Topic Title: From picamilon to niacinamide
| |  "From picamilon to niacinamide"
, Thu 15 Apr 14:55
Hy everybody,
have given up on picamilon and 5-htp. Picamilon did great for my anxiety and depression up until a week ago, when it stopped working dramatically for my anxiety.
I was very scared that maybe I was having withdrawal when I came off it (stopped), as I was EVEN MORE anxious. I also stopped my experiment with 5-htp as it was making me very irritable, and I was starting get nightime hallucinations again (where I wake up convinced I am boarded-up in a pit of spiders/snakes etc.). Last night I spent 5 minutes trying to find the door handle to get out of my room, convinced I was stuck in a pit.
This used to happen to me a while back on a regular basis as well whilst taking 5-htp and before, and although it's not too unpleasant as you soon come to your senses and wonder what the hell you were doing 'climbing' up the wall to 'get out', it is best avoided in my opinion.
Anyone else have this???
I still trace it back to a couple of uses of LSD about 10 years ago, when I was young and stupid. This stuff never gets out of your system.
Anyway, not to get too much off track here, I was feeling very very anxious, and was awaiting my shipment of B-complex 50s, and also some assorted bottles of niacin and niacinamide in different strengths (as they are pretty cheap I gave myself different options to see which would 'work' best).
I was stumbling around taking brewer's yeast in the meantime, and it was doing nothing. It also seemed to be making my eczema worse.
So, today I got all my stuff (including some inositol for bedtime use as I am determined to knock my insomnia on the head, and will now pretty much try anything).
It doesn't help that I have absolutely dire PMT this week as well, feel really ugly and fat, and none of my clothes fit (bloating). Grrr.
So I took niacinamide 250mg, 1 x B-complex, no picamilon, no 5-htp, and within one hour felt pretty good. Anxiety not killed, but dramatically reduced.
I always knew that my depression and maybe some of my anxiety always responded well to B3 as picamilon has B3 in it, and seemed to be the only thing that worked for my depression. I got very manic on SJW, extremely anxious on SAM-e and very depressed on 5-htp when I took them before. With the 5-htp this could have been dosage during the day, but I think I am pretty deficient in B vitamins anyway (previous bulimia).
How much money and tears I could have saved if I'd know this before! A simple and cheap way of supporting my mental well-being.
So this is the first day, and I will post if anything changes, or continues going well.
Oh, one other thing. I DO NOT REACT WELL TO CO-ENZYMES. I had a bottle of co-enzyme B-vits from Source Natural (same brand of 'normal' B-vits I'm taking now), and I swear this stuff sent my anxiety through the roof! I thought the first time I took them they were good in that I got more energy. However the second time I felt awful. They do have a large amount of B-12, don't know if that's got anything to do with it.
I once tried NADH, went a bit hyper, and then got very irritable and got insomnia. This is the co-enzyme form of B3. Very expensive as well.
The basic bogstandard B-vits seem to work best. My body just overreacts to anything else, apart from larger doses of B3 but NOT in co-enzyme form.
Wow, that was a long email. I just wanted to share a few experiences, as I have really tried a lot of different things, and maybe it can save other people time and money.
Loops
Posts: 86 | | Registered: Tue 15 Apr 2003 8:24 |
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| | "Re(1):From picamilon to niacinamide" , Thu 22 Apr 21:34
yes,
i can attest that the b-vitamin thing is definitely no bollocks. i pop B6 and B12 , a proper B6 with a time-release B12, as i'd heard the buzz that these two are the stress-busting bees, so to speak. aside from the SJW, chamomile, alfalfa, calcium-magnesium, etc. that i take, the b-vitamins seem to balance the brain chemistry to my satisfaction.
that B6 is the brain vitamin was old news to me. when i found a bottle of B12 that my wife had in the vitamin drawer, i added it to my regimen and found good results. later, i heard that they do indeed go best hand-in-hand for these disorders.
sincerely,ctomarctus
God bless!
Posts: 2 | | Registered: Wed 21 Apr 2004 21:1 |
| | "Re(1):From picamilon to niacinamide" , Mon 19 Apr 16:38
Hi Loops,
Good post - you've got me looking into the B vitamin thing now. No depression here, but I've dealt with generalized and high social anxiety ever since I can remember.
I too had a couple of trips with LSD when I was younger, but have to admit that both times were quite positive, and I've never experienced any negative side effects from that. However, your spider and snakes story hit a chord. I used to take Toprol XL for high blood pressure which contains a beta blocker. It would make me hallucinate at night. I'd wake up and see huge spiders (two feet across) traversing the wall, or I'd see snakes scurrying off the bedspread. My wife got used to it after a while, and dare I say found it mildy entertaining! I'm not making light of your situation - my hallucinations were obviously more tame than yours. I've since switched to an Ayurvedic alternative for the blood pressure meds, so my snakes and spiders are thankfully no longer waking me up.
You also mentioned you may have a vitamin B deficiency. If by chance you drink, do get hangovers extremely easy the next day? Like off two or three beers? My sister in law turned me onto this stuff from New Zealand that is marketed to quash a hangover, but basically is just a ton of B and C vitamins. If I take one of those before I go out, I'm golden the next morning. It's called Beroca. I've read that alchohol depletes some of the B vitamins, so I'm starting to wonder if that may be part of the issue with me.
I wonder how you can test for something like that?
Posts: 4 | | Registered: Sat 17 Apr 2004 17:39 |
| | | "Re(2):From picamilon to niacinamide" , Tue 27 Apr 00:50
i use to drink heavaly for about 4 years then i stoped cold turky and smoking im 33 and now i have severe anxiety,when ever i even try to drink i get realy sick i feel like im dying i get realy dizzy aven if i drink 1 gllass of wine i have had dozens of liver and kidney tests and they all are good so i dont understand whats wrong with me,can anyone help please.
Posts: 2 | | Registered: Mon 26 Apr 2004 23:17 |
| | | "niacinamide" , Tue 20 Apr 16:20
Hiya -
yeah this thing with the spiders and snakes is really weird! I mean, why is it always spiders and snakes??? I had exactly the same thing with the huge spiders - sometimes I see them coming down on cords - the room is covered with them sometimes. Yuk. Funnily enough, since doing the B3 niacinamide, the hallucinations have gone. I'm still taking some 5htp before bed right now, and it's not causing any more problems (at the moment).
Yes, I believe I may be deficient in thiamin also, because whenever I go out drinking late - and it doesn't even have to be very much, I wake up 4 hours after gone to bed with racing heart. Apparently this is because alchohol destroys thiamin first and foremost out of the Bs. Thiamin stops your heart racing, and stops anxiety as well. So I've got some extra thiamin which I take with meals.
A good combo I have found for the past week is inositol 1,500mg, vit C 1000mg, gaba 750mg, magnesium orotate 1 tablet plus 2 tablets valerian extract plus 200mg 5htp. This has been good up until last night when I drank too much (I was out and amongst difficult company and just caved in under the pressure). I woke up far too early and was very restless. However my heart wasn't pounding, so the B vits must have something to do with that.
Actually I find beer is the ONLY thing I can drink that doesn't have a devastating effect on my sleep. Everyone was drinking margheritas last night which I LOVE, but I stuck to the beer, which was a compromise from not drinking at all. I can have a couple of pints and not feel it the next morning. However give me 2 glasses of wine and all hell breaks loose. Last night I did overdo it though. I just felt really pressured. The weird thing is I used to be able to drink a fair amount and feel alright. Seems like I'm paying now!
I have a book which says you can take niacinamide up to 1,500mg per day, but no more unless under doctor supervision. Some sources say you need to take a dose of 500mg for a tranquilizing action. I guess everyone's different though. I take about 1,500mg in total right now - but I'll probably reduce that fairly soon. No side effects though, and I'm definitely more calm.
Loops
Posts: 87 | | Registered: Tue 15 Apr 2003 8:24 |
| | | "Re(1):niacinamide" , Tue 27 Apr 00:59
hi loops i can not believe what you just said,i have the same problem,i try to explain this to doctors my family every one and no one understands at all i asumed i was the only one on planet earth with this problem im so glad to meet you,if we could become email friends i would reay be greatful write me at [email protected].
Posts: 3 | | Registered: Mon 26 Apr 2004 23:17 |
| | | "Re(1):niacinamide" , Thu 22 Apr 09:35
Bingo on the racing heart - exact same thing here. I picked up a B complex at my corner drug store and have been taking that for three days. It has definately helped. It doesn't bring me down to a level that Xanax does, but I'm also noticing that some of the anxiety triggers, mostly social events, are not effecting me with the same intensity either. I can still feel the anxiety welling up to an undesireable level, but it's not as much as I'm normally used to.
I'll add the niacinamide next and monitor the effects.
Posts: 5 | | Registered: Sat 17 Apr 2004 17:39 |
| | | "Inositol update" , Thu 29 Apr 12:39
Just thought I would let you all know I have come to a bit of a crossroads once more.
A couple of weeks into taking niacinamide 1,500mg per day, I began to get down. Not anxious down. But still I was sinking rapidly into a deep dark pit.
So I decided to experiment a little with small dosages of inositol (500mg caps). Bam. One of these and I immediately resurface, but am thrown into a kind of hypomanic state (have never been diagnosed with bipolar but have never asked to be!). I thought maybe a larger dose would initiate both an anti-depressant/anxiolytic force, so after recovering from this bout, took 1,500mg inositol all at once.
What followed was very strange. A little unsettling maybe. I was thrown into a state of almost euphoria, but I kept on feeling very emotionally wobbly. I couldn't make up my mind if I was happy or desparate. ????
I did some research, and found lithium orotate is the antithesis of inositol. I have been taking lithium oroate off my own back for a while. Crap. This means maybe I can't take them both.
So Yesterday I decided to give the picamilon another go. I have been under way too much emotional stress this past week, which made everything worse. Anyway, found that 50mg picamilon, 500mg niacinamide and lith orotate in the day (along with various other stuff incl. B complex) is doing the trick TODAY. But what about tomorrow??
I am very confused. Niacin/niacinamide is usually used to TREAT depression. So why did it suddenly make mine worse? And why did the inositol have such a huge effect, when it is only supposed to when you take it at like 12g per day. what on earth is going on??
Can I take lith orotate in the day, and inositol at night (which is paradoxically helping me to sleep, given its effect on me in the day)????
I want to take inositol in place of picamilon as it is a) cheaper and b) has a greater effect on my depression.
I am literally rattling around with pills right now. Still, it's better than resorting to meds.
Loops
Posts: 94 | | Registered: Tue 15 Apr 2003 8:24 |
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