Posted by Lao Tzu on June 8, 2009, at 9:06:21
I have struggled with a diagnosis of schizophrenia/bipolar for many, many years. Only in 2005 did I have a psychotic episode, which manifested itself in auditory hallucinations, paranoia, and delusions. I have to stress how important medication is for this disorder. After 1 year of Risperdal therapy, the psychotic symptoms of my illness were much more manageable, and so it was then that I looked to vitamin supplements to address my mood and depression symptoms. I was put on an ssri antidepressant, which helped a lot with anxiety, but the depression persisted. Then my doc added Lamictal and Provigil, which helped a lot with the depression and energy. Still, something was missing. I determined that I had a vitamin B12 deficiency because my depression improved substantially when I started it. It took about 6 months of vitamin B12 therapy at 750mcg per day to fix this problem. After 6 months, I found I no longer required such a high dose of vitamin B12. I started taking other vitamins as well which improved my depression and mood. I took 100mg of B6 everyday, zinc, magnesium, and Niacin as part of my daily regimen. Later on, I discovered that I benefited from vitamin E (100-200IU during the day), vitamin C 500mg, as well as 2grams of fish oil and 1,300mg of borage oil daily. Later, I started taking P5P, which is the active coenzyme of B6. This vitamin improved my paranoia symptoms. I started taking 100mg of Thiamine (B1) daily, which also helped my depression. With fish oil, I noticed that I could only tolerate a low dosage to start, but after several months I was able to increase the fish oil dosage by an additional 1 gram per day. So I can only tolerate 2.5 grams of fish oil daily. Any more than that and I feel sluggish all day. The fish and borage oils as well as the vitamin E have enabled me to have more energy during the day even in the heat of summer, but it did take several months for this to happen. The point is to be patient and keep trying. Zinc supplements helped my depression and anxiety. The best form I have found so far is zinc picolinate. Zinc gluconate, which is what you'd find at your nearby pharmacy, didn't work nearly as well as zinc picolinate does. Magnesium supplements were greatly helpful to me. I've stuck with plain old magnesium oxide because it does work no matter what other people say. I can only tolerate a maximum of 200mg of magesium per day, but you can buy 100mg tablets if 200mg is too much for you. I noticed that magnesium was greatly helpful for insomnia, whereas calcium supplements made my insomnia worse. Later still, I started loading up on the Niacin and Vitamin E at bedtime and noticed that I slept better. I also added a tiny amount of melatonin at bedtime, about 1/4 of a 3mg tablet. You don't need much melatonin for it to be effective.
All said, I still hear voices, but they are rather friendly and don't mean me any harm. I don't have much anxiety anymore and my depression and mood are much much better than two years ago. My memory is a lot better. I still have some social withdrawal and am still jobless, so it just goes to show you that schizophrenia has not been cured, no matter what medication or supplements you take. Still, I manage much better than I did, and there is something to be said for this.
poster:Lao Tzu
thread:899973
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20090410/msgs/899973.html