Been a while since I updated here. Its been very up and down for me in general. Windows and crashes from various things.
Helpful still are GABAergics. I am on Gabapentin 600 mg which helps my anhedonia, and Armodafinil 75 mg. These are just bandaids. Same with cycling MIF-1 monthly. Ipamorelin has a positive effect slightly as well, probably from NPY GABAergic activity and ghrelin stimulating motility/gastric emptying.
I had a horrific reaction to Betaine HCL, just 1 pill created insane overmethylation issues that crashed me and required NAD+ IVs to demethylate. NAD IVs are actually really helpful for my anhedonia, they also make other things work better. They are a temporary lift. NAD+ is also a demethylator.
Ever since the Betaine HCL, I stopped reacting to LDN as well and had a horrid endorphin blockage crash, with such bad consummatory anhedonia that I even was considering ECT. Rifaximin which pulled me out of crashes before I reacted badly to as well, probably from overuse.
My microbiome is completely shot:
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Anyways guess what saved me fucking miraculously? A clinic I went to ran a ton of blood tests and I had a whopping 28 vials of blood drawn. The most ever. And after that, I felt lightheaded, dizzy but and as I walked back. to my car it was like a light switch- endorphins magically turned on again. It was insane. I experienced like a big big window for a few weeks before it regressed again although i was still better than before.
This clinic deals with neuroimmune issues. My bloodwork showed very high IgE (5x the range), low IgM as well. They think I may have reactivated viruses too like HHV6, myco plasma pneu, etc tho for EBV/CMV i was negative. ANyways, one of their treatments they offered was plasmapheresis.
After the 2nd session, I experienced well being, more emotion and finally my sexual function also was starting to come back. Arousal, pre cum again! Was still blunted but it was more manageable. I felt nostalgia, sadness again too like grief about all the time lost. This lasted a week though and then regressed until 3rd session it lasted a few days. But all medications work better-Gabapentin is stronger, Armoda is stronger. My ferritin got depleted to 29 which was an issue so I needed 2 Iron IVs to replete it and that helped. And I am better than before the plasmapheresis.
But now I am coming closer to a potential solution. Some PSSD/PFS people also have experienced windows with plasmapheresis. And my symptoms are similar although not from the same substance. It seems like this is some sort of gut-brain-immune axis perturbation.
Next up I am going to do FMT. There is a PSSD case that recently has nearly recovered from FMT+plasmapheresis. I did it in the reverse order but I think because my gut is totally messed up, a lot of sensitivities to subtances got created and also some things that do help don't fully last. Once I address the gut I hope then the things I do will help.
Recovering the gut naturally is basically extremely hard with how bad mine is. And with all the ridiculous sensitivties leading to crashes I get are probably related. So FMT it is. I found a good clinic that can do it.
Will update how that goes. But it’s been quite an insane ride phew. It’s clear that psychiatric medication or nootropic bandaids are not going to fix my problems, and in 2024 im basically trying completely different approaches.
