I was reading an account of someone suffering from severe depression, and it struck me that it is characterized by an inability to initiate actions. Almost like a Parkinson's sufferer, who have trouble beginning a motion on their own.
Though in one case, it seems mental, and in the other it is physical, I wonder if they don't have the same root cause somehow. So I went and looked:
Quote:
In a (2013) study, researchers report that people diagnosed with depression were three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD) than those without psychiatric illness. However, it remains unclear whether depression is an independent risk factor for Parkinson’s or an early symptom of the disease. The results appear in the October 2 online edition of Neurology.
Study Links Depression to Increased Parkinson’s Risk
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All righty then.
So, to develop the thought that just got some support, niacin has an a definite beneficial effect on my mood. While my issue was anxiety, not depression, there are many accounts of how niacin helps depression, too. But it also certainly helped my brain problem that was my own, seemingly physical,
inability to initiate.
I had all these little errands that just seemed overwhelming. So they didn't get done. Yet, over the past few days I have cooked a casserole and cleaned up after, packaged a defective item to be sent back to the store, and ran three complicated errands in a row to prepare for a snowstorm.
Everyone else's normal, perhaps. But I could not do it when I was so exhausted. Was it mental or was it physical? Or does it matter?
I keep coming to back to niacin's true status as an amino acid. I had long felt that my brain problem was simply running out of neurotransmitters, and I tried 5HTP, GABA, and even pregnenolone in an effort to supply what was missing; at least long enough to tell if it helped.
With the exception of the pregnenolone, which helped my sleep, nothing worked. But now, the niacin, does. It is allowing me to
close the switch and get an action started.
It all seems connected somehow.