r/B12_Deficiency

Hi everyone, I’ve been really struggling with my mental health in these past 3/4 weeks and I’m really hoping someone can help me out here.

Around a month ago I took 3 b12 injections (hydroxocobalamin) 1.5mg and i suddenly started getting intense panic attacks and anhedonia. I don’t cry but out of nowhere I started bawling my eyes out every single day. I I’m in this constant state of anxiety and depression, I can’t enjoy the things in life that I usually enjoy like watching a tv show, I cannot wind down at all and it’s scary because before all this happened I was a pretty chill guy and I usually wouldn’t stress much in my life. One of the most scariest thing that also happened at the same time was my libido completely vanished, so i genuinely feel pleasure in nothing now. it’s been around 3/4 weeks and im not getting full blown panic attacks anymore but im still constantly on edge, i have also had stomach issues but now a simple bloating of my stomach makes me think the world is ending. It’s like my nervous system is jacked all the way up and it’s overreacting to even slight discomfort.

I tried taking creatine because that would usually make me feel good when I’m in a low mood but this time it just made me depressed. I went to the GP and they took my blood test, it came up with high b12 and high folate, but the odd thing is I don’t usually supplement folate so I’d don’t understand why that came up as high. I sometimes take it as part of my b complex but I’ve not mega dosed it or anything.

Today I decided that I’ll try methylfolate as I assumed maybe b12 used up all my methyl groups or somthing. After taking it I felt even more emotionally flat/wired/too focused, but I feel less anxious I think. I’m still not sure what i feel but i definitely don’t feel any pleasure again.

I was hoping there might be someone that has gone through this and has recovered from it. Or has figured out why it happened to them and could tell me how to bring my nervous system back to normal. Will I recover? I’m really scared, it’s like I’ve become a complete different person in a month. I haven’t done any dna test either so I’m not sure if I’m MTHFR or anything.

Someone please please help me😭
Thanks you for your time 🙏

Hello everyone. I’m a 22M currently living away from my hometown for my studies. I live with a roommate in a 1BHK.

I have been dealing with a severe/long-standing vitamin B12 deficiency. I’ve been taking 2,500 mcg of methylcobalamin by injection every other day for the last three months, and honestly, I’ve finally started feeling like myself again after 5–6 years. I know I still have a long way to go, but this improvement has meant a lot to me.

The problem is that the person who gives me my injections has started questioning why I need so many injections. The same thing happens with my family and friends. They’re genuinely concerned and keep asking why I need injections so frequently, and it’s becoming difficult to explain it repeatedly.

I also can’t self-administer the injections because I’m a student and don’t feel comfortable doing them myself. Going to someone for an injection every other day is becoming quite hectic.

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have been through something similar.

Ciao, volevo chiedere un consiglio a tutti voi, la mia ragazza ha una forte carenza di B 12 tanto che ne hanno prescritto 14 iniezioni da fare una volta al giorno. Il problema è che lei ha molta paura di aghi e iniezioni, mi ha raccontata che da bambina quando faceva i vaccini iniezioni intramuscolari nel sedere la bloccavano in due altrimenti non si riusciva a farle. Cosa mi consigliate? Non so come fare. Non so come farla stare tranquilla e vorrei evitare di doverla bloccare anche io mi spezzerebbe troppo il cuore.

Good morning!

I’m trying to make sense of this deficiency and what direction to go in. My PCP office has continued to be less than helpful…

Lab results:
* Vitamin B12: 175 pg/mL
* Vitamin D (25-OH): 27 ng/mL
* Ferritin: 23 ng/mL
* Iron saturation: 19%
* Folate: 5.7 ng/mL
* Methylmalonic acid (MMA): normal
* Homocysteine: 11.5 µmol/L
* Intrinsic Factor: Positive
* Antiparietal Cell Antibody: Negative

My PCP did one shot of cyanocobalamin 1000mcg weekly for 4 weeks. I don’t see him again until next Friday 8/28, but I will have gone 2+ weeks without injections by then and I feel TERRIBLE (fatigue/exhaustion, internally shaky, right leg tremor, heart palpitations at times, etc.)

Current supplements:
* Vitamin D3 + K2: D3 4,000 IU daily
* Iron: Iron Bisglycinate 25 mg elemental iron w/ vit C every other day
* Methylfolate: 400mcg (plan to work up to 5mg but trying to avoid anxiety)
* Omega-3: 2 ProOmega daily
* NAC: 600 mg twice daily
* Magnesium glycinate: 300mg before bed

I just ordered Hydroxocobalamin from a compounding pharmacy to SI and plan to inject 2-3x per week for 2 weeks at least.

I have a GI consult in early September and will have an endoscopy with biopsies.

Should I be seeing hematology? I feel like my PCP is very out of touch when it comes to B12 deficiency / pernicious anemia.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and suggestions!

Editing to add:

MTHFR genetic result was:
C677T: heterozygous — one variant copy
A1298C: heterozygous — one variant copy
(Compound heterozygous MTHFR C677T/A1298C)

I’m looking to hear from others about their initial experience with low B12. What early symptoms or subtle signs first made you suspect something was off, and how did you get it properly identified or tested? For those who have been through the process, what did you end up doing about it—whether through dietary changes, oral supplements, or injections—and how long did it take before you actually started noticing a real difference in how you felt?

My only B12 intake has been one or two multivitamin pills daily with 2.5 mcg of cyanocobalamin per pill. Serum B12 has always come back normal or high (676, 735, 947 across different labs), and every doctor used those numbers to rule out B12 deficiency. I decided to test MMA and homocysteine this week.

Three days before this draw I injected a B-complex ampoule (100mg B1, 100mg B6, 1mg cyanocobalamin) for the first time. Dumb, I know. So everything below is suppressed. Results:

• MMA (whole blood): 0.38 nmol/mL (normal ≤0.40)
• Homocysteine: 11.9 µmol/L (normal <12.0)
• Holotranscobalamin: 43 pmol/L (normal 21 - 123)
• Serum folate: 7.45 ng/mL (normal 3.89 - 26.80 but the FAQ says >15)

Non-smoker, no alcohol or drugs. Chronic fatigue, long sleep requirement with heavy sleep inertia, attention problems. I've seen multiple specialists across several countries and conducted extensive blood tests, but no dice. Any thoughts?

Hi, I was feeling extremely tired, constant headache, broken nails and hair falling out and just a general feeling of being sickly and brain fog so my doctor send me for blood test and I'm b12 deficient. I get 1ml injection weekly for 4 weeks then 1ml injection once a month for 6 months. I've noticed after the first injection I had heart palpitations, shakey, i was more anxious and a high alert feeling and nauseous for about 3 days then it went away.. Now, after my second injection yesterday I'm starting to feel the same, nauseous, palpitations, i feel more anxious. I told the nurse who injected me she said i must keep an eye on it. Is this normal? Has anyone else been through this? Or is this something to worry about? What is these wake up symptoms people are talking about? Could it be?

I wore a new pair of shoes and my left calf started having really funny nerve sensations -- pulsating and twitching.

I had been taking the active form of B2 for a month -- riboflavin-5-phosphate, which has been really helping me.

I also take hydroxocobalamin under the tongue and I take the rest of the B vitamins every now and then.

So, I immediately took more of all the B vitamins, garlic, zinc and copper. Garlic always reduces inflammation for me and it worked great. Actually, taking all of these things helped a lot. The zinc seemed to help a lot too when I took it by itself.

However, I still have funny tingling in both my ankles especially when I sleep but it is a lot better than it was.

Are these wake up symptoms?

I am going to order Thorne's Basic Nutrients and Lithium. There are a few cofactors I may be missing.

I just received my blood test results, and my b12 is 172. The GP said this is the lower end of normal and when I explained that I was feeling nauseous after eating, had brain fog, burning pain in feet and fatigue he said that everything was within normal range. I don’t understand, google says this is low and I could be deficient. I feel like I’m going crazy.

Wondering about this as a friend uses patches 200 mcg and surprisingly has high serum b12 levels

Patches are not mentioned on here

Question being.do they actually get stored in the liver....will people with storage issues not be able to retain the b12 in active form

All I know up to now is they are slow releasse

Into bloodstream

Potemteally useful as regards injections ?

Or even a replacement for them when levels are stable

There is not much info on them it seems

If nicotine patches hrt etc work b12 patches potentially do also

I did not know that other vitamins can be used in patch form too

It rapidly dropped to 350. Would this be considered a B12 deficiency? I'm in the United States and I've been bedridden for over a year with horrifying symptoms. I had to quit my job, put off graduate school, and my daughter put off going to University, so that she could help me out, because it's just her and I. I'm not as bad as I was before, however, I'm still not functional. I also have low ferritin (9) low hemoglobin (10.9) iron (45) Iron saturation (11%) and Vitamin D (16). My B12 has not been flagged, however, I looked at blood results from 2024 and prior, and my B12 was always high, my doctor ran more blood work a few months ago and that's when I noticed the B12. I'm wondering if I'm headed toward a deficiency in B12 as well?

I got my blood work done and I was at 178 for my vitamin B12. I started taking tablets, and after 4-5 days my symptoms magically vanished. Now, after 16-17 days, it's back, like someone turned a switch on. I know these things take time, but is it normal to get better after 4-5 days and then suddenly have all of it come back? Honestly, I feel worse than before.

Hey everyone! I’m an 23 year old male, professional athlete.
I’m posting here for your opinion about these lab results:
Iron (Fe): 13 umol/l (Reference range: 11.6 - 31.3)
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin): 625 pg/ml (Reference range: 187 - 883)
Total folate (serum): 3.9 ng/ml (Reference range: 3.1 - 20.5)
25(OH)-Vitamin D: 35.5 ng/ml (Reference range: >30; >40 recommended for adults; >150 toxic)
Ferritin: 78.24 ng/ml (Reference range: 21.81 - 274.66)

Although folate is in the reference range it doesn’t seem optimal to me as I’m dealing with strange symptoms, heightened anxiety.
What’s your opinion?

One of my major symptoms, and the one that seems to be the first to flare up, is a sort of double vision thing that is most noticeable when I look at:

• small, high-contrast things like text on a screen or page; the edges go wavy/pixellated/shimmery, or I see two lines instead of one, even with one eye closed. This gets worse when I'm hungry, and is worse in bright light. Makes me feel a bit nauseous to read.
• distant objects like stars or planets, where I will see double and the two stars seem to move around relative to one another (like I can't focus). Worse when I tilt my head.

Because it's worse when my blood sugar drops and doesn't resolve when I wear reading glasses, it seems like an optic nerve or neural problem. Or it could be something to do with eye muscles, but the monocular double vision that is worse with higher contrast seems, to me, to point to a neurological process.

Told my GP this, but they wrote down "wavy lines at the edge of [patient's] vision" (like a visual migraine, which I have never had), so I don't think they understood what I was describing.

It got way better when I did my loading doses recently, then came back after about 8 days post the last injection. So I guess I have not plateaued! More IM for me ...

Anyway, just curious about other people's experiences with vision or optic nerve stuff.

I’m honestly 50/50 on what form of B9 to use right now.

I know I have a severe folate deficiency, but I’m unsure which form makes the most sense if I need a high therapeutic dose, like 10+ mg/day, while recovering.

Would you guys choose folic acid, folinic acid, or 5-MTHF for high-dose treatment? I’m mainly looking for experiences from people who had a serious/long-term folate deficiency and actually had to use higher doses to recover.

Symptoms - tingling in feet, lethargic, weak, burning, shortness of breath,
Heart palpitations, bugs under skin.

These symptoms come in waves is this normal? One minute feel my old self the next feel so unwell. Worse in mornings very shakey and weak feeling.

Just started first B12 injection today. Any advice welcome 🙂

hi I tested my self 2 months ago and it wass 122 it was really bad i had ot of isuues from the last 8 month felling tired all the time even if i get sufficient amount of sleep like 10 hrs in some cases. Depression and a lot of anxiety comes along. whenever i look at the floor there are my hairstands...soo lot of hairfall

it has completely destroyed my senior highschool year and i still dont feel well

i took 5 shots of mecocobalamin(1500mcg) for 10 alternate days and then i have taken 20 tablets of mecacobalamin 15000mcg.(nurokindforte z)

i still dont fell well i constantly have dark circles under my eyes.

i did ferritin thyroid they were normal

pls tell me how much time im gonna take to recover myself