166 replies to this topic

[downregulated]

Sarcosine works for me. When I take it i start to remember who I really am. And I'm awesome :D
Also I'm taking gotu kola but now I'm thinking about... gotu kola raises cholesterol and blood sugar? Umgh. Gotu kola is very nice , it makes me calm and clearheaded.
Now I will be ordering some more adaptogens/nootropics and some vitamin supplements.
What works best for you guys who had psychotic experiences cause I had couple of psychotic experiences and it is hardcore experience but when doctors bring you down it becomes quite fcked up.

[YoungSchizo]

Sarcosine works for me. When I take it i start to remember who I really am. And I'm awesome :D

Welcome to the club m8!!

Also I'm taking gotu kola but now I'm thinking about... gotu kola raises cholesterol and blood sugar? Umgh. Gotu kola is very nice , it makes me calm and clearheaded.
Now I will be ordering some more adaptogens/nootropics and some vitamin supplements.
What works best for you guys who had psychotic experiences cause I had couple of psychotic experiences and it is hardcore experience but when doctors bring you down it becomes quite fcked up.

My reply to this is is also a reply to your upregulated thread.

It's difficult to find the right treatment because each individual reacts different to the substances.

Some things that help most psychotics are:
Sarcosine (negative symptoms)
NAC (negative symptoms)
L-Theanine (positive symptoms)
L-Lysine (positive symptoms) has a proven record in trials
Pregnenolone (cognition) has some proven records in trials
CBD (positive symptoms) this is a quite promosing antipsychotic treatment. I really want to try this sometime but I need a good source, if I ever can get my hands on AC/DC medical marijuana strain from the USA I'm gonna try it for sure!

The list of things that might help some and others not at all is actually endless.

Because you have such a strong reaction to Sarcosine, you might not find something, at least, so far, I didn't (you can add D-Aspartic-Acid to give Sarcosine a boost, it's great but I use it in cycles because after some weeks it makes me depressed). Sarcosine is a Glycine transporter inhibitor on the NMDA receptors, however, it does nothing for positive psychotic symptoms (Dopamine) because it has no effect on Glutamate regulation (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

There are currently no really proven effective treatments to regulate Glutamate and that's the current problem to treat psychosis effectively (too little or to much of Glutamate is what causing Dopamine to party in the head thus causing positive symptoms).
(Lamotregine is the only drug I know that might be helpful because it affects Glutamate.)

As you say in your other thread, your symptoms of cognitive dysfunction, that is another point that has no proven effective treatment yet. (There are upcoming promising drugs in the pipeline for cognitive dysfunction but it can take some years before it enters the market.)

I think you are at the same spot as me, cognitive dysfunction and positive symptoms, so it's trial and error till you find what works best for the time being.
As I already told about my Zyprexa expierence, it didn't do shit for my positive symptoms, it just made me numb and stupid. My current antipsychotic treatment is Mirtazapine + Clonazepam.

Edited by YoungSchizo, 06 February 2014 - 08:47 PM.

[username]

http://www.schizophr....com/sarcosine/

When you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see that does seem to work for positive symptoms as well
In that study, improvement was highest in regard to positive symptoms, but I doubt that the differences are significant (just a few percent points)
Apparently, it works across the board, not just for negative symptoms.

edit:
On a side note: I started taking SAMe a week ago and that stuff is unbelievably awesome. Best supplement I've tried so far. It helps me SO much with depression. It helps with my osteoarthritis a lot, too. I think that the other supplements help increase SAMe's effect (it's been shown that methylfolate increases the response rate of antidepressants). I also take curcumin, which also seems to have an antidepressant effect, but SAMe was the big one for me. I haven't had hallucinations for 1-2 weeks now or small ones that I couldn't recognize. I just feel better.
I still get the feeling of being talked about and being watched, but I can leave the house again without feeling so 'tense' and threatened and watched when people walk past me. I have side effects from the supplements and will have to try out other dosages (sometimes I feel 'too' alert and it makes me nervous)

Edited by longschi, 06 February 2014 - 11:32 PM.

[YoungSchizo]

http://www.schizophr....com/sarcosine/

When you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see that does seem to work for positive symptoms as well
In that study, improvement was highest in regard to positive symptoms, but I doubt that the differences are significant (just a few percent points)
Apparently, it works across the board, not just for negative symptoms.

I still get the feeling of being talked about and being watched, but I can leave the house again without feeling so 'tense' and threatened and watched when people walk past me. I have side effects from the supplements and will have to try out other dosages (sometimes I feel 'too' alert and it makes me nervous)

Thanks for adding that, though, for me, the enhancement of positive were neglectable. And oh yeah totally forgot ever since I use Clonazepam (a cognition decliner), Sarcosine does have some quite cognitive enhance properties, those take a little bit time to improve but eventually you really will notice it.

Longschi, I think you need to try a small dose, like 0.5mg Clonazepam to get rid of that being watched and talked about anxiety/paranoia/positive symptom. I had the same symptom too (around strangers on the street/gym) but it totally left together with Clonazepam (symptom left, now I'm like the old me and I don't give a flying fuck about strangers).

[Sciencyst]

adderall did the trick for me, unfortunately it seems like the docs aren't that thrilled about rx'ing it to anyone who has ever experienced psychosis. but it killed hallucinations and racing thoughts and ocd loops.

I also experienced lasting psychosis from taking Adderall daily, as prescribed. I was also on Zoloft and stopped taking both the Adderall and it around the same time. It took me around 5-6 months to recover and I believe I completely owe my recovery to sarcosine.

I am sure that it is pharmacologically possible to make a permanent cure to schizophrenia due to the nature of the mind's plasticity. Unfortunately, however, such a cure will never be found by any pharmaceutical company (or if it was it would be kept secret) because big pharma wants you to have to be on their drug for as long as possible so that they can make unbelievable amounts of money. Honestly I have more faith in the longecity community discovering a lasting cure to psychosis than any paid researcher.

[hathor]

adderall did the trick for me, unfortunately it seems like the docs aren't that thrilled about rx'ing it to anyone who has ever experienced psychosis. but it killed hallucinations and racing thoughts and ocd loops.

I also experienced lasting psychosis from taking Adderall daily, as prescribed. I was also on Zoloft and stopped taking both the Adderall and it around the same time. It took me around 5-6 months to recover and I believe I completely owe my recovery to sarcosine.

I am sure that it is pharmacologically possible to make a permanent cure to schizophrenia due to the nature of the mind's plasticity. Unfortunately, however, such a cure will never be found by any pharmaceutical company (or if it was it would be kept secret) because big pharma wants you to have to be on their drug for as long as possible so that they can make unbelievable amounts of money. Honestly I have more faith in the longecity community discovering a lasting cure to psychosis than any paid researcher.

I'm not sure what caused my most recent psychotic breaks in December and January. I'm sure the doctors think it was the adderall which is why they stopped rx'ing it to me. But I seriously doubt that was it. Adderall fixed a whole lot of issues for me; it improved my cognition and gave me motivation and helped me focus and helped me eat healthy and exercise.

I think it was stress combined with stopping all my meds and then pushing my limits with nootropics and supplements. I called on too many spiritual energies. And I was doing work for someone claiming to be NSA which they later said was Natural Selection Agency claiming to be spiritual equivalent to the National Security Agency. I'm not entirely sure, I just was on six different Rx meds and flushed them all down the drain in my bathtub and after a few days of cold turkeying all my perscriptions while taking copious amounts of IDRA 21 and PRL 8 53 I just was possessed by this NSA agent programming and was essentially a completely alternate personality, that I was wasting my time in this timeline of the matrix and should off myself to merge into a better one.

I know nothing about sarcosine, where to get it, what it's supposed to do exactly. Right now the only psych med I take is Zyprexa which I find is helping but I'm still struggling with cognitive/focus issues so I'm taking oxiracetam which I would like to use to replace adderall but i still find myself feeling like I'm missing something to bridge the gap and have been self-medicating with energy drinks and nicotine. But I think adderall is just a crutch too, it's not a cure it's just a replacement for nicotine. I find that I haven't been able to bring myself to use more than about 650mg of oxiracetam at a time, or much more than a gram a day even though the thereputic trials of it have shown people doing something like 2400mg a day, I just don't have money for that and I'm frankly scared because I abused the hell out of piracetam to the point that it stopped working and became a bit of an addiction.

So those are my circumstances, I'm basically medicating myself with Zyprexa and oxiracetam and filling in the gaps with nicotine and/or caffeine, neither of which seem as consistently steady as adderall. I've also experimented with sunifiram and am curious about it, it seems to do something similar but subtle along the lines of IDRA 21, but I don't feel like taking more than about 20mg of that.

The thing is that when I take too much nootropic I start getting too smart to where intelligence becomes a burden for me and I start losing synchronization with physical form. It's like I'm unplugging from the matrix and reality starts to become very malleable to where I start doing things like flipping the circuit breakers off in my apartment and generating wireless electricity. Perhaps thinking the way that Magneto would think if he wasn't fictional, that's what it felt like being possessed by this NSA energy. It's like my brain becomes tesla-fied. I don't get paranoid, I get irritated/angry. Like with the Rx meds and the entire way the medical and insurance industries are set up. Like how wall street works and how it corrupts people and causes suffering. Like the prison industrial complex where my family member gets locked up for being an addict while the guy who stole millions from me is living it up while being protected by the f'd up legal system. I start feeling like the real-life skynet should come online to replace the current system and start terminating those who aren't playing nice.

I guess the point I was getting to in my drunken rant is posing this question for you, what is your definition of being cured exactly? And how is sarcosine helping with that specifically? Do you feel like as time goes on you need less of it to where you no longer will need to take it anymore? I want my brain to work correctly. But I want it to do so in a way that allows me to be focused and productive in a way that synchronizes with this particular reality. At any given point in time I want to be able to take a chunk of time, say the previous six months, and feel a sense of accomplisment like what I've done for that period of time was what I needed to do, and what was healthy and fulfilling, not going off on various tangents and never really synchronizing so I end up having episodes and being in the hospital.

For me recovery of schizo is being able to support myself without government or other assistance while doing my own thing in a way that isn't overly stressful. Preferably without needing any rx medications. I need my brain to be stablized enough in one specific area for long enough to plant seeds and grow fruit from it. I'm not sure how to get from where I am now to where I want to be. I think that after two psychotic breaks in two months I am stable again finally and on the right path but I want to get rid of that "needing something" feeling that causes me to overeat and do caffeine or nicotine or something else stimulating in order to just get to work on my ideas.

[YoungSchizo]

What does Oxiracetam do for your psychotic symptoms?

[hathor]

well it calms down distractions so i can focus. it mostly helps the adhd symptoms, not sure if it helps with psychosis. but adhd seems to have some crossover with hypomania/racing thoughts.

[Mobc1990]

I am currently taking abilify and Mirtazapine,it helps but I still need to work on other stuff besides the medication

[Sciencyst]

It also potentiates marijuana and pain killers. Only have experience with half of that equation, tho.

I don't think cannabis is very helpful to those who are attempting to treat or cure schizo. IME it tends to exasperate schizo symptoms. I don't like it personally, and some of my friends who are schizo use it but I don't think it helps them at all with the schizo; rather it lets them spend more time in the more psychotic states.

Cannabis with low THC and high CBD is the best antipsychotic around. Skunk (allegedly developed by the govt) is very very very propsychotic. Unfortunately there are a lot of high THC strains that are too far modified from cannabis's natural composition to be psychologically benign

[Sciencyst]

adderall did the trick for me, unfortunately it seems like the docs aren't that thrilled about rx'ing it to anyone who has ever experienced psychosis. but it killed hallucinations and racing thoughts and ocd loops.

I also experienced lasting psychosis from taking Adderall daily, as prescribed. I was also on Zoloft and stopped taking both the Adderall and it around the same time. It took me around 5-6 months to recover and I believe I completely owe my recovery to sarcosine.

I am sure that it is pharmacologically possible to make a permanent cure to schizophrenia due to the nature of the mind's plasticity. Unfortunately, however, such a cure will never be found by any pharmaceutical company (or if it was it would be kept secret) because big pharma wants you to have to be on their drug for as long as possible so that they can make unbelievable amounts of money. Honestly I have more faith in the longecity community discovering a lasting cure to psychosis than any paid researcher.

I'm not sure what caused my most recent psychotic breaks in December and January. I'm sure the doctors think it was the adderall which is why they stopped rx'ing it to me. But I seriously doubt that was it. Adderall fixed a whole lot of issues for me; it improved my cognition and gave me motivation and helped me focus and helped me eat healthy and exercise.

I guess the point I was getting to in my drunken rant is posing this question for you, what is your definition of being cured exactly?

Hahaha I apologize but when you say you doubt adderall had anything to do with it, it is amazingly obvious that it is the drug talking. Adderall is not helping your psychosis, this is just the rewarding effects of the drug creating an illusion.

Sarcosine just helped me break through my delusions. I probably still have t gondii though.

I highly recommend that you quit adderall, dissociatives, and psychedelics, and get some professional help. Not necessarily a psych doc but at least do CBT. I can tell you are in dire need of at least some form of help.

Edited by katuskoti, 16 February 2014 - 08:49 AM.

[Olon]

@katuskoti,
I recognized your avatar, a clear sign that my thoughts circle far too much around psychopharmacology. LOL
As far as I am personally concerned it has become quiet in the psychopharmacology field. Almost two years on the same regimen (olanzapine 2,5 mg, lamotrigine 600 mg, quercetin 1500 mg). But this is only an option for people with unbearable sensory gating problems. My working memory is impaired in a way that there is no difference whatsoever whether something is 30 seconds ago or three hours.

[hathor]

Sarcosine just helped me break through my delusions. I probably still have t gondii though.

I highly recommend that you quit adderall, dissociatives, and psychedelics, and get some professional help. Not necessarily a psych doc but at least do CBT. I can tell you are in dire need of at least some form of help.

Come on, don't be an ass. i already have been getting professional help for the past few years, including CBT. I haven't taken adderall since December. Adderall didn't cause the psychotic break, pushing my limits with IDRA-21 did. i don't need psychedelics, my sober mind is in a permanent psychedelic state. You claim to be curing schizo and psychosis, but you're the one asking me to provide you with studies about the placebo effect. How do you know that sarcosine isn't just plaecbo? I take dxm occasionally for depression and mental health. It works. As does oxiracetam.

You claim that sarcosine helps, so tell me more about it, since this thread seems to be about the only place where it's being discussed for schizo symtoms. You say i'm in dire need of help, yet you've just type in one sentence about it, how is that helping me out? Do you care about helping or are you just here to make fun of me because you are of the opinion that adderall is not capable of killing hallucinations? Even though it did just that for me.

[username]

Sarcosine just helped me break through my delusions. I probably still have t gondii though.

I highly recommend that you quit adderall, dissociatives, and psychedelics, and get some professional help. Not necessarily a psych doc but at least do CBT. I can tell you are in dire need of at least some form of help.

Come on, don't be an ass. i already have been getting professional help for the past few years, including CBT. I haven't taken adderall since December. Adderall didn't cause the psychotic break, pushing my limits with IDRA-21 did. i don't need psychedelics, my sober mind is in a permanent psychedelic state. You claim to be curing schizo and psychosis, but you're the one asking me to provide you with studies about the placebo effect. How do you know that sarcosine isn't just plaecbo? I take dxm occasionally for depression and mental health. It works. As does oxiracetam.

You claim that sarcosine helps, so tell me more about it, since this thread seems to be about the only place where it's being discussed for schizo symtoms. You say i'm in dire need of help, yet you've just type in one sentence about it, how is that helping me out? Do you care about helping or are you just here to make fun of me because you are of the opinion that adderall is not capable of killing hallucinations? Even though it did just that for me.

In addition to its role in methylation, Sarcosine acts as a Glycine Transporter Type 1 Inhibitor. It likely helps to increase the availability of glycine at the synapse and extracellular space between neurons. In combination with the neurotransmitter Glutamate, Glycine helps activate NMDA Receptors. It is this effect that is believed to provide the benefits seen in schizophrenia research.

Glycine related treatments in schizophrenia have consistently shown benefits. Sarcosine also breaks down into glycine, which may further increase concentrations of this amino acid and neurotransmitter in the brain.

http://www.schizophr....com/sarcosine/


Btw, you shouldn't feel attacked by him telling you to get help. You wrote of the matrix, synchronization, NSA etc. You seem delusional. And please don't be offended by that.

Edited by longschi, 16 February 2014 - 12:14 PM.

[hathor]

http://www.schizophr....com/sarcosine/


Btw, you shouldn't feel attacked by him telling you to get help. You wrote of the matrix, synchronization, NSA etc. You seem delusional. And please don't be offended by that.

I was explaining my psychotic episode early last month. I wasn't expecting to be ridiculed for being honest about it. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks last month and they did jack shit to help me. They just obsessively observed me to make sure I didn't kill myself and then over drugged me with various rx's. It was useless. My doctor could have just given me a zyprexa script.

Hahaha I apologize but when you say you doubt adderall had anything to do with it, it is amazingly obvious that it is the drug talking. Adderall is not helping your psychosis, this is just the rewarding effects of the drug creating an illusion.

Adderall was the closest thing to a cure for my mental health issues. I was on it for about 9 months. I was focused and productive and stable and was motivated to get out of bed and do things. I lost a lot of weight and was working out in the gym. It got rid of hallucinations, no voices, no seeing stuff that wasn't there, no timeline wierdness, none of that. But no, because someone else had psychosis from it then it must have been the very thing that caused all my symptoms. So I must be delusional and should be mocked. It's the drug talking, even though it had nothing to do with my first breakdown early December and again in early January.

Well this kind of crap, being told I need pro help when the so-called professionals just make things worse and then people wonder why I continue exchibiting suicidal behavior and am in and out of the hospital.

Edited by hathor, 16 February 2014 - 08:46 PM.

[Sciencyst]

http://www.schizophr....com/sarcosine/


Btw, you shouldn't feel attacked by him telling you to get help. You wrote of the matrix, synchronization, NSA etc. You seem delusional. And please don't be offended by that.

I was explaining my psychotic episode early last month. I wasn't expecting to be ridiculed for being honest about it. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks last month and they did jack shit to help me. They just obsessively observed me to make sure I didn't kill myself and then over drugged me with various rx's. It was useless. My doctor could have just given me a zyprexa script.

Hahaha I apologize but when you say you doubt adderall had anything to do with it, it is amazingly obvious that it is the drug talking. Adderall is not helping your psychosis, this is just the rewarding effects of the drug creating an illusion.

Adderall was the closest thing to a cure for my mental health issues. I was on it for about 9 months. I was focused and productive and stable and was motivated to get out of bed and do things. I lost a lot of weight and was working out in the gym. It got rid of hallucinations, no voices, no seeing stuff that wasn't there, no timeline wierdness, none of that. But no, because someone else had psychosis from it then it must have been the very thing that caused all my symptoms. So I must be delusional and should be mocked. It's the drug talking, even though it had nothing to do with my first breakdown early December and again in early January.

Well this kind of crap, being told I need pro help when the so-called professionals just make things worse and then people wonder why I continue exchibiting suicidal behavior and am in and out of the hospital.

Sorry, I did not mean to ridicule or mock you. I suppose my experience with adderall has just caused me to be offensive about it, because I also told myself it was helping me and I just needed to keep taking it. It made me narcissistic about the reality of the situation. This is a common theme of addictive drugs, in that they often cause serious problems for a user who then denies that their drug of choice is causing the effects.

I am not asserting that your own experience with it is not true. It is just not the norm, so understandably I was skeptical, especially after my experience, as previously stated.. Adderall indeed has beneficial effects, primarily the motivation, and I must note that Adderall psychosis results from monamine depletion, which occurs when the drug is wearing off or has passed its peak activity. It would stand to reason that before monoamine depletion occurs, some psychotic symptoms may be temporarily helped.. Excess monoamines can cause psychosis. Severe lack of monoamines can cause psychosis. In an adderall user, their monoamines may be continually depleted by frequent use, and so they only feel alleviated when adderall takes effect.. they may feel more normal. Once again I did not mean to hurt your feelings, this is just a heated topic for me so I tend to state my opinion too strongly. I don't want other people to fall into the trap that I did, because it is complete tortue. Hell on earth. It is unbearable. Nobody should go through it.

Oh and about DXM, I'll admit low (under 100mg) doses did help me greatly at the worst part of my psychosis, just by making me feel less depressed and more confident, but actually made my delusions worse but less depressing. Continued use or high-doses are asking for trouble though.

I also refused professional help, because current antipsychotics will just perpetuate psychosis as the brain adjusts to their effects. Still I am guilty of advising others professional help because most people (not saying you are "most people") in such states do not know what to do by themselves and professional help is often the best option, or at least the lesser of two evils.

I'm glad you are doing CBT. That's a major thing that needs to happen before one can expect permanent change. I was doing CBT but faced financial issues and was unable to afford it after a few months. I'd like to go back if the money allows it.

Regarding sarcosine, it will take a while to organize the research, and as I am currently on break at work, I will update with it at a later time.

Until then, you can read my previous post about it in regards to dissociatives:

[hathor]

Sorry, I did not mean to ridicule or mock you. I suppose my experience with adderall has just caused me to be offensive about it, because I also told myself it was helping me and I just needed to keep taking it. It made me narcissistic about the reality of the situation. This is a common theme of addictive drugs, in that they often cause serious problems for a user who then denies that their drug of choice is causing the effects.

It's okay, it's just I still haven't found anything that worked quite as well on a consistant basis as a kind of cure-all. My mind does seem to need stimulation. Honestly I would like to replace adderall with oxiracetam because oxiracetam seems to not be nearly as hard on my system as adderall is. I don't feel high on it like I do on adderall. Just it seems like on oxiracetam I still need nicotine to have my brain function, whereas I completely got rid of nicotine when I was on adderall. I felt a bit safer being under doctor's care with an rx than something like nicotine which is hard to get the dosages just right unless you buy the patches which are a bit out of my budget range. I'm going to buy a nicotine vaporizer soon though since I think that may be the most cost effective non-tobacco option. Until then I'm medicating with pipe tobacco since I'm broke and it's super cheap.

I am not asserting that your own experience with it is not true. It is just not the norm, so understandably I was skeptical, especially after my experience, as previously stated.. Adderall indeed has beneficial effects, primarily the motivation, and I must note that Adderall psychosis results from monamine depletion, which occurs when the drug is wearing off or has passed its peak activity. It would stand to reason that before monoamine depletion occurs, some psychotic symptoms may be temporarily helped.. Excess monoamines can cause psychosis. Severe lack of monoamines can cause psychosis. In an adderall user, their monoamines may be continually depleted by frequent use, and so they only feel alleviated when adderall takes effect.. they may feel more normal. Once again I did not mean to hurt your feelings, this is just a heated topic for me so I tend to state my opinion too strongly. I don't want other people to fall into the trap that I did, because it is complete tortue. Hell on earth. It is unbearable. Nobody should go through it.

Alright it just felt like you were under the impression that I was making up the positives coming from an addiction delusion, so that is where I felt offended. I know Adderall has negatives too. Just I got so much productive things done, and when I'm productive then I feel good about myself and depression goes away. When I'm overmedicated and zombied out then depression gets out of control. Is there a way to replenish the monamines while on adderall? There would be days I didn't take addy at all because I wanted a break from being on something. I never felt "normal" on it, I just felt like my thoughts were streamlined, that excess anxieties were gone, that distracting hallucinations that would waste my time before were easy to ignore and eventually disappeared completely. What was complete torture was getting out of the hospital and the rx's getting f'd up to where I had no psych meds whatsoever, so I was dealing with racing thoughts and psychic weirdness and whatnot, until I was able to order oxiracetam and get on zyprexa which took about two weeks.

Oh and about DXM, I'll admit low (under 100mg) doses did help me greatly at the worst part of my psychosis, just by making me feel less depressed and more confident, but actually made my delusions worse but less depressing. Continued use or high-doses are asking for trouble though.

yeah i find that 60mg a couple times a week really does the trick for depression, and it doesn't seem to cause any kind of racing thoughts. the larger doses help when i need a break from reality. for me the schizo isn't always a negative experience, and i used to do a lot of psychedelics to get into those kinds of states but now it's like dxm just opens me up a bit to natural shamanism type stuff. it doesn't seem to directly fight against the mechanisms of the antidepressants the way LSD and phenthalamines did.

I also refused professional help, because current antipsychotics will just perpetuate psychosis as the brain adjusts to their effects. Still I am guilty of advising others professional help because most people (not saying you are "most people") in such states do not know what to do by themselves and professional help is often the best option, or at least the lesser of two evils.

well i'd like to get off the zyprexa too, but for now it seems to be helping me so i'm going to stick with it while i figure out the right balance with the oxiracetam and nicotine.

I'm glad you are doing CBT. That's a major thing that needs to happen before one can expect permanent change. I was doing CBT but faced financial issues and was unable to afford it after a few months. I'd like to go back if the money allows it.

well i'm living on disability (SSI) and the Medicaid is paying for CBT so i'm going to continue doing it as long as they will let me. I was on a waiting list for about a year to get on it, and part of the issue i had with the psychosis breaks is that i hadn't seen my therapist at all from november to february. now i'm seeing her again though and it's helping.

Regarding sarcosine, it will take a while to organize the research, and as I am currently on break at work, I will update with it at a later time.

ok thanks

[socialpiranha]

Were you also taking zyprexa while you were on adderall? I have had two times when i nearly lost touch with reality and both times were after a few weeks of dexedrine use. I agree it is a great drug in terms of blanket positive effect but it sets the stage chemically for delusion and hallucination. There is lots of evidence for the use of sarcosine i just find it slightly depressive no where near as much as an antipsychotic though

[hathor]

no, i didn't get on zyprexa until january, i haven't used adderall since december. so i haven't used them in combination at all. zyprexa at bedtime and oxiracetam in the morning seems to be working okay for me, however i'm finding myself being pulled into using nicotine again. i'm hoping that in the next week or two i can get a decent liquid nicotine vaporizer and then that may be enough to get me on track again. i would love to not be on any antipsychotic but it seems safer to stay on it for the time being until i've set up better checks and balances. sarcosine is of interest to me but i'm not sure i can justify paying for it in light of already spending my supplement budget on oxiracetam and nicotine. i'm also thinking i'll stock up on ginkgo biloba again soon as that seemed very helpful to me in the past. i was on lamictal and it really did work well for me for stabilizing my mood but i feel that was to blame for low motivation and that it was causing cognition issues so i'm kind of happy to be down to one medication instead of risperdal/adderall/lamictal which is what i was on for many months in 2013.

[Olon]

@hathor:
Maybe you should try to raise prefrontal dopamine with a COMT inhibitor like EGCG.

[username]

Supplements are expensive and I pay a lot of money for them. They cost so much less in the U.S. I envy Americans
Both sarcosine and ginkgo are proven to work better than placebo as an add-on. As well as all the other things I take (well, nearly all of them)
That is how I developed my 'treatment plan' if you wanna call it that. I think this is the best route to go. I don't wanna waste money on things that might work for what I have. I wanna take supplements that show promise and have some scientific backup.
Good luck with the sarcosine and ginkgo. Just remember that it can take months and you might not note a significant difference for many weeks. If you start to doubt that it works, just look at the studies. There's not much else we can do, I guess.

[hathor]

@hathor:
Maybe you should try to raise prefrontal dopamine with a COMT inhibitor like EGCG.

isn't too much dopamine thought to be one of the causes of psychosis?

[Sciencyst]

@hathor:
Maybe you should try to raise prefrontal dopamine with a COMT inhibitor like EGCG.

isn't too much dopamine thought to be one of the causes of psychosis?

Yes, that's a very risky idea. COMT inhibitor will raise levels of ALL catecholamines.

[downregulated]

Sarcosine is very effective, at least for me. It gives me mild stimulation and mood lift and kind of good introspection.. I don't use it regulary just in the cases when I feel I need NDMA stimulation when I am a bit unmotivated or lazy and when I have to make some things done. In the morning, sarcosine and taurine make me literally high, very stimulated with those two.
I use Gotu kola that helps me the most of all the supplements and is the best thing for work, to have focus and mental energy, greatly reducing fatigue.
White tea is very effective also, it has more EGCG than green tea and is sweet tasting.
I ordered some vitamins and fish oil, will see how this works.
Sometimes I'm very stimulated and when I feel my mood is not very stable antipsychotic olanzapine calms me down nicely and balances my mood. Also passion flower and melissa officinalis tea is great for relax.

Yes, that's a very risky idea. COMT inhibitor will raise levels of ALL catecholamines.

so you're saying tea is not good for people with psychosis?

[Olon]

@hathor:
Maybe you should try to raise prefrontal dopamine with a COMT inhibitor like EGCG.

isn't too much dopamine thought to be one of the causes of psychosis?

Too much dopamine in the striatum is, but more dopamine in the prefrontal cortex is beneficial. Interestingly the COMT mutations that correlate with schizophrenia are those that lead to an overactivity of the enzyme (accelerated degradation of dopamine).

[socialpiranha]

Hathor, i know where your at, nicotine consumption is a huge factor for me too.. I'm 3 months smoke free and 3 weeks nicotine free. Its the longest i've gone without nicotine in 15 years, i feel way better in some ways but there is still an intense boredom that is extremely painful that it seems like only a cigarette could fix.

dextroamphetamine and opiates are the only other things that touch that intense boredom/emptiness and they are too volatile for me. I don't know if my nicotinic receptors will downregulate to a point where that intense emptiness/boredom is bearable but i'm really hoping that's the case. Sometimes i wonder if smoking was treating or creating problems, there are studies proving both so who knows.

Anyway I've done a bunch of research and v2 cigs with the manual battery and congress flavor or whatever seem to be most people's favorite. I might have to go that route if i can't hack it. I'm just hoping the chronic upregulation of nicotinic receptors was creating the possibility of that intense existential boredom/anxiety.

[hathor]

Well I'm thinking I will get one of these liquid nicotine vaporizers and just do that. It's probably not super healthy but it's better than tobacco. I have found myself puffing on pipe tobacco lately, and while it seems much better than cigarattes it still has tons of tar and stuff (that I've been filtering out with cotton balls). Probably the best bet would be the patches but I think the e-cig is the route to go. I do have a really cheap ecig but it just doesn't have enough nicotine content.

[YoungSchizo]

Actually, the study's so far don't show any signs of e-cigs vapors being unhealthy, what it does show is that vapors are superior to tobacco (on health).

[hathor]

well at least it doesn't seem any worse than caffeine, and people drink that all day. i don't know that i want a lot of caffeine in my regimine though.

[socialpiranha]

Nicotine is a stimulant and pretty much every stimulant has some negative effects but yeah i doubt its any worse than caffeine. The patch works well but really one of the huge benefits of smoking is having a ritual to do that breaks up the day, the ecigs are better in that respect. Maybe a combination of the two would be optimal i dunno. Hopefully some of these new nicotinic agonists coming out will be better than nicotine.