Anxiety!

[SusanJ]

I am struggling more and more with anxiety.

Going to throw out a few ideas from Ben Lynch's book Dirty Genes. You might have a slow COMT, which would slow the clearance of neurotransmitters, leaving you on the wired/anxious side.

For slow COMT, are you more of a workaholic, but then eventually crash? Did you have PMS or fibroids pre-menopause? Means you're not clearing catechols (eg tea, coffee, chocolate), estrogen, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine well. He recommends adaptogens like ashwaghanda, magnesium, meditation and working on methylation with creatine and phosphtidylcholine (do you have MTHFR or other methylation issues?). Watch your chemical exposure (eg Roundup and the like), eat more beets, carrots, cruciferous veggies and bitter vegetables like dandelion greens and radishes to support the liver. He also recommends eating larger amounts of your protein earlier in the day, and eating lighter in the evening. He also says that phosphatidylserine can help with sleep, along with magnesium malate, niacin (which uses up methyl groups) and B6. And don't watch TV news or read news in the evening. Sets you up to ruminate.

I personally do all of the above, except the phosphatidylserine and ashwaghanda, and find I can sleep through the night now. Eating more of my daily protein earlier in the day (I used to eat most of my protein at night), and using creatine and PC are the last 3 things that likely made that positive shift for me because I was doing everything else (meditation, organic veggies, magnesium, B6). The interesting thing is that my COMT is considered "normal," hence his theory that any gene can become compromised or "dirty."

If this gets you part way to better sleep, you might consider reading the whole book for other places to fine-tune your approach.

[circular]

Mainstream workaholic society worries too much about stuff that's really unimportant in the greater scheme of things, and sometimes I just need to say: "not my circus, not my monkeys" ...[/list]

Love this

[circular]

How you practice Gratitude is individual. Some find that writing in a Journal is helpful. Some find expressing it "in the moment" works. Some find a combination of both work best. Personally, I'm a "in the moment" kind of person.

Carrie, I LOVE your idea of practicing gratitude in the moment. I will begin today. I’ve tried using a gratitude journal about half a dozen times, and I never stuck with it. But I can see how your method could work for me. Thank you.

This is me too, the in the moment gratitude approach. To me it goes hand in hand with being mindfully in the flow (not that I'm always there ) I do find that having at notebook at my desk is helpful. If my desk work is starting to frustrate me, I take a colored pen (I usually use generic blue) and write something in the notebook I'm grateful for, or in some other way reframe what's happening. It helps bring me back.

[circular]

I find Brain.fm to be a very useful app and it's been worth the monthly subscription fee to me. If I can't get back to sleep I put on the nightsounds track from the relax menu for 15 minutes. Sometimes that puts me to sleep. If not, then when it's done I switch to a sleep track for napping 45 minutes. Invariably this works and I wake up hours later after good sleep.

I'm willing to pay the fee because the people behind this app are actually doing clinical research using MRIs etc. (scroll down to see the research team). While they haven't yet published, for now I'm going with: 1) that they say results so far are promising, and 2) I've had good experiences with the app. I feel, as a lay person and as best as I can surmise, that they are way more advanced than other free apps out there, including the one Dr. Bredesen recommends, NeuralAgility (obtainable to us for free although it has a $99 charge ... weird?), which doesn't appear to have any substance behind it at all as far as I can discern.

What's more, Brain.fm uses 3D sound, which is amazing! I have read some reviews online that some people don't like the sound of the sound ( ), but I love it.

Edit: I agree it's best not to have cell phones in the bedroom, but I don't have a choice since I'm a caretaker and others call me on it during the night. I use a radiation shield, the iPhone's blue light filter, and another blue light filter layer over the glass, some things that could make it possible for anyone needing an app to help them de-stress and sleep in the middle of the night to do so with less worry.

[Chameleon]

I was just reading about Valerian today - that is said to help with anxiety and sleep.

[circular]

I also often get up and do some stretches while listening to the relaxation track in Brain.fm, but you could try stretching without listening to anything. It also really helps to do the stretching right before going to bed but I don't always do it. I find my hamstrings and hip flexors and back are most in need. I use a heating pad on them too.

The other thing I thought to mention are downloadable guided imagery sessions by Belleruth Naparstek. I don't know if she only appeals to women, but I know a lot of women she appeals too. There is one for anxiety, but there are also others for a number of different emotions that could be driving the anxiety. So often there are some deep seated emotions behind anxiety, and getting at those might be preferable to any number of pills we could pop trying to ease it, or good in conjunction with them.

[Wondering]

I am struggling more and more with anxiety.

Going to throw out a few ideas from Ben Lynch's book Dirty Genes. You might have a slow COMT, which would slow the clearance of neurotransmitters, leaving you on the wired/anxious side.

For slow COMT, are you more of a workaholic, but then eventually crash? Did you have PMS or fibroids pre-menopause? Means you're not clearing catechols (eg tea, coffee, chocolate), estrogen, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine well. He recommends adaptogens like ashwaghanda, magnesium, meditation and working on methylation with creatine and phosphtidylcholine (do you have MTHFR or other methylation issues?). Watch your chemical exposure (eg Roundup and the like), eat more beets, carrots, cruciferous veggies and bitter vegetables like dandelion greens and radishes to support the liver. He also recommends eating larger amounts of your protein earlier in the day, and eating lighter in the evening. He also says that phosphatidylserine can help with sleep, along with magnesium malate, niacin (which uses up methyl groups) and B6. And don't watch TV news or read news in the evening. Sets you up to ruminate.

I personally do all of the above, except the phosphatidylserine and ashwaghanda, and find I can sleep through the night now. Eating more of my daily protein earlier in the day (I used to eat most of my protein at night), and using creatine and PC are the last 3 things that likely made that positive shift for me because I was doing everything else (meditation, organic veggies, magnesium, B6). The interesting thing is that my COMT is considered "normal," hence his theory that any gene can become compromised or "dirty."

If this gets you part way to better sleep, you might consider reading the whole book for other places to fine-tune your approach.

This is very interesting - and it sure sounds like me! I have always been very sensitive to any type of chemicals, toxins, medications, etc. Definitely had intense PMS and a couple of fibroids. Workaholic historically? Uh-huh. I already take most, but not all, of the supplements you mentioned. It wasn't obvious to me that I had methylation issues back when I first had genetic info to examine - but I wasn't focused on that at the time, so it's probably worth re-examining. I tend to eat the larger part of my protein at dinner - that's easy enough to change. I'll see if I can get a hold of the book. Thank you so much for your post!

[Anna]

Hello Wondering. I too am post-menopausal and struggle with anxiety and difficulty staying sleep and have tried quite a few things over the years, including SSRI's (not a good match for me) and trazodone (works great for sleep but dried my mouth out too much, and I think it might be a little bit anticholinergic -- not good for the brain.). Now I'm using more natural strategies. I started taking CBD a few months ago and have noticed a definite decline in anxiety, as well as deeper sleep (Even if it's not more hours, it's more continuous, and I feel more rested). I've also found that stabilizing my blood sugar and striving toward a ketogenic diet (large amounts of healthy fats -- especially at my first meal--, tons of veggies, moderate protein, and a conservative amount of carbs) has helped a ton with anxiety and sleep. I've historically tended to be a workaholic, but lately I make a point of taking time during the day (more than once) to do something relaxing. I also take Ashwagandha at bed time (an occasionally with breakfast too); it works far better than I expected. And sometimes I add low-dose melatonin during insomnia spells. I do have a couple of those COMT mutations, as well has homozygous MTHFR 1298c (which impacts neurotransmitters), so I'm sure they aren't helping the situation!