepressed. I wasn't thinking of killing my self or anything but i felt utterly hopeless, like the world was totally without light. I can attribute this to two things primarily, a romance going sour and a weird diet i started on....which was one I sort of made up.
Now, during the winter time, for religious reasons, I'll think about fasting....a total no water no nothing fast...and I'll do things to prepare myself for it if i decide to do it, weaning off the caffeine and nicotine, eating less than normal etc. Well, one day I had a grapefruit for breakfast and noticed i was less hungry for the day as well as a bit more energetic, so I decided to just eat grapefruits and apples for a week, bad move. Doing this really threw me off, both physically and mentally, I began to really feel depressed, extremely anxious, and obsessive, and my obsession led to extreme anger. Of course my obsession centered on the woman i'd been involved with. I was in a really bad state for several months, I began taking iodine supplements for a thyroid condition that developed and i began to feel somewhat normal, but never quite all the way normal and the obsessive thoughts continued.
Eventually my depression began to subside and I was feeling better though still not totally out of the woods, and I was beginning to take more interest in my life, getting around more, looking at a career change, and then i hear my old flame's gotten married. At that point i could feel my fragile equilibrium starting to unravel, all the depression, anger and obessive thoughts started flooding back and it was at that point I started looking around for some kind of help...first online cause it seems medical doctors simply prescribe anti depressants like they're candy and I didn't want to deal with side effects. So that's how i ended up finding 5htp, which was sort of a last resort because I'd tried SJW and it was helpful but never really stopped my depression totally, my next stop would have been a doctor but i was doubtful therapy would help cause i'd talked myself blue in the face to anybody who'd listen and that didn't help at all.
I'm convinced that my grapefruit apple diet altered my brain chemistry by depleting the serotonin levels in my brain and for some reason it never recovered til just this past week when I started the 5htp, and that my relationship situation only exasperated that problem. Right at this moment, I'm beginning to feel what could be called normal. I'm still sad about the relationship but for a year I wasn't able to let go of it and honestly, if this is as bad as nondepressed people feel about things, I must have been living with at least a mild depression for years.
well that's all for now..sorry for the novel length essay :P
Posts: 3 | | Registered: Fri 22 Oct 2004 20:35 |
| | | "Re(6):my 5htp experience" , Mon 25 Oct 09:35:
Thanx for sharing your experience.
My opinion (from reading this board and elsewhere) is that a lot of people shy away from 5-HTP because they take a 50mg and feel some side effects. If more people were willing to sweat out the initial side effects (and take a therapeutic dosage) I think it would become much more popular.
Woke up this morning and actually felt excited about the day. First time that's happened in at least several years. I can't think of more definitive proof 5-HTP is working than that. Now I'm really worried the FDA is gonna find an excuse to ban this stuff eventually, because anything that *really works* competes directly with the drug companies.
[this message was edited by fewtchure on Mon 25 Oct 09:41]
Posts: 69 | | Registered: Wed 28 Jan 2004 12:39 |
| | | "Re(7):my 5htp experience" , Mon 25 Oct 19:42
I've been diagnosed with Dysthymia. I always knew I was different from the other kids when I was very young. I always worried about things, stressed out, suffered from low self esteem, and felt like a dark cloud of 'doom and gloom' followed me wherever I went. I pray my two small kids never have to feel the same way I did growing up. I never knew I had depression because I thought it was normal to feel that way every day. I just figured that it was my personality. But as I got older I wondered why other people were happy all the time and found excitement in things and I did NOT.
Perscription drugs are not the answer for me. I think it is too difficult for a drug to change a 'lifetime' of behavior.
Posts: 14 | | Registered: Sat 25 Sep 2004 20:49 |
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