u/Ok_Willingness5766

2 weeks. I am more awake and alert than I ever was when I drank coffee. I don't have to drag myself out of bed. My eyelids aren't drooping all day. My sleep is worse, but it's really back to how it was before I started drinking coffee, and I don't need as much sleep as I did before anyway. Also, it's way easier to get myself to go to bed, because my evenings are actually satisfying now, and time moves slow enough that I don't need to stay up late to feel like I've done something. It's incredible how easy it is to get a full night's sleep.

Also how easy it is to do chores... It used to take my whole weekend just to do the laundry... This weekend I cleaned my room (for the first time in months), did laundry, made my bed, cleaned the cat litter, vacuumed, worked on job applications, and I still had time to socialize multiple times. It's incredible; I was barely functional before. Even at work, I feel way more engaged, way more present.

I can't believe I lived like that for so long...

Canadian here... I've had Chex Mix maybe 4 times since 2022. Every time I've had it, I could hear the angels sing. I would eat the whole large bag in one sitting. I saw some bags at Superstore the other day and grabbed them without a second thought. They taste like disappointment. Salt. Maybe a little garlic and onion? The angels went home crying today. RIP my Chex Mix....

I don't have a verification email. Yes I checked my spam folder. I started this account at least 4 years ago, and I guess I never verified the email? I must have cleared my inbox since because I don't have any emails. I've tried changing my email to what it currently is, but no luck. Is there no way to send a new verification email??

Has anyone had changes to their cycle after starting methylfolate??? Mine just started 10 days early. I have had 28-29 day cycles consistently since I started getting my period. What is happening

Preface: I'm not anything close to a professional in psychology. I'm just an anxious person and I've refused to take medications so I've spent a lot of time trying to get to the root of my anxiety. This has helped me more than anything and I'm hoping it can help someone else.

I've had anxiety for most of my life. It's been debilitating at times. I've tried many things to help (short of medications) but nothing has been able to ease it. Things like taking deep breaths, accepting that anything can happen, not searching for a reason for my anxiety, letting the feeling just be, etc. have not helped. Some of them touch on what I will talk about here but are only part of the full picture.

This is my take on the DARE approach to anxiety. This book has been a game changer for me and I highly recommend it. But there are some things that have started to help me that are not in the book.

To briefly explain the DARE approach: the acronym stands for Defuse, Allow, Run toward, and Engage. This approach encourages you to see your anxiety as a fear of the physical sensations rather than as the sensations themselves. You must acknowledge your feelings, allow them to exist, and challenge them. Learn not to be afraid of the physical sensations of anxiety. It's a fantastic way to manage anxiety. I just want to add on some of my own thoughts (I don't think you need to read the book first):

The feeling of anxiety is simply a physical response to danger to prepare you to fight or flee. It comes before you have a conscious reason to be anxious. It is not designed to signal danger, just to prepare you for it in case you do find danger. While this feeling is only really useful when you're facing real danger, it's better to be safe than sorry, so your brain sends false positives just in case you need them. So you may get feelings for seemingly no reason (or as an exaggerated response to something minor). When you get the physical response but there's no conscious stressor, you think there must be a reason that your body is preparing you for action, and you have to think through it and reason through it to understand, solve it, and get rid of the feeling. This, of course, often just makes things worse. Then, when all is said and done, your brain has been told that this fear response was helpful and that it did avert a crisis, so it continues to send those signals when there is really nothing immediately wrong. You train yourself to have that response to certain situations, things, people, etc. until it's in everything.

You become reliant on the feeling of anxiety as an indicator that something is wrong. You become convinced that you will be lost without your anxiety. The truth is, you will still pay your rent, you will still be a decent person, you will still turn your stove off, even without listening to the physical feelings that come with anxiety. You do not need your anxiety to tell you when something is wrong, because you will know logically when something is wrong. Really, your anxiety needs you. It needs you to feel dependent on the sensation of anxiety to indicate when bad things are happening. It needs you to feel like ignoring it is going to cause you harm. It won't.

So, just sit with it. When those feelings come, let them wash over you like a stomach ache or a stubbed toe. Take deep breaths. Remind yourself: this feeling is not a reliable sign of danger. It does not mean things will crash and burn if you don't act immediately. Let your heart race, let your stomach hurt, let your muscles tense up. Let the physical feeling be there; it doesn't mean anything. Let it go.

The takeaway: That feeling of anxiety is not an indicator of danger, and you don't need it in your everyday life.

At this point, I don't take the feeling seriously at all. It happens, but I shrug it off and ignore it. It's more like a cramp or a sneeze. I just let it pass. I will know when I need that stress response, but I do not need it all the time. My anxiety has been way better lately. I hope this can help someone else too.

Do you find that during your more awful episodes, antihistamines only work on the tail end?

Also, I keep fucking forgetting they exist. Oops.

I feel so few cravings after a week of supplementation (methylfolate and cobalamin). This is abnormal for me... curious if anyone else feels the same..

This is tangentially related to PMDD and ADHD, I just think this may be a sub that understands this. I just hate how when something weird works for someone (random example: advil reduces anxiety), and someone asks about it, comments jump to say no that's impossible advil doesn't do that, it's just placebo, it's unrelated, etc. Drives me up the wall. We don't know everything about how drugs interact with the body. We especially don't know how they affect mental health, because not only is research scarce, it's also difficult to quantify mental health. For all we know, Advil COULD reduce anxiety in some people. Maybe inflammation causes anxiety. Maybe pain causes anxiety. Or, maybe it's placebo. We don't know. It's fine that we don't know. Anyway this is just such a common way of discouraging people from pursuing things that may work for them. IT'S OKAY NOT TO KNOW.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence; all it's evidence of is that no one gave enough of a shit to look.

My B12 levels are "normal" -- They were 350 before I started supplementing, which isn't optimal but also isn't horrible. Shot to 850 with supplements and I was told by a doctor to stop taking them. I never noticed a difference starting or stopping, but now I'm going back on them (suspected MTHFR) I feel noticeably better when I do. I almost wonder if going off of them the first time caused the absolute horrendous anxiety and depression that started a week or two later, and I just never associated the two.

Anyway. How common is deficiency with normal levels in your blood?

I ate a low histamine diet a while ago and came up with this recipe and it still blows my mind every time I eat it.

- Frozen fish (tilapia, pollock, cod, haddock, etc. whatever's available)

- cover it in olive oil, salt, dried dill, and dried rosemary. I do a layer of each to taste. I usually add more salt after it's cooked.

- 425 until it's cooked through

- rice with salt, pepper, and vegan margarine (could probably be omitted or substituted for oil)

I just throw the fish on the rice and eat it like that. I don't know why but it's so good.

I'm having trouble finding a straight answer + I am worried that as of 2026 I will no longer be able to download my raw data from the sites. It just seems too good to be true... Any up-to-date information on this? I'm looking at Ancestry right now. Thanks

I do not know if I have MTHFR, but I have wondered. Specifically because I used to pee every 30 minutes and go through tons of water (we're talking 64 oz in one night. and for the record, I am 22, normal glucose, healthy weight, healthy diet, no diabetes in the family). Taking B1 completely stopped my frequent urination, and forgetting/discontinuing B1 supplementation has caused the problem to return, so I've been taking it consistently for 1.5 years. I wonder if this could be related to MTHFR gene. I'm also intolerant to dairy--I believe it's casein, though I'm not sure exactly which protein it is (but definitely not lactose). I'm considering getting tested. Wondering if anyone else has this.

Edit: just to add on, i think this is weird because there's no reason the average person should be deficient in thiamine.

Curious. I've been mostly dairy free for a while (trace only). I get no symptoms other than severe depression and PMS from hell every time I start eating dairy again. I know lactose is not the issue, because my first reaction was to lactose free milk. I'm cutting out dairy for good this time, and I'm trying to cut out gluten too. I'm still not sure whether I have an allergy, and I don't think I can get checked for one because I don't think I have access to an allergist right now.

I'm just wondering what role histamine plays in casein sensitivity. I find that antihistamines give me a boost every time I'm having a reaction; specifically, a combination of cetirizine and famotidine works wonders. Is this normal for a sensitivity?

Disclaimer because this won't work for everyone.

I take NAC daily. 600 mg morning and night and as needed throughout the day (I try not to exceed 2400 mg). It's so effective that whenever I start having thought loops, I take a pill and tell myself if I still feel like thinking about it in an hour, I can. I've usually completely forgotten about it by then. I would believe that my last breakthrough was what "fixed" me, except that I still get obsessions/compulsions that go away about an hour after I take NAC.

BTW--I took it inconsistently for a while and saw absolutely no effect. Consistency is important, in my experience, not because it builds up in the system (it only lasts 6-8 hours) but because of how my brain responds to it. After starting, it took a little time to get out of the thought loops and into a good state.

NAC helps a lot! It's absolutely worth giving it a go.

About a year ago now, I heard that calcium helps with PMDD (pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder) and I started drinking milk in the evenings to increase my calcium intake. I became INCREDIBLY anxious a few days in, and it went away a couple days after I stopped drinking milk. I cut out milk entirely. Then, later, decided it mustn't be a huge issue. so I started having dairy again. It happened again. I just generally avoided milk after that because I suspected it affected me a lot. Things have been not great but fine lately. Last week was incredibly happy for me. A couple weeks ago I thought, it can't be THAT much of an issue. So I got a million milk things. Tzaziki (I fucking love tzaziki so much so this will devastate me btw), cheese, yogurt, etc. Well I just had PMS from hell that has now lingered long after my period ended. This feels the same as it did every time: a nagging sense of impending doom. Profound depression. It started about a week and a half after I started eating dairy again.

I was sitting in my car crying a few hours ago, but it's all gone away after a round of famotidine and cetirizine. I feel warm and fuzzy inside now.

I am cutting milk out again. Probably for the last time. This is so sad for me. But necessary...

I just absolutely need to talk about this. This past week was maybe the second worst episode I've ever had. My PMS is bad but only sometimes full-blown depression, and when it is PMDD-level horrific, it's BAD. But this time, I'm frustrated and sad that it's over. I think some people feel the same way about being depressed. I want to know if anyone can relate.

To explain: The theme of this month's episode was the main thing I am always grappling with. It finally bubbled to the surface, and it's like the world exploded. But it was deeply satisfying... I feel like I've had all my insides scooped out, reorganized, and replaced. For a week, instead of feeling hopeful and being constantly disappointed or just in a state of indecision, I was certain, for once, that everything was terrible and the world was against me. Instead of beating myself up over everything, I accepted that I was unworthy of any love. I accepted that I wasn't born for this world. I cried more than I have in years (I love crying but can rarely actually do it). I listened to Nine Inch Nails - Hurt over and over again, and it felt so meaningful to me, and I felt they actually understood. Also, I haven't felt anything this strongly in years. Always sort of numb and half-baked. I actually drew more than I have in years--I have barely had any motivation, but this brought it back in full force. ALSO, to mush something else on... it's like everyday life mattered less. Every mistake I'd made mattered less. There was no more hill to climb, no more boulder to push, (no more Sisyphus to imagine happy...). And, though I've never genuinely considered suicide, and I can't imagine doing so unless things were really dire for a very long time, I had the certainty that if things kept going this way, I'd be able to go. Maybe I could finally bring myself to do it. It was just very nice. It was an awful week and I did and said so many things I regret, but man I felt such a profound sense of peace.

Now, I dunno, that meaning is gone. That connection with sadness is gone. That motivation is gone. The certainty, the peace of mind, it's all gone. I don't feel much in my normal life to be honest. Just kind of hollow. I'm trying to bring back the feelings of sadness, but they're just not in me anymore.

I'm not saying I want to be depressed. And, to be clear, most of the episodes this severe have been genuinely haunting. This one was also miserable, but it was somehow good at the same time. The stars aligned here. But even though I don't with to be like that all the time, I'm still grieving it a little bit. Never thought I'd miss depression...