Anxiety, depression, laziness...Can the nameless wonder change? page 209

[namelesswonder]

I get scrambled or fried, usually, but we ended up going to a local diner. It was okay. Home fries were kind of fried...which I wasn't expecting. Slight joint ache in left hand and a headache, probably from the oils. Decided to pass on the bacon to avoid TOO much evil oil exposure (and nitrates).

1000mg of Tryptophan so far today. Feeling like I might need another capsule later. I also took 150mg of 5-HTP last night. I'm pretty freaked out that I need to take this much stuff to keep sane right now. Thinking about work AT ALL right now makes me freak out a bit.

[ezeflier]

How has your sleep quality been lately? I know that if my sleep is hosed, my digestion is too - gets waaayy slow. Which stinks because that, in turn, worsens my sleep.

I think I have discovered something though.. With the current state of my digestion, if I have carbs as part of my breakfast, my sleep that night won't be good. Starchy things seem to be slightly better. Fruit is almost sure to make me wake up after ~4 hours of sleep. 20 hours later. My theory is that I have some place in the system that's irritated or somehow infected. The sugary thing gets to that place about 20 hours later, and causes some kind of disturbance - maybe producing methane or alcohol through fermentation - which maybe my brain doesn't like. Consuming fruit or starch later in the day doesn't seem impact my sleep.

If I don't have carbs at breakfast, my sleep that night seems pretty solid, and then my digestion seems happy.

The theory depends on the serial nature of digestion. And hence, latency in response. Other people might have different biome, and different irritation/inflamation/infection localization, or different timing, so their timing could be different.

I've been playing with this for several weeks and it seems to continue to be tracking pretty consistently. I'm thinking of writing it up for discussion in the Nutrition section..


Cheers,

Matt-

[namelesswonder]

Hey, new commenter. Sleep has been very light lately, but only for the past week or so. It seemed fine up until then. But with the poor sleep lately has also been coinciding with the really terrible mood swings. The digestive stuff has been going on for almost 2 months now, and to clarify, it's basically entirely just constipation unless I take something to affect that (vitamin C).

I usually only have carbs in the afternoon or evening. I definitely think it varies from person to person, metabolism to metabolism. I only started to add carbs back into my diet over the last couple of weeks, kinda figured "what the hell" since nothing else is working right.

A lot of what you're talking about is reminding me of the Human Food Project. About the Human Food Project I signed up for it, thought it'd be cool to (eventually) contribute my gut info to a database.

[jenn26point2]

Nameless, I wonder if your mood is directly related to your digestive issues. Dopamine and serotonin are both produced in the gut and if your gut isn't working right, those hormones might be affected. Just a thought.

[namelesswonder]

I do think so, but knowing doesn't help me much.

Man, why do I smell like garlic today? I haven't eaten any.

[tomi]

here's a thought............ have you had your Thyroid checked? an off balance thyroid can result on chronic constipation or diarrhea. I'm now diarrhea free thanks to my dose of Armour Thyroid daily! I've suffered for 5 years and no one thought it might be my thyroid. I was only slightly hypo --- now I'm slightly hyper, and I like it here better! If you're going to see the doc, it might be worth a blood test. Make sure they check T3 and T4. Good luck........... feel better........

[namelesswonder]

Not in-depth thyroid tests, no. It's been on my to-do list since I started going Primal last year. TSH has always been normal, but I know that doesn't tell much. I'm very much limited to what my insurance will cover right now, but a phone call will tell me if that's the case or not. I just need to get past this anxiety enough to MAKE some phone calls.

I have no idea if I'm going to work tomorrow or not. Even passing thoughts of it make my heart jump into my throat.

[namelesswonder]

Here's a lengthier update for y'all, 'cause that's a sign of me being better, I guess.

I don't think I can aptly describe the place my brain has been in/been heading towards for the past week or so. Yesterday was another 1500mg of Tryptophan day, plus 150mg of 5-HTP in the evening (but I don't think it makes me sleepy anymore, so I might just space out 4 doses of Tryptophan instead so it doesn't keep me up at night). It was not until after I took the 5-HTP that I could log in to my work email to check in and dedicated myself to showing up at work today by emailing about it. I'm functional today, more functional than I have been for the past few days, but I feel very sensitive and very on-edge. I can't think too much or I'm liable to start crying. Obviously, that kind of prohibits much productivity today, but I just need to stick it out till about 5PM. I've managed to keep dosing myself enough to avoid getting to any really black places, but I've gotten close, and that's not good. Definitely have had thoughts about having Boyfriend take me to the hospital for a psych eval, but then I remember that they'll just want to drug me, and I have therapy today, so I can talk to someone then.

I have therapy today, so that's good, I guess. Maybe it will help me think a bit more clearly for a little while. Boyfriend has been very helpful to me while I was home, helping to take care of me. I talked to him a bit, realized that that was kind of new for me, and that I was communicating effectively. I mean, I must have, since he responded exactly how I hoped/wanted, by tucking me in to bed (though being there made me anxious so I got up and watched more Doctor Who) and making dinner for us and snuggling on the couch and not making a fuss when I didn't want to snuggle because my stomach hurt.

I'm meeting a friend in Salem, with a friend of hers, on Sunday. Especially considering this past week and my mental state, I'm pretty nervous about it, but I think it will be fun. I'd really like to find a new ankh or tree of life pendant, and I know there are some nice silver jewelry selections downtown. If I get a new necklace, that will be my splurge for the month, I guess. I'm vary wary of the oil situation and still trying really hard not to think about it (but need to call oil companies soon).

TMI: gurgle, gurgle. Trying out 10.5g of Vitamin C today, since 12 seemed like too much the other day. I think it's getting things moving, but there's a lot of discomfort. Either the steak & broc we had last night gave me terrible, painful gas, or it was the prebiotic I took. I'm hesitant to take that again because it was REALLY uncomfortable. The prebiotic is made of Galactooligosaccharides, which I guess are good against pathogenic infections. Maybe it is/was die-off? I do have some anti-gas pills I could take =\

Ugh, I smell like burnt pan today. Had some trouble with the eggs this morning.

[Finnegans Wake]

Wow, 10-12 g. of vitamin C seems like a lot. I take 1 g. a day, but I think 10 g. would give he the power-shits...

[namelesswonder]

Doc said it takes that much for some people. I take it as an indicator that my system is seriously stressing about something (using it all up so it takes that much to have a fairly normal BM). When I first started taking it, I only needed 2g, and that was only a couple of weeks ago.