ZenAlex

I understand but it's not what you're thinking. It's not a case that I'm alone with my thoughts and I feel depressed WHILE exercising. I can be alone with my thoughts just fine, but exercise/physical activity itself is causing me to feel like shit after.

How am I supposed to find out? Also did you experience issues with exercising? I'm noticing massive builds up of random depression, anxiety, lightheadedness when just walking. My doctors think its just in my head, but I don't think it is.

It makes no sense that my omegas would be that out of whack. Before my test I was consuming a DHA supplement every day plus also consuming chia seeds daily and according to cronometer I was getting a great omega 3/6 ratio.

Had two tests done. One said I had 42 ug/l, one said 85 ug/l Both tests were within range but not sure if these are low because different sources give different optimal ranges. I've been suffering with depression/irritability/anxiety after exercise/physical activity. The more I exercise, the worse I feel. I don't know if ferritin is the cause. Iron is at 15.9 umol/L. Showing on the lower end of the acceptable range. Any thoughts?

@Jason Actualization Hello Jason. I got some more lab results back, apparently my omega 3 ratio is not good despite supplementing, although the test was BEFORE I started eating meat, especially fish. I also had concerning testosterone levels apparently. I have very little sex drive. Although the total testosterone level is marginally high, it is now generally agreed that the 'free testosterone' is a more accurate estimation of the true testosterone level in the blood. By this reckoning, you do not have excessive testosterone in the body. The high total level is likely to be down to a high level of Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) level. SHBG is a protein made by the liver which transports hormones in the blood. It favours testosterone and oestrogen, but can potentially transport all hormones, including thyroid hormones. When hormones are carried on SHBG, they are not active, and only free hormones (those which are unbound) are able to enter cells to cause effect. If SHBG levels are too high, the effective level of hormones may be too low to exert proper effect. SHBG can be elevated after intense training programmes (although will often drop in the immediate aftermath of an event), in hyperthyroid states, if too much thyroxine is taken and if there is chronic liver disease and in other circumstances. Lowering the SHBG level may have an impact upon general performance, and will increase the amount of testosterone available to your body. Increased protein intake and a number of supplements - eg Boron, Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc Vitamin D, Fish oil (or any other polyunsaturated fatty acid supplements) and Tongkat Ali - may all help lower SHBG levels. The omega 6:omega 3 ratio is on the higher side of the target, at 19.93 :1 - compared to the ideal of less than 2:1. (The report has omitted the ':1', apologies). The omega 3 index at 5.8% is just within the preferred range however (the index is the proportion of your serum that is omega 3 fatty acids). Omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids are 2 different classes of polyunsaturated fats. They are both important constituents of our diet and form building blocks for many substances in our body. Omega 6 fats are primarily converted into a range of pro-inflammatory hormones and omega 3 into anti-inflammatory hormones. A balance of both is important. In a western diet, there tends to be an imbalance in most people because there is a large amount of omega 6 in our diets from chemically extracted vegetable oils, and a relative lack of food sources of omega 3 like cold water fish and grass fed or wild meat. Target ratios are quoted to be between 4:1 and 1:1 of omega 6 to omega 3. Most Americans are believed to have a ratio in the region of 20:1 (similar to your ratio). The ideal omega 3 index is around 8% - most western individuals are in the region of 4%. The hypothesis is that those with too much omega 6 make too many inflammatory substances - which may lead to long term damage to the body. Correcting the balance is possible by increasing the omega 3 intake (1g daily is advised), and reducing the intake of omega 6.

@Ulax Do you think it would have been possible to resolve your issues without drugs or not? Part of me finds it sad that natural solutions don't seem to work for some people and the only thing that does work is a drug that could do harm as well as good.

Evidence?

Imagine regardless of what you do you struggle to really care about anything because you're that emotionally flat lined.

I don't know. It's been so long, I sometimes struggle to even care anymore if it is possible. When that happens I just try going to sleep and seeing how that will make me feel in the morning.

I also admit I'm struggling with apathy and low motivation. I often feel like I don't even care.

Meditation is difficult as I have ADHD unfortunately. This is why Eckhart Tolle's idea on just being helped me. I didn't need to focus, just sit and let everything be as it is. I've been doing it for 1 hour a day for years.

What worked for you?

I suppose the reason I feel this way is because unfortunately some of the stuff I am trying cannot involve regular effort from me, I'm sitting and waiting to have tests done, and there's nothing I can do in the mean time but wait sometimes. I wish resolving the problem would involve constant effort and the more effort I put in, the sooner I resolve the problem. I have no choice but to go out and walk to places, but walking is causing me depression, anxiety and triggering mild anxiety attacks and lightheadedness. I'm also getting intermittent tinnitus. Based on my test results, b12 deficiency is the only physical problem that makes sense, if it's not this, then I may just because worsening mental health impacting me physically, if that is the case that I'll see another psychologist, as all the self help stuff like meditation, walking etc is not working as effectively anymore. If these things don't work, then I will likely kill myself because these issues have stolen the last 6 months of my life, when I was already suffering with MH problems anyway, but I had them undercontrol. I have barely been able to enjoy anything during this time, and the doctors are starting to insinuate it's all in my head, which it may be. I'm even starting to get stomach issues. I've not had a solid shit in 2 months now.

@Jason Actualization Hello guys. So the above iron levels were done by a private company in novemeber. October NHS levels - 48 ug/l for ferritin November private company 85 (See above) Just had another NHS test done - Ferritin is 45 ug/l. This is despite eating more meat over the last few weeks. @undeather You said Ferritin can fluctuate, what do you mean by that? Also I've noticed that despite consuming more b12 via food over the last 2 weeks, my B12 levels have only slightly increased, and gone from 292 ng/l to 293ng/l (nanograms per lite). ---------- I also asked a doctor about potential pernicous anemia - Here's what he had to say Thank you for your question about pernicious anaemia. Your full blood count results, especially the haemoglobin and the red cell markers (MCV and MCH), suggest that you are very unlikely to have pernicious anaemia. In persons with pernicious anaemia the haemoglobin level declines to below the normal ranges (hence the term "anaemia") and the red cell size increase with the MCV and MCH usually above the normal range. If you have ongoing concerns about the vitamin B12 level you can request a repeat B12 and a blood methylmalonic acid level. This test is rather costly but is a sensitive marker of functional vitamin B12 deficiency. To specifically screen for pernicious anaemia we recommend gastric parietal cell antibody and intrinsic factor antibody testing. However, based on your full blood count results (red cell results) and the vitamin B12 level it is unlikely that you have pernicious anaemia.

I have stopped being vegan just in case. I've done many tests for Covid and none have come back confirming Covid.

Haha it's ok. I don't appear to be iron deficient tho.

In reality if you are what can be described as a healthy vegan, you may not suffer for years.

Would self administered IFS therapy help me here? Essentially the symptoms of my mental health condition has gotten worse, and I'm literally talking to myself sometimes for 30-120 minutes a day, acting out physically some internal arguments inside of myself. I have gone back to check myself in for therapy, but the waiting list is 18 months. I told them my issues make me feel homicidal and suicidal sometimes and that it's making me feel crazy. Real life situations aren't the main trigger, it almost feels like I don't have a trigger, it's just arguments coming out of nowhere, sometimes fights that may involve me becoming violent towards the characters in my head, or them being violent to me, or me being infront of a crowd or a set of people that I have to argue against. When I'm actually around people I'm ok, I'm not all that antagonistic.

There are so many bad doctors out there dude.

It took me a while to figure out what it could be, I've had these symptoms for 5 months, I hope no irreversible damage has occurred due to it going on for so long. I didn't have the symptoms earlier last year so maybe not

@Jason Actualization @undeather @LfcCharlie4 These are the two tests I'm awaiting results on https://www.medichecks.com/products/methylmalonic-acid-mma-blood-test Cannot take b12 supps right now as need to avoid but getting MMA test done next week, as soon as bloods drawn, b12 supps daily. This one I had done along side an omega 3 test - https://bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk/products/sports-blood-test-profile?_pos=1&_sid=574883dad&_ss=r Although the dumb asses at blue horizon didn't tell me to stop supplementing at any point until 2 days before testing they said "yeah stop supplementing 6-8 weeks before hand". But it should only impact a couple of things, it's the zinc, copper, magnesium I'm mainly interested in. I'm eating animal products to avoid further b12 deterioration.

@Jason Actualization Hi again, just looked at my diet plan, I am getting 10mg of zinc per day and 2.9mg of copper. Will look into zinc supp to take my zinc up to 20mg and copper is 3 so at least I'll be getting up to a 7/1 ratio or there abouts and work from there

I personally cannot but 9/10 when I've met people with permanent injury problems it's people who ran/jogged. Running seems to cause most fitness related injuries. It's why I stopped jogging and started using an exercise bike.

Agreed. Just sit for an hour like sadhguru says. Just sitting, not resisting or controlling.

Agreed. Eckhart tolle inspired me to "just sit" and let everything be as it is. I do just sitting for 1 hour a day, especially when I cannot meditate due to adhd