Average Investor

@no_name The caffine could still be an underlying cause for the issue. It could be related a lack of interest in your topics, burnout, stress, or other issues too. What do you define as a good diet?

@no_name I am significantly better. I invested years into developing a healthy life style. Back when I was taking the Adderall I was eating the standard American diet and I didn't exercise much. I required a lot of things like caffine to keep me going throughout the day. I have eliminated all processed sugars, processed foods, and caffine. I have worked on building a whole food diet that is suited to me. I have done an elimination diet to find what foods work best for me. I also invested in my exercise heavily. Doing things like meditation daily as well seems to have helped a lot with my focus. At this point I am significantly more energetic, than I was back then. Sure, it is hard to beat the productivity of being on amphetamines, but it comes at a lot more of a cost. Building discipline and a healthy life style can bring some surprising results. The problem with taking something like that is it will just compound the amount of stress on you body. It will make it even harder to be a good baseline level of health and energy. It is a lot more work to do it naturally, than to just take a pill. There are some natural substances that could also help. However, they still will not provide the kind of results a good life style can.

@no_name I was basically at a point where I needed something like that to operate through school. I became depressed and very unmotivated after I stopped taking it. I am not sure how much of a correlation there was to that though. If I were able to start building up my energy and focus naturally that would have been the best investment. I did not have the knowledge or know how at the time though.

Something like modafinil could be a better alternative potentially if you insist on taking a drug to do it. I use to take Adderall in college a bit to help cram for stuff I procrastinated on. It was going great until I stopped taking it. I don't recommend it personally.

If you plan to do ACC, then I would do it exactly as the protocol says to do. You could start with any of the chelators really. However, from the research I did it seems best to start with DMSA, then introduce a bit of ALA at a later round.

This forum is pretty good for that. I have some people on here I have kept communication with for years. Something to consider though is that it is hard to compare it to someone you see in person. I find that I crave that a bit still.

You could go try out something like toastmasters. It is a lot easier to make friends if you see someone repeatedly. Some sort of club or social thing.

I found it helped me to remove any distracting apps off of my phone. I also have made the google search to where it does no show any trending search or articles. Another thing I found helpful was using the app blocksite to restrict certain cites off my phone. Granted, I still spend a good deal of time on my computer. For me it saves me a lot of hours to block a lot of those applications. I use similar things on my computer and will even use a different user account to help keep me focused.

It took me several years of highly refining my diet and life style to get rid of a lot of the anxiety and depression I had. I found caffine to be a big source of anxiety for me. Weed was also a big issue. I eat all organic whole foods now. I make all of my own food as well. I have a list of about 10 foods that I cannot eat or I will get brain fog or other issues. I spent a lot of time slowly adding foods into my diet to really test what works best for me. I found doing some heavy metal chelation was a bit helpful for my depersonalization issues I had for years. However, I would not really recommend that unless you have done some serious gut healing and really worked on your life style. I found doing regular meditation for years helped me as well. It seemed to take awhile though. Personally I never tried any of the medications. So I can't really say what is the most optimal there.

If the conversation came to that point where it made sense to mention it, then you could. However, on a first date I would not mention something like that. The best way to be honest and project your best self is to not come in there with a bunch of strategies or lines you came up with. Just have fun and see where it goes.

I think it would change the setting there a bit. It might have been better to introduce yourself at that point. That or maybe just say you were introducing yourself. Regardless, that sounds like a tough thing to have happen on a 7th approach. Time to go do some more.

Makes sense. Still would be thousands of dollars though if you were planning to do it for years. I do not recommend any sort of IV chelation though. Typically, I would get notified as well, but this thread did not notify me. Either works great as long as they are good quality. The user @Michael569 is a nutritional therapy practitioner. Basically, right in between a health coach and a naturopath. I worked with him for over a year and got some amazing results. Here is his website https://www.andro-health.com/ I would highly recommend him as a place to start. He is knowledgeable on stomach protocols and liver/kidney detoxing, which would lay a great foundation for doing chelation later on if you decide to do that. He does not do anything chelation specific though. However, he could address a lot of other issues. I had an issue with SIBO that go cured by working with him. ACC is the most know and reliable thing for it right now. However, it is quite inefficient. One issue on that forum is that they will not let you speak about any other form of chelation. So there is a heavy bias there. If you wanted to look into alternatives, then you could not use their forum to do so.

It is really not that hard to let go of someone toxic. Drop all communication with them. Realistically you are not going to be able to get most people to do any sort of self help. As much as your friend is asking for your help, it sounds like they are not really doing much to solve the problem. It might be tempting to try to fix these people, but it is going to be a waste of your time.

@TimDavid I have seen some good results of people with autism doing heavy metal chelation. However, I would not go to it as a first step. If you have not already, I would heavily invest into your diet and lifestyle. A lot of modern "food" causes a lot of brain fog and related symptoms. There is even the possibility of things like food allergies or some other kind of issue causing the brain fog. Those andy cutler groups will not recommend stuff like that, but I would use it as a first step. Things like mold in your environment could even be causing a lot of the issues too. As for other protocols. You are going to have to do some more digging. I would highly suggest researching all that is available for this kind of stuff. I looked into this for two years before even trying anything. I also had read two of Andy Cutlers books. You are going to have to decide what is best for you. You should understand the risk and reward of what you are taking well. Also, you should dig deeper into the issues that you have. You could potentially find a lot of things that could help treat those issues directly. A lot of the heavy metal chelation could be hit or miss. Doing ACC protocol is going to be costly, long, and you will have to bare getting minor improvements gradually. That is why I suggest getting your diet and life style in order first. I recommend priming your body for the months and potentially years of chelation. You should also not be chelating with any amalgam fillings. If you have the money, then I would suggest working with a health coach or a naturopathic doctor. If you work with a good one it will greatly speed up the kind of results that you are looking to get. I have also seen people that specialize in chelation that you can pay. If you research that well, it should not be difficult to set up.

I assume you just want some input on provoked versus non-provoked testing. I also am not really big on doing a provoked test, but there is some pretty credible naturopaths that do use that. I don't think there is a lot of useful information coming from it to justify it. However, there is a lot of ways to go about it. There are even other protocols entirely that are effective, that Andy doesn't recommend. You are going to have to decide what is going to work best for your situation. If you are planning to chelate either way, then I wouldn't even waste my money or time on either of those tests. While you are here there is a lot of other great stuff. I would not really come here for chelation advice, but browse around. Leo has a really good selection of personal development videos.

I have been approached a few times by women. I have even been directly called cute. At the time I was not able to handle being called cute like that. However, on the other approaches, I was just mildly interested and they expected me to just carry it after they opened. Now that I am much more confident and social it would not be an issue. I don't mind being approached. I would say if you plan to do it, then try to hold the conversation. I have had girls just stand there after they opened. I also think you don't really need to out right approach that much. Just give good eye contact and smile. Most guys can pick up on that, but most probably still won't approach.

Do you think if you went through with surgery that you would really never have to think about it again? Would it solve the root issue?

From the statistics I have seen, vaping has been the best tool for quitting. I think in part it is because it is close to giving a similar sensation while using it. Where a pouch is not really going to be that comparable. I was addicted to vaping for probably about 5 years. It wasn't too bad to quit doing it. It was pretty difficult for a month or so, but it was bearable. For me I had just reached a place where it made no sense to do it anymore. I was doing a lot of other things right with my health and I was jogging a lot. I replaced it with jogging, meditation, reading, etc.

I was in a bit of an abusive relationship about 4 years ago. Since then I have not dated again. I've definitely changed and grown quite a bit since then. I get some opportunities here and there for taking women out and I never do. I am pretty good at attracting them and talking with them, but I never ask them on a date. I get situations that I could take them on a date easily. For example, I basically stared into a girls eyes for like 3 minutes yesterday with smiling etcs and she reciprocated. She is pretty, but she seemed maybe a bit younger than I would like, but I don't really know her age. So in my mind I just justified not asking her out because she is likely too young and maybe that is the case (still a legal age). I am definitely attracted to her and by her response, she would very likely want to go. I feel like my mind will start coming up with all of these other reasons not to go. I fear that, I might date them and hurt their feelings. The thought that I might be missing out ton opportunities to move and travel. That and maybe missing opportunities to advance my career and business. That and maybe more subtle is just finding a low quality partner again. I do wonder about their level of development as well. I usually just assume any girl I meet doesn't do any sort of self-help and isn't serious about their life. I do feel a bit bad by attracting them. The girl in the example did start with the staring, but I have done that a lot in the past. I will attract a girl and not do anything with it. Some of them might even see me every week after the fact. I have been working on not giving them eye contact and other signs though. I would feel bad if I had sex with them and did not date them after the fact too. I am working on filter them out more, so it happens less too. I don't actively do anything to meet women at the moment, but meet these women at stores and other places I need to go. I am also working on my life purpose and have other focuses in my life. I suppose one other limiting thing is just living with my mom, but even that isn't really stopping me. I don't mind getting a hotel etc. However, I can use that to justify not doing anything too. I am actively working on fixing that right now too. My life purpose is going to generate enough income to travel more and live elsewhere soon. What could I work on to heal some of these issues? I feel indecisive with my situation regarding this.

Thank you. I would not consider myself one to dwell much on it, but I think the information is important to think about moving forward. I have been working on forgiveness for a few years with family members. I don't have any sour feelings for the ex, but more so am cautious because of it. I find it difficult to turn away once, I go a bit too deep with women. So I will defiantly keep practicing. I am still working on going on dates. I have had much more opportunities lately. I am going to do more work on my values and what I actually want though too.

I think so too. I am quite similar in the regard. My ex was literally on her knees crying and begging me to stay. I have had a similar thing with another ex as well, but not as dramatic. Pretty much. I want to be able to explore a lot. I am considering trying out more girls rather than a few. I have only had a handful of girlfriends, but they were mostly long term. I will work on being more clear about that. I think about part is just being clear with myself that I want to be able to do that. I don't want to get suckered into some crappy relationship. In the past I have been unable to do this, but I suppose I need to be a bit more ruthless. Of course without pushing that too far and hurting them.

@bejapuskas I think you are right in regards to what I can do. There is really no other way around me figuring out what I want without actually doing any dates, or having some sex. I had multiple times I wanted to leave my ex, but did not. I think I need to act faster in the future and filter them out better. Pretty much all of that. My ex was really on the gaslighting as well. She would push lies to others, then make it seem like I was the liar.

I can see how that could be healing for that. For myself, it's uncommon to get hugs from family members. Approval and validation aren't very common either. I didn't speak to my father for about 7-8 years until more recently. I am not sure exactly what I can pinpoint as what needs healing from that. However, I am sure this has something to do with my distrust and disinterest in a relationship. I have been doing my own thing though too, so it isn't like I have been upset by being single for these last several years. It has just been a pattern that I have noticed in myself. I would not consider it difficult to find a girlfriend for myself. However, I think more options would be better.

Just my personal take on it. The only way to really know how much metals are stored in you body is autopsy. I am sure someone could make some educated guesses with a provoked test. Another issue I find is that a lot of the symptoms for heavy metal toxicity are pretty vague. It seems like there is so many possibilities of what it could cause. So diagnosis is quite difficult. Personally, I would track all of my symptoms and see how they react to chelation. If I continue to feel better, then that could be a green light for more. With ACC it shows a dip of not feeling great. It seems the same with other chelation protocols as well.

@Raptorsin7 That makes sense. I believe a fair amount of this just stems from not receiving enough love as a child. My ex-partners abuse was similar to the kind of abuse from my parents as well. I don't believe that I would tolerate abuse anymore. However, my ex nearly destroyed my life. So to a degree, I am much more aware of these things. I am considering asking this girl that I mentioned here just to see what happens. I notice myself bouncing back between excitement and fear. I do kind of think she might be a little younger, than I would like, but I have no idea.