How I Slowed My Brain Down and Got Off Sleep Medication

[Guest guest]

Thank you for your post.  I have had problems with insomnia and anxiety since I

had my kids and I just discovered taurine and find it helps.  It also has helped

my husband who has depression, anxiety and anger issues.  He feels much

calmer.  We also have found magnesium to be of great help and the b vitamins.  I

will have to look for the other supplements you mentioned.  I did try to get

some l-carnitine but it is not available in Canada because Health Canada has not

approved it.  That makes me mad!! It's probably because they know it can be very

helpful for not only mental disease but also for heart issues.

I am happy for you that you found a cure for your bipolar.  May God bless you

and may no harm come to you as you share the good news of healing.

Tania

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends:

I am a person with a bipolar diagnosis. I have had at least a few hundred

episodes each of mania and depression since 1963, the year of my bipolar onset.

(I am currently 58 years old; my bipolar onset occurred when I was age 11.)

I was heavily symptomatic of bipolar disorder from 1963 to the fall of 1997 (at

which point " I got much better " as a result of self-applied alternative

medicine). My bipolar symptoms had become more frequent and more severe as I got

older (until I got better, of course).

As early as my teenage years I knew that " there was something wrong with me " ,

but I had no clue what it was. Nor did I seek professional help for any of my

problems.

After over twenty five years knowing " something was wrong with me " , things got

so bad I knew I needed help.

In 1992 I began to see a psychologist to try to sort out my life problems. After

about a year of seeing this psychologist every month or two, she referred me to

a psychiatrist so that I could receive medication for depression. (I was

misdiagnosed as a unipolar depressive at this time.)

I was first correctly diagnosed with bipolar disorder in June 1994. This

occurred as a result of voluntarily admitting myself to rehab center in

Syracuse, NY while I was in a state of mania.

After an eight month trial on lithium, I gave up on it, and threw it in the

garbage. Lithium greatly dulled my mental acuity, and my hands still shook " such

that I could not sign my name on a check " , despite taking only 900 mg. of

lithium. Lithium did nothing to help my depressive episodes at all. (Depakote

did not work for me as a mood stabilizer either. My manic states " blew through

it like it was water " .)

My bipolar condition got to the point where I could hardly sleep for almost two

years unless I took some sort of medication.

In the fall of 1995, I was prescribed first Ambien. I was very disappointed with

Ambien. It only gave me about three to three and a half hours of sleep. Sominex,

an over-the-counter sleep medication that I had been taking for months prior

actually gave me a bit more sleep than Ambien did.

When I saw my psychiatrist again, I asked him for a sleep medication that was

much stronger than Ambien.

The first medication that I took for sleep that worked for me such that I got

six to eight hours sleep was Xanex. This medication was first prescribed to me

in February 1996.

Within a matter of weeks of my first taking Xanex, after steadily moving up in

dosage of it due to the fact I was becoming tolerant to it, I had " blurred

vision " in one eye when I woke up. And this blurred vision did not go away for

quite a few hours. I immediately called my psychiatrist. He told me that I was

having an adverse reaction to Xanex. And he told me to immediately stop taking

it. This adverse reaction occurred despite the fact I was only taking .875 mg.

of Xanex (less than one milligram) at this time. (I am sensitive to

benzodiazepine medications.)

For a few weeks after having an adverse reaction to Xanex, I took nothing for

sleep. For these few weeks I was seriously manic for the entire time.

In April 1996, I got my first prescription for Klonopin. This was a medication

that I requested from my psychiatrist. He was a bit hesitant about giving

Klonopin to me, due to the fact I had had an adverse reaction to Xanex, which

was another benzodiazepine medication. I was a bit insistent for a prescription

for Klonopin, and my psychiatrist wisely relented and gave me one.

After having an adverse reaction to Xanex, I had decided to learn as much as I

could about medications myself. I learned about Klonopin by reading some books

about medication in March 1996.

I had become tired of my psychiatrist making all of my medication choices for

me. He had prescribed a number of different medications to me in the past two

years. Only one of these did I feel had really done me any good (Zoloft). The

rest of the medications I had been prescribed in these two years either did not

help me, or their side effects were intolerable. So I decided to see if I could

make some better medication choices myself.

Klonopin worked well for me in the beginning, just as Xanex did. I could finally

get some sleep. I got five or six hours sometimes with Klonopin in the

beginning. (I was admittedly also smoking pot at night when I was taking

Klonopin. For over a decade pot had helped me somewhat in regard to sleep.)

Then the same thing happened, just as the books that I had read had told me it

would. I built up a tolerance to Klonopin, just as I had built up a tolerance to

Xanex. I needed more and more Klonopin to go to sleep, just as I did the Xanex.

And smoking pot at night before I took Klonopin was just not enough for me to

get enough sleep.

After I got up to 2 mg. of Klonopin within a few months of taking it (I had

started on .5 mg), and began to feel that I needed even more, I thought to

myself " enough is enough " . I decided " I am not going to just keep taking more of

this stuff " , like I did with Xanex.

As I did not know quite what do to at this point, I sought professional advice.

I did not go to my psychiatrist for this professional advice. I went to see a

person that I considered an expert on drugs. This person was an ex-heroin addict

that repeatedly claimed to have taken " every drug under the sun " , both legal and

illegal. And he was a person that I highly respected.

I asked (not his real name) " What should I do? " " I need more and more

Klonopin to go to sleep. " " Would it be better for me to keep taking more

Klonopin, or would it be better for me to drink some alcohol with the Klonopin

so I can go to sleep? " would not give me a direct answer. He said to me

over and over " What do you think? " But you could tell what he thought by reading

his face… he thought " You dummy, of course drink some alcohol with the Klonopin

if it helps you to sleep rather than keep taking more of that s…t. "

So that is what I did. I began to drink a few bottles of beer, along with taking

my Klonopin and smoking pot.

I was on Klonopin and pot, and then Klonopin, alcohol, and pot for almost

eighteen months straight. Sometimes I got four hours of sleep. Sometimes I got

five hours of sleep. It was very infrequent that I got any more. Eighteen months

of this.

I knew I was in deep trouble at this point (throughout most of 1996 and 1997). I

knew that my Klonopin, alcohol, and pot routine for sleep could not last

forever. I knew I had better find a better answer to my problems with sleep. And

I knew " I was fighting for my life " .

In August of 1997 I began to add the amino acid taurine to my sleep regime. By

the first week of September, less than a month after adding taurine (and other

amino acids) to my sleep regime, I was off both Klonopin and alcohol completely.

And I no longer needed pot to go to sleep.

By the end of October 1997, about two months after taking four amino acids

(taurine, tryptophan, GABA, and glycine) every night to go to sleep (with some

vitamins and minerals as well) I was getting the best sleep I could remember…

going all the way back to the late 1960's.

In September and October of 1997, I also did a number of other things besides

take amino acids, etc. for sleep in order to overcome my bipolar diagnosis. I

took a wide range of nutritional supplements daily. I cleaned up my diet. I got

a series of colonics. (These helped me enormously.) I identified and eliminated

a number of hidden food allergens. And I corrected my gut flora with probiotics

and anti-candida measures.

Two supplements that I added to all of the others that I was taking in October

of 1997 had an immediate and absolutely profound effect on me. They slowed down

my brain just like lithium did… but without any negative side effects

whatsoever. These two supplements made me drive slower, made me think slower,

and made me talk slower. They also substantially lowered the volume of my voice.

These two supplements were L-carnitine and phosphatidyl choline. I soon found

that the more phosphatidyl choline I took, the slower my brain fired. This was a

huge breakthrough for me. I had finally found the answer to my lifelong problem

of often having " racing thoughts " , " fast speech " , and " speech much louder than

normal " .

I knew deep in my heart in the fall of 1997 that " I had found most of the cure

for bipolar disorder " . Not just for myself, but for the rest of the world.

In looking back at this time from where I stand today in 2010, I feel that I

only made a few mistakes in what I had learned thirteen years ago. (None of

these mistakes were critical in regard to my beating manic depression.)

In deciding to use the four amino acids of taurine, tryptophan, GABA, and

glycine for sleep in 1997, I now know I could have done better in regard to the

four amino acids that I had selected. Today I only use three amino acids for

sleep. These are taurine, tryptophan, and histidine. If I was to use a fourth

amino acid for sleep, it would be GABA. Glycine has always been a very weak

sleep aid for me.

My standard night baggie for sleep for years contained the following:

1. Three 500 mg. or 600 mg. capsules of taurine.

2. Three or four 500 mg. capsules of tryptophan.

3. Three 500 mg. capsules of GABA.

4. Five 500 mg. capsules of glycine.

5. One 50 mg. capsule of vitamin B complex.

6. Three 1,000 mg. capsules of vitamin C.

7. Three capsules of calcium/magnesium/vitamin D.

I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 to 1,500 of the above night

baggies between September 1997 and August 2002, when my access to substantial

fiscal funds ran out.

Since August 2002 I have only been able to supplement myself on an off-and-on

basis. My best guess is that since 2002 I have taken perhaps another 500 to 750

night baggies as per the ingredients listed above.

Sometimes I did add three 500 mg. capsules of inositol to the above baggies, as

I felt it this supplement belonged in them.

A few years ago, I discovered that an author that I had repeatedly read (

Erdmann) was right about histidine. This amino acid is one that is quite sleep

helpful for me. I now place more importance on histidine for sleep for me than

either GABA or glycine.

My current night baggie, and one that is very effective for me for sleep,

contains the following:

1. Three or four 500 mg. or 600 mg. capsules of taurine.

2. Three or four 500 mg. capsules of tryptophan.

3. Three or four 500 mg. capsules of histidine.

4. One 100 mg. capsule of vitamin B complex.

5. Three 1,000 mg. capsules of vitamin C.

6. Three tablets of magnesium.

Sometimes I also add one tablet of a quality vitamin mineral preparation to my

current night baggie as well. I do this because I never want to miss an

opportunity to get more essential nutrition into my body.

The specifics of my using L-Carnitine and phosphatidyl choline are:

I took a 500 mg. capsule of L-carnitine in the morning. (Sometimes, but not

often, I used acetyl L-carnitine instead of L-carnitine. I did not notice a

difference here.) I also took three, and sometimes even four, capsules of

phosphatidyl choline in the morning. Each capsule contained between 420 and 460

mg. of actual phosphatidyl choline. I took this L-carnitine and phosphatidyl

choline with my other supplements in the morning. These " other supplements "

covered the entire vitamin and mineral range. They also contained some capsules

of essential fatty acids.

Conclusion

If my experiences in regard to slowing my brain down or getting a good night's

sleep are any indication of the truth, it would be foolish for any person with

similar problems to ignore what I have learned.

Using drugs to treat " functional nutrient deficiencies " is nuts! This is not

being done because it is " the best science available " … it is being done for the

money it makes those persons that are making and prescribing the drugs.

I may not be here to tell stories such as the above that much longer. This is

due to the fact that it has become quite apparent to me that some portion of the

pharmaceutical drug industry is aware that (1) " I have found the cure for

bipolar disorder " , (2) " I have found the cure for schizophrenia " , and that (3)

my knowledge in regard to properly treat a depressive state has been world

leading for over a decade.

I turned 58 on September 17, 2010. Let's hope I live to see 59.

Darman

http://nutrientscure.wordpress.com/