Day 29

Tonight I have resigned myself to just sitting down and doing. I'm great at planning to do things, but they never get started. then I just say "Well, now it's so late." So tonight I will:

• Clean up kitchen after dinner
• Log into school email and actually sign up for some classes
• Pencil page 8 of the comic
• Relax, have some tea, and get to bed at a decent hour

Yesterday, my order of theanine powder came in from purebulk.com. I've discovered it's cheaper to get inositol from Swanson rather than purebulk.com. I can get an 8oz(227g) can of inositol powder from Swanson for $10.99, and it's significantly more expensive on purebulk, but the theanine is only available in pill form, which is a much smaller quantity as the raw powder. The only think I order from purebulk is the theanine. I get the rest of my supplements from Swanson.

Again, I have found what works for me to relieve anxiety without taking SSRI's and other such anti-anxiety drugs. If you are on a drug regimen, the advice of your doctor is the foremost informed.

Day 11

Had our class tonight. Lots to learn. I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. Other than that, I plan on resting and getting to bed early. I had some crazy dreams last night. I basically woke up every two hours after being jarred by some either strange or disturbing dreams. Once I was awoken by a zombie apocalypse. I can trace this to a vignette I viewed on comicbookmovie.com about how they shot a scene for The Walking Dead. Another dream I had was about my wife trying ecstasy. I equate this to the fact that I did ecstasy a few times in my early twenties and decided that I enjoyed it too much to continue. Maybe my mind is trying to consolidate aspects of my life before I met Paige with my life after. Another dream I had was an X-rated dream about a drunken ex-girlfriend and in the middle of it she started vomiting. Don't know what that's all about. Maybe some more getting rid of old baggage. Then another dream I had was kind of like an adventure-style video game. Then there was this weird little witch or something that looked like a creepy talisman or something and she pushed me into some lava. So I cast some kind of ice spell on her that hit for 200 points of damage. All I can think of is that this is just a bunch of video games that I have played all rolled into one. Maybe it's more baggage. I don't really play video games anymore and maybe it's showing me how weird and chaotic my brain gets when I do.

Needless to say, I've felt kind of strange all day from both lack of sleep, and just trying to figure out why I dreamed all that weird stuff up.

To do:

• Class
• Blog
• Make up for lost sleep

Tomorrow is Friday! Woooooo! I find that Friday is my least productive day. This is probably because we have dinner with our friends Tom and Jenny every Friday. Saturday we will have to stay home since we are getting our new washer delivered and making lasagna. I will probably spend alot of time on my comic that day.

It's supplement time! Tonight I want to talk about Theanine. It functions as a neurotransmitter and is found in green tea. What does this mean? Well, it means drink green tea. It also means that it has a large role in how the brain processes stimuli.

From the wiki article:

Able to cross the blood-brain barrier, theanine has psychoactive properties. Theanine has been shown to reduce mental and physical stress, and improves cognition and mood in a synergistic manner with caffeine.

While structurally related to the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, theanine only has weak affinity for the glutamate receptor on postsynaptic cells. Rather, its primary effect seems to increase the overall level of the brain inhibitory transmitter GABA. Theanine also increases brain dopamine levels and has a low affinity for AMPA, kainate and NMDA receptors. Its effect on serotonin is still a matter of debate in the scientific community, with studies showing increases and decreases in brain serotonin levels using similar experimental protocols. It has also been found that injecting spontaneously hypertensive mice with theanine significantly lowered levels of 5-hydroxyindoles in the brain. Researchers also speculate it may inhibit glutamic acid excitotoxicity. Theanine also promotes alpha waveproduction in the brain.

Studies on test rats have shown even repeated, extremely high doses of theanine cause little to no harmful psychological or physical effects. Theanine showed neuroprotective effects in one rat study.

So, basically, it makes you a Zen master. Not really, but it does calm and help cognition, which is really a big deal when it comes to becoming a master of one's ADD.  Also, since it crosses the blood-brain barrier, it can actually make it to your brain. I have a theory that other chemicals and vitamins might piggyback on theanine on its trip into our central nervous system. Chemicals such as inositol and minerals such as magnesium. 

I have tried powdered theanine in large doses and the only side-effect I've had is a heightened sense of well-being and a general relief of muscular tension in my entire region above the neck. It's as if my brain was clenched like a fist and I didn't know it until it released it's iron grip. I remember describing it in that exact way to my wife when it first occurred after supplementation. As with all supplements, if you are on any medication, it would be prudent to speak with your doctor before starting a supplement regimen. I buy my theanine online in it's powdered form from purebulk.com. I have taken the upper dosage of 3000mg daily and seen nothing but beneficial effects. I decreased it to 1000mg, just so I wouldn't run out as fast. I also have taken GABA with theanine at two doses of 500mg each in pill form. It's seems redundant, since in the theanine article it states that theanine increases levels of GABA in the brain, but I decided to try it anyway. I feel that the theanine by itself was sufficient.

You can get some theanine from green tea, but a cup of green tea only has about 20mg in it, so if one wanted to get a high amount from tea, about 100 cups would need to be downed. I'd just as soon plop some theanine into my one cup of green tea with a couple grams of inositol. I forgot to mention in my inositol rant that inositol has a naturally sweet character. It's actually pretty tasty!

By now, if you've read my last 10 posts, it might appear that I'm some supplement junkie. Well, I am, but it's helping. My brain is not chemically the same as someone with more focus and less anxiety, so I balance it. I've done my research and I've chosen a safe supplemental route in tandem with brain exercises and a little self-discipline. It has been less than a year since I started my supplement regimen and I have seen only improvement. I'm calmer. I'm much more productive. I feel more confident and I enjoy my life without all of the clutter in my mind that used to be there. I have been out of theanine for a couple months, now actually and after those wacky dreams last night, this particular excerpt has reminded me of another reason to take theanine:

L-Theanine has been shown to both reduce the time that it takes a person to fall asleep as well as decrease the number of nighttime awakenings.

There is a citation after this statement that says [unreliable source?], but I have found this to be very true, so I'm using my own experience as a reliable source. In any case, it's working much better than any Amphetamine or Anti-Anxiety drugs that I have been prescribed in the past.

Day 7

My washer piddled all over the floor today. Super fun! Guess we'll be getting a new one. Here's today's to-do list.

• Ink some pages of my comic
• Realize that the washer exploded and abandon inking project for the day to access the damage
• Pitch the idea that my mother-in-law makes us dinner while I sit on her couch and grumble about the washer

All done! Dinner was delicious!

Another supplement that I am currently taking is magnesium. Adding this helped to regulate my attention span by making my sleep more productive and calming me down. Again, this does cause some lower tummy upsets, but this tends to level out over time. It seems that most of us have magnesium deficiencies and don't realize it. here is an exert from WebMD:

Magnesium is also used for treating attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, leg cramps during pregnancy, diabetes, kidney stones, migraineheadaches, weak bones (osteoporosis), premenstrual syndrome (PMS), altitude sickness, urinary incontinence, restless leg syndrome, asthma, hayfever, multiple sclerosis, and for preventing hearing loss.

That's alot of beneficial uses! There are no side-effects listed for magnesium supplementation, but they did list it as a laxative, which isn't a bad thing. It will just make you go more. Well worth the beneficial effects, in my opinion.

If you missed my introduction explaining the purpose of this blog, please read it here.

Day 6

If you missed my introduction explaining the purpose of this blog, please read it here.
Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight! I already have. Extra sleep is always appreciated in our home. Today I played Castlevania with Cameron and drank beers. Then I came home and ate a delicious dinner that my wife had prepared. It was so nice. I really had no to-do list today, but Paige and I finished our meal plan for the week and bought all of our groceries. So I'm considering that as my to-do list.

• Make a meal plan
• Grocery shop
• Game with Cam and relax for a few hours.

Done and done!

I've mentioned inositol already. According to the Wikipedia article (cited below), there are a number of interesting applications for supplementation.

In a single double-blind study on 13 patients, Myo-inositol (18 grams daily) has been found to reduce the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) significantly, with effectiveness equal to SSRIs and virtually without side-effects.^[22] In a double-blind, controlled trial, myo-inositol (18 grams daily) was superior to fluvoxamine for decreasing the number of panic attacks and other side-effects

There are some resources that suggest taking 18 grams of inositol powder in three doses of 6000mg daily. This is the maximum dosage that is recommended, yet there is no upper limit that has been observed by any studies. Of course, it is a dose that must be worked up to to observe the effects. I started with 3 grams daily and increased each dose by a gram every few days. I made it to the 18g daily dose, and observed no adverse side effects other than some slight intestinal upset. Since I buy an 8 oz jar of the stuff (227g), at the high dose, I would go through the entire jar in about 16 days. I didn't want to have to buy this much, so I decreased to one 6g scoop in my water bottle daily. It took about two months to really see a big difference, but a difference I did see.

I am less irritable, I am calmer and generally not tense all the time like I used to be. I feel a bit more focused, but I think that is because of the relief in tension. I'm not running in the red, as it were. Two other major differences are the decrease in panic and compulsive behavior. I don't bite my nails anymore. Also, I didn't freak out and cower in fear when the weather turned ugly last spring. I have a debilitating dread that occurs when severe weather happens in the spring, and boy does it happen in Colorado. Well, it was so freeing to hear the hail start on the roof and to actually be able to walk outside and watch a thunderstorm. I couldn't do that the spring before last. So it's very clear to me that the supplements are doing their job. I think of it as a new lease on a life that was filled with anxiety and fear.

So do some research and find out if inositol is something that could help you. I was sure to find supplements that have no documented side-effects. I will talk about some more next time. I've tried several and I think I found a good mix of vitamins and mineral supplements that work for me.

.