The Scourge of Anxiety – Rapamycin Longevity News

Lithium orotate 1 mg does a wonderful job for my anxiety. And as people said above, dapagliflozin seems to help as well.

Ashwagandha: did you notice benefits?

Have you done Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

The book Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depression and Anxiety by Burns, David D., M.D. helped me a lot.

Ketamine could help. Perhaps low dose like from Joyous

Thank you for your suggestions. I take Vit. D, magnesium and B12 supplements. But maybe not enough magnesium??
I will try 10 mg of lithium orotate.
And I will have my wife research CBD isolate.

I tried a ketamine infusion once with no effect. At the time (12 years ago) the infusion was $500. But since a version of it has been approved for depression, I will ask my doctor if he can prescribe it. And I will check out Joyous.

I actually read David Burns’s book back in the middle 1980s. And I did CB therapy back then. But for generalized anxiety, I found I would have to counteract my catastrophizing every waking minute. The second I stop, the negative feels return.
Let me remind you that William James said that first comes the visceral feelings and then the thoughts, not the other way around. And over the years I did come to realize that my anxiety emerges from a non-cognitive visceral level. The negative thinking comes subsequently. That is why cognitive therapy did not work for me.

This recommendation is a little out there, but if you have tried things like CBT and behavior modification without success, try combining it with a psychedelic microdosing practice. These drugs truly do enhance plasticity in the brain, and in my experience this allows you to more effectively “rewire” unhelpful thought patterns.

My wife and I would love to try psychedelic microdosing. The challenge is the source. What would you suggest?

“B12 supplements” doesn’t speak to form, and form matters. Methylcobalamin? Adenocobolamin? Or the semi-toxic cyanocobalamin?

As for magnesium, since I don’t know how much magnesium you’re already taking, or what form, it’s hard for me to opine. Generally speaking, magnesium is pretty safe stuff, and if you’re in a typical male body, you can probably go up to 500mg of magnesium per day (not oxide) safely, and see if it moves the needle.

Though, really, it all plays together. I’d want to see your whole stack. Everything you’re taking – supplements, Rx, food-as-medicine, etc – form, dose, frequency. Because everything you take has an effect, not always expected. As I suggested before, it’s possible that your struggle is metabolic deficiency from some early illness, toxicity, or a genetic variance.

Heck, it could be the ground water. So many variables.

Don’t give up. I changed my system profoundly for the better by identifying my own genetic and metabolic impairment, and found ways to fix it. I had to be persistent and ruthlessly devoted to the search; it was well worth it. My life changed for the better. Just know that it’s possible.

Look into Cognitive Behavior Therapy for anxiety:

THC can actually be pretty helpful for anxiety, at least for me in my n=1 experience. It works with the brain’s endocannabinoid system, which is in charge of stuff like mood and stress. More specifically, it regulates the emotional flight or fear response.

For me, THC has definitely helped with anxiety by cutting down on external stress. It might not totally fix what’s going on in the brain, but it makes things feel way more manageable.

There’s research backing this up too. One study in Neuropsychopharmacology (2017) found that THC lowered how much the amygdala reacts to social threats. Another study in Frontiers in Neuroscience (2020) talked about how cannabinoids mess with the brain’s fear and stress systems, which might explain why THC helps some people feel calmer.

I can’t say that other interventions might work better but I like to think the stress that my cannabis use has eliminated has added a few years at least.

Thank you for the words of encouragement.
My anxiety derives from genes (both parents had anxiety) and upbringing (my father was verbally and physically abusive).
As for magnesium, I assume you mean 500 mg of elemental. Specifically I take magnesium malate and it’s maybe 130 mg of elemental. I can increase that.
I eat a high plant polyphenol diet (fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, whole grains, beans and legumes, mushrooms, herbs and spices, and seaweed). The “stack” of food and supplements are too numerous to write down.
Just know that my anxiety goes back to early childhood (earliest memory is kindergarten). So it would not be anything situational. It’s deeply rooted.

Thank you. This is why I asked for input because there are things that I need to further research. I will look into THC (although I have not read good things about long-term use of marijuana itself).

I’ll be specific. Let’s say, for example, you’re taking this brand of mag malate. I would take 4-5 of them a day, possibly in two doses, with the larger dose at bedtime. (I also take mag glycinate and mag citrate myself.)

You might also want to try taurine for its calming influence.

Speaking of ketamine…

This is second hand info, but I know a guy who has lifelong anxiety and was so desperate he went to a frog venom retreat in LA for a weekend. He said it changed his life. He then continued to do therapy with ketamine. It’s not perfect but he said he’s so much better.

I am in no recommending the frog venom ceremony and it might even be dangerous, but I’m just sharing a non conventional idea that worked for one person.

With severe anxiety, wouldn’t one be paralyzed by the fear of side effects from any prospective new treatments?