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Hey guys, I wanted to see how many of you are dealing with anxiety issues and how you've managed to either work through it or get over it?

Since the last winter, I've woken up with heart palpitations and thinking I'm going to die. Which has led to higher than normal blood pressure and on and on.

I've tried my best to reason what it causing this and why and the only thing I can think of is maybe subconsciously I'm needing to get healthier. So I've started eating better, working out as I should, and have a target goal for where I should be. Of course, I'm working with our family physician to ensure I'm doing things correctly and keeping her abreast of what's going on. She thinks it's totally mental.

Fast forward to last night, my vision starts going double, blood pressure spikes, dry mouth, and I get my wife and child out of bed to take me to the E.R. and whaddya know.....panic attack. Felt like an uber-tard from a Fred Sanford episode. It just doesn't make sense.

So I thought I'd reach out and see what has helped y'all.

So, you feel better now? That’s good. I suggest weightlifting, some kind of cardio, and possibly yoga. I’ve never done yoga, but my wife does.

I will say that if my foreskin was rumpled, I’d probably have anxiety too.

I still deal with being a tiny bit anxious. But the anxiety and depression I used to have dissolved when I quit drinking. Trading unhealthy habits for healthy ones has made a massive difference in how I percieve and deal with stress. Not trying to tell you to give up anything. Just making the point that external devices can contribute to having anxiety and depression. For me, they/it were the problem all along.

Long story short, we definitely are what we eat and consume. What affects your gut, aftects your brain.

Just some food for thought.

I'm also having BIG issues with depression and anxiety. I take Prozac for it but it's not cutting it anymore. I've lost interest in almost everything in my life (even my family ). I really don't know what to do about this. It came on me about a year ago and seems worse every day. I was hoping our trip out west would help but the whole time I really didn't have any fun and I was paranoid a lot.

TurboPablo wrote:I still deal with being a tiny bit anxious. But the anxiety and depression I used to have dissolved when I quit drinking. Trading unhealthy habits for healthy ones has made a massive difference in how I percieve and deal with stress. Not trying to tell you to give up anything. Just making the point that external devices can contribute to having anxiety and depression. For me, they/it were the problem all along.

Long story short, we definitely are what we eat and consume. What affects your gut, aftects your brain.

Just some food for thought.

Funny you mentioned drinking, because my wife noticed when I have a couple of whiskey and cokes and then some beers, that my shit ramps up at night. So I definitely agree with you in that one. Garbage in, garbage out.

Pepi wrote:I'm also having BIG issues with depression and anxiety. I take Prozac for it but it's not cutting it anymore. I've lost interest in almost everything in my life (even my family ). I really don't know what to do about this. It came on me about a year ago and seems worse every day. I was hoping our trip out west would help but the whole time I really didn't have any fun and I was paranoid a lot.

I'm sorry to hear that Pepi.

My doctor put me on Prozac and after three days, I had to stop taking it as it made me want to crawl out of my skin. Definitely not a good match for me. But if you're on something, that tells me that you're working with your doctor to get things sorted? I do hope things get better for you.

Do you still find enjoyment playing guitar and making music?

primeholy wrote:So, you feel better now? That’s good. I suggest weightlifting, some kind of cardio, and possibly yoga. I’ve never done yoga, but my wife does.

I will say that if my foreskin was rumpled, I’d probably have anxiety too.

Better is subjective at this point, just gonna try and keep plugging along. I don't know how many times my family physician has to show me my blood work to say I'm not a candidate for a heart attack, or seeing EKG results that show zero issues, or doing cardio stress tests that show the same thing. It's just a stupid mental hang-up that for some reason, I cannot get passed.

But you're right, for me the cardio, weight lifting, and exercise in general has been good for me.

Rumpleforeskin wrote:

TurboPablo wrote:I still deal with being a tiny bit anxious. But the anxiety and depression I used to have dissolved when I quit drinking. Trading unhealthy habits for healthy ones has made a massive difference in how I percieve and deal with stress. Not trying to tell you to give up anything. Just making the point that external devices can contribute to having anxiety and depression. For me, they/it were the problem all along.

Long story short, we definitely are what we eat and consume. What affects your gut, aftects your brain.

Just some food for thought.

Funny you mentioned drinking, because my wife noticed when I have a couple of whiskey and cokes and then some beers, that my shit ramps up at night. So I definitely agree with you in that one. Garbage in, garbage out.

Not sure how much/often you drink, but it does sound like a major contributor to how you are feeling. I'd give it up long before I'd take head meds. It may well preclude you from needing them anyway.

My bros.

I’ve been dealing with anxiety and depression for as long as I can possibly remember.

The only thing that seems to consistently help is taking methyl folate every day, and avoiding anything with synthetic folic acid.

Living 100% clean and working out doesn’t even quite get me to baseline. People who don’t have these issues can’t fathom what it’s like to not care about living. They say to “be gracious”. That only works if your serotonin and dopamine levels are right. Those are hard to get right in some people.

For me, synthetic folic acid was plugging up my folate receptors and stopping the methylation process in its tracks. I was not producing enough serotonin. My mom had the same issue. Rip. As soon as I starting taking methyl folate and avoiding synthetic folic acid, my perspective changed. I was able to see past things that would normally haunt my outlook day and night. I was able to forget scars from shit that wouldn’t bother a normal person. I was able to turn off the imminent doom vision.

Try it.

Fwiw, when people think they are allergic to gluten, and stop eating bread, and say they feel so much better ,

I would bet money that most of the people were depressed from the folic acid in the “enriched” flour.

Eating “organic” can help you avoid folic acid.

It’s an easy thing to try if you feel like you have nothing to live for. If you find yourself saying “what’s the point?” Repeatedly all day every day, try this easy fix.

Fwiw, I’ve been taking this stuff for about 8 months or so. Well past the honeymoon. I feel like I’ve been able to step out of some work related ruts, that I may have had trouble with prior to taking methyl folate. I had to completely pivot my business due to some evolution in my industry. I feel bright about the future vs wanting to give up which I would have done prior.

I’m probably typing run on sentences because I hate typing on phones.

BroSlinger wrote:My bros.

I’ve been dealing with anxiety and depression for as long as I can possibly remember.

The only thing that seems to consistently help is taking methyl folate every day, and avoiding anything with synthetic folic acid.

Living 100% clean and working out doesn’t even quite get me to baseline. People who don’t have these issues can’t fathom what it’s like to not care about living. They say to “be gracious”. That only works if your serotonin and dopamine levels are right. Those are hard to get right in some people.

For me, synthetic folic acid was plugging up my folate receptors and stopping the methylation process in its tracks. I was not producing enough serotonin. My mom had the same issue. Rip. As soon as I starting taking methyl folate and avoiding synthetic folic acid, my perspective changed. I was able to see past things that would normally haunt my outlook day and night. I was able to forget scars from shit that wouldn’t bother a normal person. I was able to turn off the imminent doom vision.

Try it.

Fwiw, when people think they are allergic to gluten, and stop eating bread, and say they feel so much better ,

I would bet money that most of the people were depressed from the folic acid in the “enriched” flour.

Eating “organic” can help you avoid folic acid.

It’s an easy thing to try if you feel like you have nothing to live for. If you find yourself saying “what’s the point?” Repeatedly all day every day, try this easy fix.

Fwiw, I’ve been taking this stuff for about 8 months or so. Well past the honeymoon. I feel like I’ve been able to step out of some work related ruts, that I may have had trouble with prior to taking methyl folate. I had to completely pivot my business due to some evolution in my industry. I feel bright about the future vs wanting to give up which I would have done prior.

I’m probably typing run on sentences because I hate typing on phones.

I've been dealing with anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember. The things that seem to help me are exercise, diet, marijuana and being out in the sunshine.

Very interested in what you're saying about methyl folate and synthetic folic acid. What foods do you avoid in order to stay free of synthetic folic acid?

I have. Its a tough go when it kicks in.

Things that help:
1. Embrace your anxiety feelings, both physical and emotional. Fighting it makes it worse. Let yourself be ok with being in this state.

2. Force yourself to do things. Get up and do things. Eat. Talk to people, socialize.

3. Sports and exercise. This has two benefits. First your anxiety tends to diminish/disappear during cardio exercise. Two, over time your mood and energy to deal with anxiety improves.

4. Mediation. Pick which one you want. I use mindfulness. There are two modes for meditation: first is just focussing on something neutral, like your breathing or the sound of something in the background. The second mode is to allow thoughts to flow through, no matter how distressing. Observe the thoughts like you would quality check on an assembly line, then gently place them back on the conveyor. (use any concept/imagery you like, but its the idea)

5. Seek help/support from someone. Psychiatrists are useful, but the bottom line is having someone to talk to about things. With a psy you get to really let everything out knowing they have a better understanding of your condition - i wouldn't bother with a psychologist - but thats my opinion.

6. refer back to #1. Its ok that you are going through this. The feelings will return and be shitty, and thats ok. If you fear it, you will feed it. You HAVE to let yourself accept that its happenning.

I hope this helps, its sorta been my own coping mechanism.

CrunchBerries wrote:I have. Its a tough go when it kicks in.

Things that help:
1. Embrace your anxiety feelings, both physical and emotional. Fighting it makes it worse. Let yourself be ok with being in this state.

2. Force yourself to do things. Get up and do things. Eat. Talk to people, socialize.

3. Sports and exercise. This has two benefits. First your anxiety tends to diminish/disappear during cardio exercise. Two, over time your mood and energy to deal with anxiety improves.

4. Mediation. Pick which one you want. I use mindfulness. There are two modes for meditation: first is just focussing on something neutral, like your breathing or the sound of something in the background. The second mode is to allow thoughts to flow through, no matter how distressing. Observe the thoughts like you would quality check on an assembly line, then gently place them back on the conveyor. (use any concept/imagery you like, but its the idea)

5. Seek help/support from someone. Psychiatrists are useful, but the bottom line is having someone to talk to about things. With a psy you get to really let everything out knowing they have a better understanding of your condition - i wouldn't bother with a psychologist - but thats my opinion.

6. refer back to #1. Its ok that you are going through this. The feelings will return and be shitty, and thats ok. If you fear it, you will feed it. You HAVE to let yourself accept that its happenning.

I hope this helps, its sorta been my own coping mechanism.

I found this very helpful. Thanks.

Thank you everyone that has contributed. There's a lot of great advice!

I use to get anxiety from my job, mostly because when I was younger I really didn't like letting customers/people down and would reallllly go out of my way to make everyone happy, some times make promises I couldn't keep etc..... That being said it wasn't always possible due to scheduling of my techs, emergencies at different jobs etc.... shit would really eat me up when I couldn't meet deadlines or deliver on a promise to a client.... thankfully a cousin of mine gave me the best advice ever, it's ok to tell people you can't do X for them, especially customers... be upfront and tell them your staff are busy and can't be onsite till this day/time, obviously there are exceptions for emergencies..... once I started doing that it got WAY better for me. It took me years to really grasp how much of the anxiety I was getting was pretty much self inflicted.

My wife has serious anxiety issues and Buspirone was a game changer for her. She’s a different person with it vs without.

For what it’s worth the last year hasn’t been very good for anyone’s mental health. In the past I’ve always been able to treat my depression through healthy lifestyle choices, especially exercise, and just generally staying pretty busy.
After maxing out on lifestyle choices I started seeing a therapist this year which has been huge. But even then it’s stuck around in ways I’ve never dealt with before so I ended up getting on Wellbutrin a month ago and it’s made things more doable day to day.

Gene thanks for sharing that’s something I’m going to look into as well for myself. Aside from bread what other foods is this usually found in?

My doctor will prescribe me 90 - 10mg of Valium a year. When I wake up in the morning with that sick empty feeling in my gut I will take 5mg and within an hour I feel fairly good.

I tried my best to quit drinking but I'm back at it again This is probably a lot of my problem.


Gene... Tell us more about Methyl Folate. What brand and how much do you take a day

Man I really used to struggle with anxiety and depression in my early 20s. Couldn’t fall asleep at night and when I did I would end up jarring myself away, heart racing, sweaty all that fun stuff.

I ended up really changing my diet. Cut out sugar, soda and caffeine after noon. That helped quite a bit. Then I started to add in some workouts and eventually really got into lifting. Additionally, I stopped bottling things up. If I was worried about something or had a fear I would write it down which eventually progressed into just talking things over with my now wife after we got together.

Ten years later and I have no issues, but I still try to stay ahead of things. My job is infinitely more stressful and higher pressure than what I used to deal with, but I feel like having some healthy outlets and coping mechanisms has made it completely tolerable

Rumpleforeskin wrote: I don't know how many times my family physician has to show me my blood work to say I'm not a candidate for a heart attack, or seeing EKG results that show zero issues, or doing cardio stress tests that show the same thing. It's just a stupid mental hang-up that for some reason, I cannot get passed.

Don't want to unnecessarily worry you, but my dad had palpitations, and doctors kept telling him he was fine (very healthy man for his age, to the point of nurses thinking he's an athlete).
He did NOT believe them because he could tell he had occasional weirdness going on, and kept plugging at it, and eventually using his own heart monitor watch was finally able to provide the evidence and they figured out he had something like an overactive heart muscle which required surgery (albeit fairly minor) to fix.

On the other side, I had major anxiety issues in late 2013, 2014. I saw a councilor, who was great and refused to label stuff but just let me talk and sometimes pointed out things that I could only have accepted from her as a disinterested third party. Having someone entirely outside your life validate some of the things you are struggling with as "real" was big for me, because I was being gaslit both by myself and other people. I was being extremely good at denying that my struggles were real enough. You know, like when "helpful" people keep pointing out that others have it worse, but those helpful people are your own sodding brain.
So talk about your anxieties. Figure it out. There may be something lurking that you are subconsciously not accepting yet.

Also, no whisky. Used to love the stuff but it's anxiety and heartburn in a bottle to me (surprising how those two are often hard to tell apart). I'm practically teetotal again. I even avoid caffeine after 3PM.

Wow my anxiety seems nothing compared to some of yours, mine seems to be mostly driven by work. I work as a purchasing manager, so with supply chains a mess since covid, my anxiety has gotten worse. It's mostly sleep issues, I wake up every morning at 3:30 AM and I immediately start worrying about work, keeps me up for several hours before I finally fall back asleep.
What's helped me is pot, I take a couple hits of granddaddy purple before I go to sleep and I usually sleep all night. If I wake up and can't get back, take another hit.
Probably not for everyone, but it has worked for me.

Pepi wrote:My doctor will prescribe me 90 - 10mg of Valium a year. When I wake up in the morning with that sick empty feeling in my gut I will take 5mg and within an hour I feel fairly good.

I tried my best to quit drinking but I'm back at it again This is probably a lot of my problem.


Gene... Tell us more about Methyl Folate. What brand and how much do you take a day

Dude , that sounds like a recipe for high octane sex and rock all night , not for anxiety . I wish you much luck

Dudes,

Thanks for reading what I wrote. It's funny, I'm talking about overcoming anxiety and depression, but today is tough. I'm kind of cracking under the pressure of parenthood, WORK, etc.. Mother's Day still bums me out since my Mom died. But, I'm able to calm down and put it into perspective. (I think.)

So, I've been using the "Now!" brands 1,000mcg. I take 3,000mcg in the morning, then I take 1,600mcg after lunch (using (4)Jarrow 400mcg. trying to use up these low dose capsules).

Again, it was more miraculous during the honeymoon phase, but what has stuck with me is my new found love for my family, and slightly better than normal ability to deal with pressure and curveballs. I also seem to appreciate nature more and remember lyrics better. Go figure.

The mind is a weird thing, and behavioral patterns are tough to alter. I would love to be a weed guy, but it fucks me up something fierce. My chemistry is not designed for it. I straight up trip out, and not in a good way. I can't handle it.

BroSlinger wrote:Dudes,

Thanks for reading what I wrote. It's funny, I'm talking about overcoming anxiety and depression, but today is tough. I'm kind of cracking under the pressure of parenthood, WORK, etc.. Mother's Day still bums me out since my Mom died. But, I'm able to calm down and put it into perspective. (I think.)

So, I've been using the "Now!" brands 1,000mcg. I take 3,000mcg in the morning, then I take 1,600mcg after lunch (using (4)Jarrow 400mcg. trying to use up these low dose capsules).

Again, it was more miraculous during the honeymoon phase, but what has stuck with me is my new found love for my family, and slightly better than normal ability to deal with pressure and curveballs. I also seem to appreciate nature more and remember lyrics better. Go figure.

The mind is a weird thing, and behavioral patterns are tough to alter. I would love to be a weed guy, but it fucks me up something fierce. My chemistry is not designed for it. I straight up trip out, and not in a good way. I can't handle it.

I just went through my second mother's day without Mom. It sucks and you are not alone.

cousin's kid has anxiety, and i remember reading how liver has a weird B vitamin in it you can't really get anywhere else that helps a lot with anxiety.

i think i'd rather deal with the anxiety than eat liver, though

Landshark wrote:cousin's kid has anxiety, and i remember reading how liver has a weird B vitamin in it you can't really get anywhere else that helps a lot with anxiety.

i think i'd rather deal with the anxiety than eat liver, though

Here are the nutrients found in a 3.5-ounce (100-gram) serving of beef liver:

Vitamin B12: 3,460% of the RDI. Vitamin B12 helps the formation of red blood cells and DNA. It is also involved in healthy brain function

Vitamin A: 860–1,100% of the RDI. Vitamin A is important for normal vision, immune function and reproduction. It also helps organs like the heart and kidneys function properly

Riboflavin (B2): 210–260% of the RDI. Riboflavin is important for cellular development and function. It also helps turn food into energy

Folate (B9): 65% of the RDI. Folate is an essential nutrient that plays a role in cell growth and the formation of DNA

Iron: 80% of the RDI, or 35% for women of menstruating age. Iron is another essential nutrient that helps carry oxygen around the body. The iron in liver is heme iron, the kind most easily absorbed by the body

Copper: 1,620% of the RDI. Copper acts like a key to activate a number of enzymes, which then help regulate energy production, iron metabolism and brain function

Choline: Liver provides all of the Adequate Intake (AI) for women and nearly all of it for men (AI is used because there is insufficient evidence to set an RDI). Choline is important for brain development and liver function

There's Folate and B12. Probably those.

Taking notes