Ummm - I suppose I'd better admit it.
I've been taking ephedrine every day for over a week now. The amount I'm having to take to get the same effect is gradually getting bigger too.
In the thread at
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...?threadid=53045 I entertained the idea that I'm depressed. My sister really really believes in SSRI's like Prozac and Paxil but my doctor has never prescribed them for me. But just recently I've read this from
http://www.hsu.edu/faculty/langlet/...ransmitters.htm ....
Quote:
SEROTONIN produces sleep by inhibiting the systems involved in keeping the individual awake. The longer you stay awake, the more your serotonin levels build up. Did you ever wake up wrong, with your head groggy and still full of sleep? Serotonin is doing that to you.
Deficiency: Serotonin deficiency may very well play a role in a wider variety of mental illnesses than any other single variable. Without enough serotonin to calm the brain, individuals may suffer many different ailments, particularly those that involve anxiety, obsessions, compulsions, or insomnia. Drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) help the brain use its serotonin more effectively. If obsessing over unpleasant thoughts plays a role in one's depression, the SSRIs can prove valuable as antidepressants, although simply regulating brain chemistry alone does not help the person learn new habits. When medication is needed to fix a problem with brain chemistry, the individual probably still needs counseling or behavioral retraining.
Excess: Having too much serotonin is likely to make the individual sleepy, sluggish, and unmotivated. It can interfere with the ability to focus attention and think clearly. Depression is a common problem among individuals with excessive serotonin, which is why some depressed individuals should avoid SSRIs -- they absolutely do not need to make their natural serotonin more powerful. Excessive serotonin is likely to produce hypersomnia, excessive sleep.
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Really? Admittedly, up until now, all I knew is that the one thing that SSRI's, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine and ephedrine have in common is that it's dangerous to take any of them at the same time as MAO-inhibitors, so I jumped to the conclusion that they must therefore all have much the same effect. Oh well - I guess I'm wrong on that one. Do SSRI's make you sleepy? That would be incredibly counterproductive for me. Suddenly I'm glad that I've never been prescribed SSRI's, and my faith in the doctor has been restored a little bit.
Mind you, all the same, he's prescribed beta blockers, which make me dizzy, so I don't take them. He says I suffer from anxiety. If I say I feel lethargic and sleepy during the day from time to time, he says that's because I don't sleep at night, and the reason I don't sleep is because I'm anxious, and the reason I'm anxious is because I don't take the meds he prescribes. Huh?
If ephedrine were really all that bad, it would be illegal, no? Not that I'd want that to happen, I hasten to add. The doctor could also say that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, because that's a symptom of anxiety. And he could also say that feeling guilty about taking time for myself is another symptom of anxiety, and that's precisely what I'm doing here by making an issue of falling asleep during the day.
But I don't buy it. To me, that just seems to explain the problem away, but it doesn't solve it. The problem is that I can't see how I can get my life sorted out without resorting to ephedrine. But I think I'm building up a tolerance to it now. I imagine a scenario whereby ephedrine tolerance will lead me on to nose out billy, and I'll build up a tolerance to that too, and will end up in hospital for it. I've had to be rushed into hospital for amphetamine overdose in my life once already, and I'm not keen for it to happen again.
I'm nervous about drawing attention to this, for two reasons. One is that I don't want ephedrine to be made illegal anywhere, ephedrine is stopping me from crashing out in the afternoons, and right now, I don't see a way of coping without it. The other is that when people tell me I'm just lazy, I believe it, and I'm ashamed of it, but I don't see what I can do about it without taking ephedrine.
But I think it could be a slippery slope. If it was once in a while, it wouldn't be a problem, but that's not how it's panning out.
I hope no-one thinks this is a bolt out of the blue from me, it really isn't, because this has been my obsession for years. The only difference now is that I've been allowing it to go one stage further. This is what underpins my motivation to do low carb in the first place, it seems that I've tried practically everything else that I thought could restore my life, including low carb, but nothing seems to make me feel any better, except ephedrine.
Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks.
ephedrine confession
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