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Old Mon, Feb-20-17, 13:53
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WereBear WereBear is offline
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Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
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For what it may be worth, I ran across this:

Quote:
User Reviews: Niacin for Depression

Niacin Rating Summary
9.6/10 Average Rating
13 Ratings with 13 User Reviews


Read the personal accounts: quite a few report trouble that has lasted for years, through many different drug-treatment attempts, but are now resolving with niacin.

Some people's significant success with modern anti-depressants have completely overshadowed the subset of patients who struggle with inconsistent results and severe side effects. There was a recent study which claimed Antidepressants No Better Than Placebo?

Quote:
"There seems little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit," says study researcher Irving Kirsch, PhD, of England's University of Hull.

But in a statement, American Psychiatric Association President-elect Nada Stotland, MD, maintained that studies like those reviewed by Kirsch and colleagues, which compare a single drug to placebo, do not accurately reflect the way doctors prescribe antidepressants.

"We know that many people who are depressed do not respond to the first antidepressant they try," she says. "It can take up to an average of three different antidepressants until we find the one that works for a particular individual. Therefore, testing any single antidepressant on a group of depressed individuals will show that many of them do not improve."


This is from WebMD, aka "Better Living through Chemistry," so admitting this means they get to skip over the people for whom these drugs are not success stories. In my case, I was prescribed gabapentin, known as Neurotonin, for severe lingering nerve pain after an attack of shingles. For about two weeks it also lifted my anxiety; then it stopped working on my mood. And the schedule my doctor gave me to taper off it would have lasted 18 months. (I managed in four, thanks to chelated magnesium.)

Emboldened, I found this:

Quote:
My Personal Experience with Niacin and Depression

Now, I've been on and off Prozac for many years. At the time I watched the movie [Food Matters], I was definitely ON Prozac. I've been given all kinds of psychological drugs, all kinds of psychological labels, and all kinds of therapies. None of it really did much for me. Furthermore, I am an alcoholic and a drug addict. I also have another very serious process addiction (as opposed to a substance addiction). Over the past 12 years, I had not been able to put together even a full year of sobriety. I would have brief, happy times of sobriety and clarity, only to be drawn back down by bouts of deep depression and crippling self-doubt. My struggles seemed insurmountable at times and for whatever reason, I could not sustain the motivation or drive to help myself. I don't think I thought I was worth it.

So, three months ago I was at an all time low. All of my addictions had led me to a truly awful place. I had just seen a new psychiatrist that told me I had yet ANOTHER diagnosis, another label, and needed some new drugs. My relationship with my husband was at the breaking point and I truly hated myself. My husband and I had gone to Costco and while we were there, he suggested that we should pick up some niacin. I said, "Why not? I've got nothing to lose." I started taking 1500 mg of niacin that night. The next day, a Sunday, I was so depressed and hopeless, I was actually looking up ways to kill myself on the Internet. I felt that desperate and low. I didn't see another way out. But I continued taking the niacin.

Monday was a tough day - I was still feeling the after-effects and withdrawals from alcohol and drugs and continued to feel hopeless. By Tuesday, I felt a little better, but that didn't surprise me because whenever I get sober, I always have a small spark of hope that maybe I can do it (which is inevitably crushed again, soon after). I crashed into bed, exhausted by the day and the weight of my depression. I began to think the niacin was not going to help. But before I went to sleep, I was sure to take the 1500 mg.

Wednesday dawned. And I was NEW. It was as if during the night, God had reached down and switched my black, diseased brain for a shiny, healthy one. Suddenly, I had energy. Suddenly, I had hope. I was excited to get to work. I did not linger at home to avoid having to see people or think about my life. I was laughing, smiling and intentionally interacting with people. I actually freaked my secretary out because she had not seem me so animated and happy in ages. She was used to my glum ass attitudes and constant hiding in my office. I was, for all intents and purposes, a new person.


Wow. Just wow. Read the whole thing: she's had a lifelong struggle with all kinds of issues; and she's never had results like this.

Quote:
And the amazing, up-lifted feeling didn't end. It didn't go away. It's been three months now. I feel AMAZING. I am totally sober. I am off of all pharmaceutical drugs. I've lost 12 pounds and a pant size. I am exercising. I am working my recovery program. I am eating very healthy. I am excelling in my work. I am no longer avoiding people, places or things. I am facing life and dealing with it. And I am dealing with it very well - to my own total amazement.


From 2007 - 2011, the blog was about her struggle. In mid-2012, she wrote the above post. There were only four more, highly positive, posts after that. And the blog stopped.

To me, that means that the struggle, at last, had ended.
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