Anxiety/Depression/Supplements/Acne

[h0ppy]

Hey Shelley...long time no see. Hope all is well.

Sooooo...these past couple months I've been testing different nootropics, herbal tinctures, vitamins and minerals, even prescriptions in hopes to find anything that will crack down on this anxiety/depression...without causing skin eruptions!!! The things I've tried are: Idebenone, Picamilon, Acetyl L-Carnitine, Acetyl L-Carninte Arginate, ALA, Gaia Herbs Phyto Supreme, Pramiracetam, Magnesium Taurate (why Mg?!), Rhodiola, Lexapro -- have all caused itching followed by skin breakouts...on my back, chest, shoulders, and of course, face. I just don't get it! It's like my mind and body are in constant battle with eachother. As soon as I find something that works, my body rejects. So I've been leaning towards Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to change my thought process and focus on being positive...because it seems like anything I put into my body that changes my mood will only cause problems. But it shouldn't be that way, right? I wish there was something I could take that would give me a jump start. What do you suppose is wrong? Am I lacking good microbes? Am I just super-sensitive to these chemical/hormonal changes happening throughout my body? I'm at my wits end!

[h0ppy]

Ok...I had a revelation today!!! I don't need anything to alter my mood. Because I am in full control of it. This anxiety/depression crap is just a result of self-pity. No more whining. Anxiety is not a weakness to me anymore; it's a strength. I'm aware of my surroundings and I've been given the gift to analyze. I've got nothing to be afraid of. Nothing. Life is great.

[shelley]

Good! Attitude is powerful. Realize you are in total control of your attitude (It's really the ONLY thing you have complete nad total control over) and start using that control in a constructive way.

I ask myself this question:

What attitude/position gives me the most grounded power, confidence, personal responsibility and loving openness towards others in this situation?

I don't always manage that last part (I shut down very quickly) but this really helps adjust my attitude!

[h0ppy]

Yes, thinking positive can be powerful but it can also give you major headache!

Get this, I've been researching Magnesium and it's affect on anxiety and depression for quite some time. It seems that Mg is often overlooked and very important to our health (there's a book out there called "Miracle of Magnesium"). So I started taking Natural Calm (Mg Citrate) a couple days ago and I could tell a difference in my mood right away. It didn't last as long as I'd like. However, these past couple months I've really started to crave chocolate (I used to avoid chocolate like the plague because I was afraid it would destory my skin). So not only do I get Vanilla Almond Milk, I get chocolate too! And then I started craving these gluten-free chocolate cookies (which have huge chunks of dark chocolate MmMmm). And then I remember reading something on here about chocolate and Mg. Sure enough, chocolate cravings are a sign of Mg deficiency (and or calcium)! Am I on to something?

[shelley]

Could be!

Mag is important, you should have been getting it if you saw my recommendations to do detox baths with Epsom salts and a Calcium/Magnesium supplement.

You're not supposed to take mag without calcium really or you throw your pH off. You should not need to take it every day. Ifyou do you could antagonize iron and other important minerals. In fact, you may be craving chocolate because you're taking mag all by its lonesome, and one of the reasons we crave chocolate is for selenium and copper more than magnesium, both of which are antagonized by magnesium.

[h0ppy]

Well I've been craving chocolate for months, and I've only been supplementing with Mg for a couple of days. So I doubt I'm getting too much. Should I get a liquid trace mineral supplement just to be safe (for the Selenium and Copper)?

And do you have any idea why my skin goes bezerk whenever I supplement with something that messes with my neurotransmitters/hormones? I'm setting up an appt. with an endocrinologist because it looks like my "revelation" was a byproduct of the herbal tincture I was taking (and I had to stop it because I was getting nasty cysts - like always).

[shelley]

Hormones like progesterone and most all of the metabolic hormones require a lot of zinc for their formation and activation. So the more zinc-rich foods you eat or supplement, that can relieve or increase hormonally-based symptoms. Lots of women can easily balance their menopause or painful menstruation with judicial zinc supplementation and regulated potassium. Men too. That's why it's part of Skin Food. Skin Food are the things you should jsut about always supplement if you're aging too quickly or have any degenerative, chronic conditions.

slow wound healing, retarded hair growth, hair loss, bad skin, loss of taste/smell, are all linked to zinc.

Magnesium is a synergist for zinc, so the improvement you've seen could have been due to getting more zinc from your foods than usual.

[h0ppy]

I definitely have slow healing and bad skin, so what do you recommend besides skin food? Zinc? ConcenTrace? Both?

I had to stop taking the Mg because it's turning my face, chest, and back into a minefield. Ugh. I wonder if it has anything with to do with dilated bile ducts. Maybe I should take a lower dose (like 100mg instead of 600mg) just before bed so I don't risk purging anything with a fatty meal. And why do I always itch when this happens?!

[shelley]

Zinc is part of skin food. Please read the FAQ. PLEASE!

What are you thinking, taking that much magnesium????????????????????????

Only ever take the RDA unless you're going after a special effect such as when liver flushing.

[h0ppy]

It said 1/2-1 teaspoon was the recommended starting dose! Didn't know any better because I never experienced loose stools.

[shelley]

I've always said the electrolytes should be taken together or you throw off important ratios and lose homeostasis, which makes more work for your body. Mag should be taken with Calcium at the very least, or if taken alone, taken in very small amounts so you don't skew your ratios and make the body have to pull things it needs to maintain balance from other places and cause deficiencies elsewhere.

[h0ppy]

Ok. Will do. Thanks.

[h0ppy]

You know what I just realized, I read the Mg Citrate bottle wrong. Turns out that three teaspoons = 600mg, and I was only taking one. So I must've been getting 200mg for a couple of days. Still enough to cause some major problems it seems!

[h0ppy]

So I've been taking St. John's Wort for a week now and I can already tell a difference in my mood as well as anxiety. But (like always) just as I was starting to feel good mentally, my skin goes wack. This isn't your typical acne either; they don't come to a head and contain no puss, instead they are filled with clear liquid and blood. I did some research online and I've concluded that I experience skin eruptions every time I alter my brain chemistry because neuropeptides and neurotransmitters (basically neurohoromes) are messing with my neuroendocrine system, and causing inflammation via the skin. So the big question is how do I increase my "feel good" neurotransmitters without them affecting my complexion? Is there some sort of oral hormone stabliizer I could take...or would that be totally counterproductive? And if I stuck it out for while on St. John's, would my body adapt to these changes, causing me to break out less (if not at all)?

I really need to fix this problem because my anxiety and depression is severely inhibiting my life. My will to live is slowly fading.

[shelley]

When you have a chemical imbalance that needs management you're really trading one state for another, one set of symptoms for another. So you find gives the best trade-off. Sometimes sticking with something for a month or so lets the body adjust to it to where it doesn't react so strongly. Since you've shown (if I remember right) positive reactions to tryptophan, you might want to see a doctor about trying a pharmeceutical that regulates seratonin.