Methylfolate

Hey, so I decided to start a blog because sometimes I'm reading threads and feel like I'm invading if I just drop in and say "yeah, well I had such and such experience with this supplement!" ... because it's often off topic lol.

Anyway.

This October I bought some Methylfolate. It's 1000 mcg.

I bought it because I was hoping to see improved mood, energy levels and perhaps sleep.

Mainly I was looking to improve my depression symptoms.

My ferritin levels are also below reference range, I'm taking iron polysaccharides and wanted the methylfolate to be adjunct to that.

These days in life my depression isn't really super bad. It's more like dysthymia. And I don't really feel "bad" per se. I just feel "not good", uncomfortable, lack of interest/ motivation, always tired, body aches, insomnia, and some anxiety as well.

When I was younger it was much worse, probably along the lines of bipolar depression but I dont know.

So i tried this methylfolate and to be honest it made things much worse.

When I first bought it I took the full 1000 mcg daily for 2 days. Then, I started feeling really emotional and felt like I wanted to cry. This feeling didn't really fade for a few days and I had stopped taking the stuff already. I was also getting really offended by the guys at work and felt persecuted, very sad and angry. isolated, lonely.

Now, my usual mood isn't that I feel like I want to cry. I almost never, ever feel that way these days, even if I'm really sad. WHen I was in high school (9 years ago) I had intense moods and many of them were low, and i cried and laughed on a daily basis , and felt very dysphoric. It seems that the methylfolate actually made this COME BACk. I stopped for a couple months. Then I tried the methylfolate again, once about 250 mcg daily for a few days, then stopped a couple weeks... then tried it again only taking 50 mcg daily.

And guess what??

SAME THING HAPPENED. Felt like my mind was going neurotic. It's this sense like something is seriously physically wrong in your brain and it's going haywire. It feels like there are 2 intense emotions fighting each other, one is good and one is bad. The bad is much much more prominent than the good, but you swing up and down. The up is not very "up" at all, lasts a short time, and when you come down it's like this bitter sharp cutting into your soul, feels like reality is bending, outlook becomes hugely bleak. It's also crippling.

I used to get that in high school. I don't really get that these days, but on the methylfolate I did. The other thing I noticed is that the methylfolate made me ULTRA tired. Hey, at least now I can be thankful that I don't experience that bullshit much these days. It used to be a daily thing. Thanks for showing me how lucky I am, methylfolate.

Notably, over a year ago I also tried 1000 mcg methylcobalmin for a few days, and it did something similar. I'm wondering if it has to do with methylation. I'm not sure. I think I have some laying around so I'll have to do an experiment. Last year I was on an abrupt and ugly benzo withdrawal around that time, I believe. But it seemed different. Reallly amped up and like my brain was racing with all these thoughts I wouldn't normally have.

To be honest I don't really understand methylation and how it affects people's moods. I find a lot of the talk on it to be.. I don't know.. seems unscientific, even though they are trying to make it look scientific. Maybe I'm wrong. This effect that I got was not restricted to methyl-whatevers. Actually, it happens with high doses of certain other b vitamins. For example, nicotinamide, or whatever the advanced form of b3 is called. The exact same thing happened, and that was 2 or 3 ears ago, happened only if I took that b3 supplement. I honestly think that my brain disorder might have been highly linked with the status of B vitamins in my brain. Which is awkward.. cuz when I was younger I don't remember taking any B vitamin supplements and I had a pretty healthy diet. (hmm, now interestingly that I think about it more, I did eat a lot more bread and wheat products. pure speculation)

But notably again, I can take folic acid and also folinic acid and I DO NOT experience the same problem. I can take either at 400 mcg a day and experience no problems. Folinic acid seems superior.

I wonder if taking hydroxycobalmin could give similar results.