Alright, so I made a rather lengthy post and had some good discussion in it a couple of months ago, which you can find here for the details of exactly what's going on:
http://www.longecity...eally-going-on/
Since then I've streamlined my stack and am currently taking this:
- Lion's Mane 2 tsp or 10cc (amount indicated on bag for a serving)
- Ashwagandha - Swanson KSM-66 250 mg/day (probably upping to 500mg/day due to tolerance increase) *~1 month of use
- High EPA Fish Oil - 2g of EPA / day
- Vitamin D3 - 5k UI/day
- Life Extension's 2 a day.. - 2/day
- ALCAR - 1mg twice/day
- Rhodiola (Life Extension's) - 250mg/day (upping to 500mg/day) *just started
I am doing significantly better than I was before and it's really nothing short of miraculous what these supplements have done for me. The Lion's Mane has given me a fairly decent foundation of stability and the Ashwagandha while not totally consistent or reliable has really put my sense of sanity back on track. It is absolutely amazing what that supplement has done. Never in a million years would I have suspected that it could have done the things it is doing for me. I am so grateful that I ordered it, mostly on a desperate whim.
I made this thread because 1.) I wanted to update those who interacted with me in my thread and 2.) get some advice on where to go from here. I am definitely not in full remission of what is ailing me but I am now in a place where I can actually function enough to take some serious action, and do some more serious research. I feel as if I'm a lone wolf here exploring some random ass mental disease and hopefully curing it by using the freaking internet, and my knowledge of bio-chemistry. I still don't know what I would call my disease. Negative/cognitive schizophrenia seems to be the most familiar diagnosis I can find but it's fairly rare to find that portion of the disease by itself, it's usually accompanied by some "positive" symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. I have never experienced any of that, thank God.
I pretty much stumbled upon what helped me by complete accident (Ashwagandha & Lion's Mane) and while I have some information on what things these substances do I'd like to explore their mechanisms of action even further. I bought the other 2 very popular adaptogens Rhodiola and Bacopa and I've begun taking the Rhodiola, and am waiting to take the Bacopa until I discern what Rhodiola is doing for me.
Also I'd like to bring up the fact that I have obvious testosterone problems, which wasn't discussed much in my previous thread (you can also see my test. numbers in the thread as well). It doesn't seem that low T would actually cause the problems that I'm having, but who fucking knows. I'm 24 and have almost no facial hair, I went through puberty at like age 14, I have mild glandular gynecomastia, weak orgasms. My sex drive is actually fine, it could be higher and I think it was before, but it's still there. Erections ok, could be stronger maybe? Sorry TMI, needs saying though. I'm going to schedule an appointment with an Endocronologist here soon but if he's like most doctors I've been to he probably has no idea what he's talking about and I don't have much hope that he'll understand the more cutting edge information and ideas. I've also smoked a LOT of weed (haven't in ~4-5 years) and been through some fairly extreme emotional trauma.
Zyprexa is still an option on the table for me as it seems to have quite significantly helped people with similar situations to mine but I'm still pretty leery about using an antipsychotic that causes brain atrophy. cost benefit.
So in the end I'm doing quite a bit better and it even got to the point where I was scared to totally allow myself to be who I am now because of how afraid I am of people I know bringing up the subject that holy shit man you are a different person now, what the hell was wrong with you before?? I'm just not ready to discuss that yet but it's glaringly obvious. My relationship with my friends and coworkers has changed pretty drastically. I'd say I'm back to about around 68% (lol sorry 70 didn't feel right) of my former self, and I'd like to get even closer to 100%. I don't know if it's possible to get there but I'm not going to not try as much as I can. I'm also no longer taking modafinil, the sleep deprivation was just too extreme and I don't feel like I need it anymore. Although the past few days I felt a slight regression. I think it's my tolerance to Ashwagandha going up, doubling dose tomorrow.
Again I'm just throwing some information out there and seeing if something sticks out to someone who might know a thing or two about what these supplements could be doing. Is there anything else out there that might be synergistic with what's helping me? I haven't gotten into the racetams at all and that might be impossible, my regimen is getting rather expensive.
Thank you. Without your guys' input I would not be where I am right now and I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that I found this information. Thank you very, very much guys. I'm a little more alive again 
