Interventions for ADHD
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My brother suffers with symptoms of ADHD (trouble focusing, sleeping, anxiety etc.) He has been on low-dose Wellbutrin for a couple years and says marijuana helps but he was looking for my opinion on better/safer options. Was looking at his bloodwork and saw low thyroid, low vitamin D at one point but had normalized within a couple years. No recent bloodwork however. Some theories i had are low GABA, low magnesium, or maybe thyroid. What is the best option to treat from a peat perspective maybe Allop, pregnenelone, or T3? magnesium glycinate? He also gets jitters and anxiety from coffee which leads me to believe its a nutrient deficiency or thyroid issue. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
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@ThinPicking said in ADHD, Severe fatigue, digestion problems etc..:
Warning. This should not be attempted without ongoing supervision, at the very least rhetorically. And I'm very busy q4h. I'm also not speaking from experience. I happened on indications for attention issues while deconstructing ethanol.
Arbaclofen is just a money spinner, baclofen would probably be fine. In a tiny 5mg dose, once or twice a day. Probably.
But really. Almost anything GABAergic will have a small, biphasic and concentration dependant dopaminergic window.
Try theanine if you haven't already. In the smallest dose you can find. And/or taurine.
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@Serotoninskeptic Also to add, his temperature and pulse are fine but his extremities (hands and feet) feel cold. He has to wear socks in order to sleep. He also reported getting cold extremities after drinking the coffee. This leads me to believe cortisol and/or adrenaline are chronically elevated.
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@ThinPicking Would AlloP work similarly? It is a powerful GABA agonist from what ive heard
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Interesting detail because I suspect there's some vasopressin/tonicity reasons for the indications above. And this, and more to be found on a deeper search...
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15464858/
Thicken him up!
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Probably, and Taurine, and straight GABA. Try stuff to get him there at the lowest dose possible (to my mind). Starting with correcting his food/fluid behaviour. Which can be hard on self description, if you don't live with him. And harder still for him to discipline himself into maintaining.
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@ThinPicking Interesting study, thanks for this. I noticed he drinks a ton of water too and I don't know why. Wonder if thats effecting his salt balance. Im getting him a reverse osmosis filter so he stops drinking dirty tap sludge also lol.
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@ThinPicking Yea he currently lives on his own. He doesn't seem to have any interest in nutrition and would prefer a pill/med to cure his problems. He wanted something with instant effects like he gets with smoking marijuana. Not sure if thats realistic though as a lot of these substances have mild or accumulative effects.
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Ok yea it's this (almost but not quite) 100%. His circulatory (everything really) will be habituated to it. There's a rush to it, can be addictive.
How deep is your love (some humour). Go and live with him for a week or take him in.
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@ThinPicking I call him often and am always checking up on him, visit on the weekends and such. He's dealt with depression and anxiety for years and usually comes to me because I used to struggle with the same things and got better myself. Over the summer we had a devastating breakup with his girlfriend of two years and has been really down ever since.
Idont think he gets easily addicted to substances as hes been able to come off marijuana for months at a time, the only reason he goes back is because he enjoys the “ritual” of smoking, plus it helps him focus. Brewing tea and coffee gave him a similar satisfying feeling. He reacts better to decaffeinated.
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@Serotoninskeptic said:
He also gets jitters and anxiety from coffee which leads me to believe its a nutrient deficiency or thyroid issue. Any advice is appreciated.
He also reported getting cold extremities after drinking the coffee. This leads me to believe cortisol and/or adrenaline are chronically elevated.
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@Serotoninskeptic said in Interventions for ADHD:
He doesn't seem to have any interest in nutrition and would prefer a pill/med to cure his problems. He wanted something with instant effects like he gets with smoking marijuana. Not sure if thats realistic though as a lot of these substances have mild or accumulative effects.
To get him to start making behavioural/sense distinctions and making some memories to that effect, you could capsulate some salt for him and go from there. Or get preformed 'salt pills'.
Just give him some shit (humour, british humour) so he's actually paying attention to himself. And doesn't continue sabotaging the upside. Salt alone will help him retain all other structure, and stop dissolving himself. Other substances become more potent in their effect too.
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@Serotoninskeptic said in Interventions for ADHD:
I call him often and am always checking up on him, visit on the weekends and such. He's dealt with depression and anxiety for years and usually comes to me because I used to struggle with the same things and got better myself. Over the summer we had a devastating breakup with his girlfriend of two years and has been really down ever since.
Ok thank you. And you're a good guy serotoninskeptic! Inevitably this forms part of what's going on with him. As he walks in to this other stuff, there may be some pain in the woodwork. Talk it through...
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@CrumblingCookie Since he was little hes always had a tendency towards craving sweets actually. Ice cream, soda, OJ, gummy bears etc. Made sure he put lots of sugar in his coffee but it didnt seem to help with the stress reaction.
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Until someone figures out their issue with fructose properly, that's an edge case protocol.
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@ThinPicking Yea its great talking to him and I care a lot about his wellbeing. I try my hardest to help just through conversation and he does see a therapist also (been seeing for 2-3 years) but it doesn't seem to help much these days. I wish he would go for dietary changes first but its hard to convince people just how important nutrition is for proper functioning.I dont think he would really follow through with my dietary recommendations which is why I originally asked about supplementation.
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Our biggest frustration in this community eh. They're in my life too.
So dump salt caps/pills, taurine, gaba, thianine, and maybe maybe maybe allop and/or baclofen on his doorstep and keep talking. Ease him off the water and in to more of the sugar/protein. Get him drinking OJ with a pinch of salt and a bit of added sugar if he likes it. Same with milk. etc. etc.
Maybe he has the self sustaining attention of a hawk in 3 months flat.
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@ThinPicking Yep can be frustrating but I try to be very patient and understanding.
Any idea on proper dosing for theanine and taurine etc? In order to feel the GABAergic effects -
I'm thin picking this from thin air because I rarely take things and only very low doses these days. But for someone who's been prone to guzzling water I'd take a gram of taurine 3 times a day, and thianine can feel really odd above the normally marketed 250mg dose, so just that.
Baclofen is a blunt instrument so I have to say 5mg twice a day to stay in good conscience. GABA itself I've never tried, but I might soon just to have fun with it. There's a very old packet somewhere I never used.
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@ThinPicking Okay thanks so much for the advice. Means a lot
