gaba
 

I've been sober for 3 months now and my doctor and I agreed to wait out the post acute withdrawal period before trying to diagnose anything. So I've been taking 5-htp, which seems to help with irritability and carb cravings; and I've been taking L-theanine which helps to help calm me.
Does anybody know anything about this GABA Calm stuff? I took some today and it really seems to help but it's tough to tell because I haven't tried it at work yet.

What was your drinking history?


I would think 3 months to be a good amount of time away from drinking. If anything that alone should help your GABA recover.?

I've read that GABA is still something science is trying to fully understand.

Weird, 9/10 people I talk to at AA say they felt crappy for a solid 6 months after they quit and that it took 8 months for the last of their anxiety to go away.
My history - 4 years of every drug in the book (weed everyday) then 10 years of drinking then over a year of opiates. So 15 solid years of everyday drug and alcohol abuse. I've never been sober for even a week in that 15 year period, I'm 30 and this is the first I've been sober in my adult life.

It's not all about GABA. GABA does play a huge role, but GABA dysregulation in the brain isn't the most common cause of anxiety. Since alcohol does effect the levels of GABA in the brain, you may not be back to normal yet, but you'll get there in time.

Anxiety can be the result of low levels of serotonin and/or norepinepherine in the brain. I use an anti-depressant (prozac) and it has helped tremendously with my anxiety.

After doing research on GABA calm, I cannot really see how it helps with anxiety but it's possible. It contains GABA, which I don't believe is effective since (if I recall correctly) GABA cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, thus GABA taken through the intestinal tract will not be absorbed into the brain. It does have n-acetyl l-tyrosine, which is a precursor to GABA, but that probably won't change the level of GABA in your brain since your brain produces all of the chemical precursors it will use anyways.

The relief you felt was probably placebo.

I was listening to a program on NPR yesterday that was discussing a current study of whether or not probiotics can affect brain chemistry related to depression and anxiety. They spoke about some of the preliminary results which show a correlation between the probiotic they are studying and the improvement of depression and anxiety. They think it may be related to the gaba receptors and possibly and increase in gaba production. Many times the gut is referred to as the second brain because of all the neural pathways it contains so it is not that far fetched that it could affect brain chemistry. Of course these results are preliminary but they have been reproduced in two separate labs. Here is a link to what I have found on the internet related to these studies. Probiotic Bacteria May Help Treat Depression | Gut-Brain Link | Mental Health & Psychiatric Disorders | LiveScience

Very interesting. I know a stressed out friend with stomach issues who said she cured them with probiotics. Alas, I saw her a few weeks later and it had stopped working.

I found from my experience that no Drug ,drink,or anything else that sedates the Body and Mind can be of any help in the final recovery.
I've numbed my feelings for many years,for survival reasons........ie... prevented myself from going Mad,first with denial,then Alcohol,then drugs............all I gained was another lesson,which is good in itself when looked on that way.
It has to be Spiritual...............Awareness/Enlightment is the way to the Spirit.

How do I get IT.

If I do Nothing I wont get it............
If I keep doing the same old things I wont get it either............
I need to get honest with..............HP

I found that I must Clean House...........even if I have to go back to the Begining.
Self will run riot,is not an easy thing to change unless I get Spiritual Help.

I know most people dont want to hear this,I would like an easier way myself ,but there is no other way.............believe me.
Shalom.:scoregood

I will just respond to you with one quote from the Big Book and a short explanation of why that quote Telling someone that they do not need medications to treat mental health issues is quite counterproductive to the AA concept. AA is a treatment for the recovery of alcoholism, not a treatment for mental health disorders. It can and often does help relieve some forms of minor situational depression and anxiety caused by the situations that alcoholics wind up in by changing the how we react to situations around us. Who wouldn't be depressed when they are in financial disaster, their family life is ruined, their friends have abandoned them, they have lost or are losing their jobs, all because of the disease of alcoholism? Of course the program of AA helps to teach us how to repair the damage done by our disease and in that repair our situational depression and anxiety tend to dissipate.

But many people also suffer from serious mental health issues which do require intervention by professionals and many times medications to help treat those problems. It is detrimental and can be quite dangerous to take a stand that the only path to sobriety is one where a person does not take any medications to relieve their mental health conditions. I know although I have been sober 10 years now through the program of AA that without treating my mental health conditions the amount of sobriety would not really matter because I would be dead from suicide. I utilize AA for my sobriety and treat my mental health conditions with qualified mental health providers and the medications that are required to treat my conditions.

LOL, trust me it wasn't placebo. I've had panic attacks so bad I've puked. I checked myself into the ER after my friend's dog bit me because I thought I had rabies, lol. I've been getting clean test results back from doctors for years. I know when the anxiety is there and when it is not.

I do not respond with Cross Talk....................advice.Im giving my experience,strength,and Hope, hoping to save someone going through what I went through.
Some will understand what Im on about others will not.

Sedation prolonged my recovery..................

While I was on Tranqualisers my Mother Died,may she rest in peace.

I was at her funeral....................but there was no Grief by me.

Several years later when I eventually got away from their addictive hold on me,I grieved her death for days.....................all the feeling came up.
This is what im on about...................take it or leave it.Shalom

My response is not cross talk it is just as much experience, strength and hope as yours. My experience is that I have seen people commit suicide due to misguided but well meaning people telling them they are not sober if they take any mental health medications. I have seen first hand the result of a bipolar person stopping her meds due to well meaning but misguided people in AA and winding up in a mental hospital, she has not been able to get stable and be a functioning member of society since then. Would you recommend a schizophrenic stop taking their mental health meds? Are you going to take responsibility for their actions when they voices tell them to kill someone? Have you ever experienced the depths of bipolar depression? Have you ever experienced a bipolar mania? Have you ever experienced anxiety to the extreme of winding up in the hospital because of the debilitating symptoms? Have you ever been trapped in your own home due to agoraphobia? Have you watched yourself or someone you love go from being a productive member of society to a barely functioning person due to mental illness? Unless you have experienced these types of things you are really not qualified to judge anyone for taking medications prescribed by their mental health provider. That is between them and their doctor. You are not a qualified medical health provider and if you were then you would not be risking your career recommending people stop their medications via the internet.

Plus I base my response on the actual program and teaching of the Big Book rather than just an interpretation of it.

That's cool, I'm a religious man myself. I do believe all my anxiety was substance induced and right now, withdrawal. Obviously I could have had some insecurities before I did drugs but I think that was pretty normal for a kid my age, I'm more secure with myself as a man. I remember in 7th grade-10th I loved going around the cafeteria and talking to people I didn't know, I loved talking to the dorks as well as the hotties. Then the anxiety sunk in, too many drugs and they caught up to me. Anyway my point is I don't think I have a mental disorder aside of substance induced, if I do it's very manageable with sobriety, and sobriety is possible through God.

For anyone that is following this tread............Take what you like and leave the rest.

If any one has read my story............im well qualified to speak of Tranqualiser/ Alcohol addiction......Im telling my story..........Here.......................nothing else.

This is where Im coming from as far as Pills are concerned.............. I suceeded in kicking the habit with the help of ,an Honest Doctor, HP, Programs,Great Family, and Therapists. I have made it this far,and Im now Clear of all pills...ie Tranqualisers/Anti Depressents/Sleeping Pills/Alcohol..............25 years Clean.

This woman ,Gwen Olsen describes exactly what has happened and is still happening in connection with those companies that manufacture those Tablets that are supposed to get you well.

Im not telling anyone what they should do..........just giving my ESH.

Take what you like and Leave the rest.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEIg1as2ppc:c011:

Thanks micealc, you are cool. All of you are cool.