Did Peat every comment on anxiety-associated behaviors like nail-biting, hair-pulling, pacing, tongue-chewing, etc.?

secondkelping

Just wanted to know if Ray ever mentioned these behaviors in any way. I have made good progress in not biting my nails or chewing my tongue these days (yes, I do all the things in the question) not the others though (still doing a lot of pacing and pulling out my hair unfortunately). But I wanted to know if there was a link between metabolism and these behaviors. I have improved my metabolism a lot but I still struggle with these things and need some ideas on how to completely stop these behaviors for good.

Any ideas would help a lot?

All these behaviors slowly started in early adolescence due to high stress from social situations in my life at that time. My weight-gain started at the same time as well. I've really improved my metabolism, but I don't know what to do to really move forward on conquering these behaviors for good as I've been improving my health...

DavidPS

Have you considered NAC?
N-acetylcysteine for Hair Pulling, Skin Picking, and Nail Biting

Serotoninskeptic

@secondkelping Anything that lower stress could help. Pregnenelone, magnesium, salt, baking soda, glycine etc.

secondkelping

@DavidPS hey, I'll try this and report back if it works. I had heard of NAC benefits, but I never expected it to be linked to reducing these issues.

DavidPS

@secondkelping - Great, I am curious about your results.

natureman

Remove or solve the stressor.

what about bob

@secondkelping

DkJoe2

Serotonin contributes heavily to these sorts of behaviours in addition to things like bruxism etc, I find the need to bite my nails reduces a lot if I take Cypro.

smok

@DkJoe2 True. There's a fluorinated serotonin releasing agent, can't remember the name, that induces OCD-like behaviors in studies.

secondkelping

@DkJoe2 Thanks for the tip. For me, I felt, in the past, that curious was too strong. 2 drops on the skin were my max using Bulgarian research chemicals lol. That was months ago, and my metabolism has improved a lot, so I may have a different reaction if I try it now.

secondkelping

@DavidPS I've experimented with NAC, GABA, and Alpha-GPC for reducing these symptoms now. A few days for each, and I saw major improvements (almost complete cessation of listed behaviors). I investigated these because I realize that I do well on choline (Alpha-GPC is precursor to acetylcholine). GABA activity turns out to be regulated by Acetylcholine, and acetyl-GABA is a precursor to GABA (from what I saw--please double check), and NAC also has an acetyl group and has been helpful with stopping people from smoking in past experiments.

I think NAC and acetylcholine are better than directly taking GABA from what I've researched, but I got a similar reduction in listed symptoms from using them all. Perhaps I'm lacking some precursors needed to form these.

I'm going to continue experimenting with NAC first, then acetylcholine to see if I can get even better understanding of what's happening.

I gave up the supplement front a few months ago, but I still have these little issues that I'm trying to workout. I would encourage people who are experiencing something similar to see if you can get more choline in (found in eggs) or try taking NAC or acetylcholine and see if that helps.

DavidPS

@secondkelping - Thanks for the update on your plans.

The anxiety-associated behaviors that you identified could be considered to be a very mild form of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). I do not like the label OCD and I think that it is overused. Nonetheless, it is useful for thinking about additional strategies. Glycine might be another nutrient to consider.

Adjunctive glycine in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults (2009)

secondkelping

@DavidPS what's funny is that I started back on glycine recently (was heavy at the beginning of the year and fell off) and have had more energy as well, so it may be a combination of things...