ZenAlex

Any chance of mushrooms causing me to get worse?

Yes. Most of my testosterone readings are normal, but apparently my SHBG levels are high.

One thing I've noticed is that throughout my life my lobido has always been quite low, and I've experienced very little sexual attraction to others and no real romantic interest in people. I've had dulled emotions for about 10 years or so.

I don't do drugs of any kind. I've changed my diet since these symptoms started to see if it would make any difference, no dietary changes when the symptoms started though. I didn't exercise regularly for about 6 weeks before these symptoms started, so I'd expect maybe a slight reduction in fitness, but certainly not enough to cause all of these fucking issues. I get 7.5-8.5 hours sleep per day. Since these issues started I do get some interrupted sleep, maybe 1 bad night per week, but that's it. No sleep issues leading up to this.

There's no way you'll know what happens when you die until you actually die. Every belief about what happens when you die or after death could all be complete bullshit.

0.0

Seeing a psychologist right now. Have done therapy twice already, but this time I'm paying for it. Still no alcohol/caffeine. Still meditating daily. Still keeping track of my thoughts. Still perfecting diet. Will consider signing up for IFS therapy. According to my psychologist the waiting list for IFS in UK is 2 years, but maybe I can find an online course.

So my mental health has taken a downwards turn over the last 6 moths or so, to the degree that it's impacting me physically and I'm getting psychosomatic symptoms it seems. Stimulating activities like exercise, work and other things are effecting me worse than usual and my thoughts are more severe. I've done so many physical tests and there's no clear answer as to what is causing it. But I do notice that stress/mentally stimulating activities are quite big contributors to the symptoms, so I assume it's just a case of my mental health declining and these are now the symptoms. I've gone back to see a psychologist, and they happened to bring up IFS Therapy. He cannot perform on it and said the waiting list for that therapy in the UK is about 2 years. He will be doing other forms of therapy on me such as considering emdr therapy and other such therapy, but were just in the process of understand my more deeply. I saw an NHS therapist/psychologist previously and I didn't gain much from it. But I've paid for a private psychologist now, and I feel we've made more progress in 3 sessions than I did with my other therapists in about 20 sessions. I've heard of IFS therapy before and watched videos about it but I suppose never followed up on it, although It makes perfect sense. TL;DR What I want to know is, is it safe to do it by yourself without the guidance of a professional? Is it likely to succeed if your dedicated? Looking for success stories and advice.

@Michael569 Hey Michael, sorry to bother you as I know your life has been on top of you recently. Can you provide any insight on the above? I answers your questions for you. Didn't want to pressure you as I know you're busy, any time you can take a lot of these, I would be very grateful Thanks.

Haha, even as a man in my 30's DBZ is probably my favourite animated show ever. I have to rewatch it every few years. It motivated me to work out at times.

It is always possible it's all in my head but I don't know how many tests I need to do to be absolutely sure that it is tbh. I'm going to purchase a detailed food intolerance and allergy test and see what happens there. It tests for 200+ food intolerances plus also tonnes of allergies. I've got a good psychologist now that seems way more knowledgeable than my NHS one I had previously. We'll see what happens. It will be a complete assessment of my mind and body. If anything comes from all of this hopefully it will be a deepened level of self awareness and mastery. Hopefully it is resolvable. It has been difficult to calm my mind. It has made me appreciative that, for some people, meditation/yoga and standard self help activities really aren't enough in some people's cases. The stuff that worked for me for a long time isn't as effective anymore.

I have been reading some posts on this forum and came across this - https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/41799-psychosomatic-symptoms-from-anxiety/, whic What this guy said really resonated with me. He talked about him having to focus on certain tasks triggered his physical symptoms. I compared that to what I was going through and something clicked. ---------- As some of you may be aware, I've been making posts on the forum, mainly in the health section, where I talk about what I'm trying to rule out when it comes to my symptoms. I've had plenty of blood tests done now, and although there were some signs of what could be causing it, there's no clear deficiency or irregularity in my blood work that are proving to definitely to be causing my problems. I've spent plenty of time, when I'm not procrastinating, trying to figure out why my symptoms are there. A thought occurred to me, when scanning for patterns and connections in the symptoms and what happened, that my stomach issues were the worst in January when my job was the most busy. Towards the end of last year, my call centre was quietish and it gave my mind more time to calm. But at times in january my lightheadedness and stomach problems were the most difficult they'd ever been, and that correlated with me having my mind engaged constantly with taking call after call for the first time since the issues started. I do notice a connection between stress/anxiety and my symptoms now, and I believe my mental health at some point gotten worse and these physical symptoms are a symptom of that. I notice that being at work and doing work that I'm doing makes the lightheadedness worse, so it seems stress related. Any form of mental stimulation is contributing to the symptoms. Monday I spent an hour focusing on a call with my psychologist and reading lots of material, and I felt incredibly irritable afterwards. I am dealing with a psychologist now. I've made changes to my diet to make sure I'm plugging up any nutritional gaps just in case that contributes, but not sure if it is. Important fact, when I look back to around the time my depression/anxiety got the worst, it was about 3 months after starting this new line of work. I never made the connection, but maybe being such an introverted/socially anxious person combined with having to deal with so many customers every single day just didn't click well together and I was so hyper-aroused by the situation I started to suffer with Hypo-arousal, which would explain years of emotional flatness and anhedonia like symptoms. https://mi-psych.com.au/understanding-your-window-of-tolerance/ My psychologist gave me things like his to read while we wait for our next session. It all starts to make sense now. People who suffer from psychosomatic problems often struggle accept it's all psychologically driven and need lots of negative tests for physical problems first before they accept it's psychological. I may be wrong. But we'll see.

I'm consuming meat which gives me a lot of b12 at least 4 times per week. My dairy milk contains 1ug of b12 per 100ml. Eggs twice a week. I'm getting way over the RDA every day on food.

The above could explain why arousing activities are triggering my symptoms. It could explain why exercise is making me feel like this. I don't have exercise intolerance that leads to fatigue/tiredness, it's leading to worse depression/anxiety/irritability because of these reasons above.

The body is designed to move, but I think it's about knowing at what point exercise is benefiting you and making you feel better and at what point the amount of exercise you're doing is no longer going to lead to any health benefits but merely place more stress on the body and your body will simply adapt to it. I do think that exercise beyond a certain point could age you prematurely because intense exercise can increase cortisol and stress ages people. The only thing I'd say is listen to your body. Exercise to a certain degree can make you feel better. Sedentary lifestyles are proven to be unhealthy. So it's about finding the middle ground between unecesssary wear and tear levels so stressful exercise and sedentary.

Sigh that's it? Raw foods. Wow what an amazing revelation.

One thing I've noticed is I have thinning eyebrows, noticed thinning hair, and for several years had irritated eye lids. Thyroid seems ok on the tests. Not sure if this is relevant @Michael569@Jason Actualization @undeather Not sure what else to do now. I feel like I should spend more time trying to find answers, but it's difficult not to procrastinate when nothing is getting you anywhere lol. I don't know where else to go.

Eggs - Because the cholesterol levels are insane lol. I eat fish 3x per week and chicken 1x per week. I drink Milk daily, I also make sure to get a whole milk with 1ug of b12 per 100ml, and I drink tea so I'm trying to get in quite a bit of b12. I personally just hate cooking that much, and am afraid of food poisoning if I get it wrong lol.

Also Michael regarding the stress analysis, I'm not sure. Is it possible it's all psychosomatic? Maybe, it just doesn't make sense that a lack of physical activity calms the symptoms right down, but exercise of any kind, even just walking makes the symptoms worse and it's the primary exacerbator. I understand exercise increases heart rate, but walking has always calmed me down before. I used to be awesome after a hike, now even just 1hr walks leaves me feeling considerably worse. I'd understand if it was high intensity exercise but this is just walking we're talking about here. It never used to be this way. I am seeing a private psychologist now, but it just doesn't make sense for this all to be mental.

But to answer some of your question michael - Do you often experience diziness when standing up fast or hight heart rate without any stimulus? In regards to diziness when standing up, sometimes but it's more often when I get up and start walking aroud I notice it.. If I ever get symptoms like diziness/lightheadness it happens randomly or when walking. Heart rate high without stimulus - Yes this happens I notice that if I've been walking more it happens. And since these issues started my heart rate by default has been higher than it was before. I actually notice sometimes my heart rate increases when I get up. My doctor just said it was likely anxiety. work/life balance? 35 hours per week, nothing strenuous. I'm actually off work sick for the first time in like 6 years. Sleep quality? It has been impacted by these issues, I am waking up during the night almost every night, but I'm getting close to 7-8 hours 5-6 days a week, and I'm usually able to fall back to sleep, but before these issues I could fall out like a light and be asleep for 8+ hours fine. Are there stressors where you live impacting you? (personal, relationship, work, recent trauma etc) Nothing. No trauma, no changes in life circumstances. any mould presence in the house? None that I can see Poor ventilation? I keep my windows open as excess dust can impact my eyes, and of course I cannot open my windows as much during winter, but these symptoms started during the summer where i was outside a lot and my windows were always open. Excessive use of gas cooking? All electric. Very high proximity to busy roads? High levels of polution? Sure I'm close to busy roads. Old carpets? Very old building? Recent or less recent floodings? - My apartment was destroyed by a storm late 2021. I was living with parents from dec 2021-June 2023. My carpets were changed. The whole place was flooded, but it was dried out and everything was gutted, rewired and refurbished. Would you say you are relatively sentive to strong smells or bright lights or loud sounds? My sense of smell for a while has been not great. My appetite for about 10 years has been inconsistent. So I did have pre-existing issues, but I managed them and those symptoms existed for several years before these issues started. Bright lights and loud sounds don't bother me too much. migraines? No.

Btw thank you to all you again for helping me, I know you don't have to. I feel guilty.

Hello. Do you have an email? I can send you all the blood tests via email if you want because there's a lot of them. It would take a long time to screenshot everything.

I've had comprehensive blood tests in 3 different places - twice by an NHS UK doctor, and had other tests in two other companies. b12 as mentioned above and Omega 3. Copper, zinc, folate, thyroid and a bunch of other nutrient based blood tests done. Only things showing any concern is omega 3 and b12, although b12 is within normal ranges according to doc. I was put on a 24 hour BP monitor. According to my doc, sometimes it was a "little low" but not out of healthy range, but she wasn't overly concerned about it because she said it could because I'm healthy. My BP, according to the one I use myself, sometimes goes down to 95-100 over 60/65, but rarely ever below what's considered healthy. She no longer seems concerned about this or is just chalked it down to anxiety. It sometimes goes as high as 125-80, but calms down quickly, and often rests at 110/115-65/70. I thought hypoglycaemia may have been the issue, but I used a GM and my blood sugar always seems to be in normal ranges. I even went out for a walk on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, came back and it was 4.2. I was put on a 24 hour ECG - No issues raised. They said any irregularity detected was of no major concern. They now seem to be insinuating all my other symptoms as stress/anxiety, My stomach issues - They tested me for celiac but nothing showed. They again said stress could be causing it. They prescribed me an anti-spazm medication to take before every meal, but I have decided not to take it because of concerns about side effects and also doing my own experiments. They told me to take it for a month and they will call me back... lol. I have avoided eating gluten recently, but I also took a break from longer walks as physical activity aggrivates my stomach. I will add gluten back into my diet soon and if my issues arise again, that may be an answer, but I'm also increase my walks again slowly, and if that aggravates it, then ok. But I'm hoping me being able to take a solid shit again now is due to my dietary changes (improved omega and b12) working well. We'll see. I'm going for a 7-8 thousand step walk tonight, and hopefully I will feel ok. Some walks can be very peaceful. I was one walking 15 miles a day on the weekend an 8-10 miles a day on the weekdays. I miss it. It's better than meditaton.

Typical Incel thoughts and mindset - JUST TO BE CLEAR NOT MY PERSONAL VIEW. 1) I'm ugly, and I'll never get laid because I didn't win the genetic lottery. 2) There's nothing I can do to improve my chances of getting laid, I'm fucked. Self improvement is pointless. 3) Women are virtue signalling whores who lie by saying they care about personality, but all they care about is looks and money. All they care about is getting dicked by chads. BTW I'm not talking about all guys struggling to get laid, I'm talking about a typical incel in the incel community.

Agreed. You cannot chase truth if you're so mentally disabled you don't even know what is going on in the room around you.