has anyone completely lost their ability to feel

[Noellea77]

Thanks! How many do you take per day?

 

[snowathlete]

I have had something like depersonalization for some time, though it is better now I no longer take an anti-depressant. Interestingly, very recently I tried a hypnotic drug which helped me sleep but appeared to massively change my emotional state the opposite way, where i was way way too emotional. Had to stop the drug. I guess maye something like that could help change the balance of gaba/glutamte if thats the problem?

@Aerose91

Depersonalization is likely tied to glutamate hyperactivity, which can be caused by inflammation. High glutamate is very damaging to the brain. Glutamate hyperactivity will also tend to decrease dopamine transmission.

In your case I would look into NMDA antagonists/modulators, perhaps memantine, NAC, lithium or magnesium threonate. Anything that reduces inflammation in the brain is also likely to help.

Although i feel better than i was before i think i still have glutamate hyperactivity so this is interesting stuff - im a bit overwhemed right now but will look into these suggestions myself.

 

[Aerose91]

Thanks! How many do you take per day?

I take a b complex called B Minus by Seeking health. My doctor recommended it and coming from Dr Lynch I have to believe it's good. It has all the active forms of the various B's. Just one word of advice, it has a lot of niacin so some days I flush pretty badly. Just keep some methyl b12 on hand just in case.

 

[panckage]

. I don't feel emotions, desire, connection, love, anger, sadness happiness, tiredness, hunger, passion, etc..

I can recall a year or so ago I felt my sexual desire start dwindling one day. It progressed into my ability to feel attraction, connection, lust, love and all those things.

I know exactly how you feel Aerose. I felt exactly the same things. I could have even written the same post if my grammar was as good as yours

Anyway I just want to let you know that LDN has fixed all those problems for me including with sex drive. I feel euphoric to be alive again

 

[Hip]

Anyway I just want to let you know that LDN has fixed all those problems for me including with sex drive. I feel euphoric to be alive again

That's very interesting.

I also developed this emotional flatness (the proper medical name for this is blunted affect) soon after contracting the virus that triggered my ME/CFS, in addition to developing anhedonia (which is closely linked to emotional flatness).

However, unfortunately I found LDN made my anhedonia worse within a matter of days.

How long did it take for LDN to fix your emotional flatness?

 

[Insomniac]

...When I think of all the attempts and failures that this ME experience has caused in my life. All the doctors, meds, exercise, non-exercise, the look on all the doubting faces, friends, family, medical profession, my government, it hits me like a ton of bricks. and just the realization keeps me in bed.

I used to be the advocate, the cheerleader and now I feel if I have to read one more freaking article about what may help or God help me - an abstract, I'll explode.

Yes I know any information is helpful, I know we have to talk and write and donate. I started with anger, now it's sadness and maybe I'll turn in to a flat person just because I can't make a difference in my life or anyone else's. I know good deeds are helpful and needed but when do we see a real change? Is there really a redemption coming?

I guess I'm just worn out. Maybe my brain is protecting me or I'm in shock. Maybe it's better to feel something horrible than to feel nothing. At this point I don't know anymore.

I also feel like that when I think of the attempts and failures, doubting faces...etc....I can't bring myself to be a cheerleader and have taken a break from trying more treatments. I could fully relate to everything else you wrote too.
Then when you write "Is there really a redemption coming?" my own thoughts today were "why me?" and not someone else. Then I think about the future.

I just wanted to say I could totally relate to everything you wrote and I hope you get a "good" day in this illness soon and that we can both feel a little less down about our situation.

 

[panckage]

How long did it take for LDN to fix your emotional flatness?

I think less than 2 weeks. I also started getting euphoria from kratom and Marijuana again as soon as I started LDN

 

[Hip]

I also started getting euphoria from kratom and Marijuana again as soon as I started LDN

Wow, LDN seems to have worked very well for you. Did it also improve your ME/CFS symptoms?

 

[panckage]

Wow, LDN seems to have worked very well for you. Did it also improve your ME/CFS symptoms?

Yep most things except maybe energy. I made a post in the last couple days in more detail about it

 

[Aerose91]

Yep most things except maybe energy. I made a post in the last couple days in more detail about it

Really happy for you that LDN was so effective. I was actually on it for about a year and saw no effect so i stopped. I hope you continue to progress, though!

 

[heyitisjustin]

@Aerose91

Depersonalization is likely tied to glutamate hyperactivity, which can be caused by inflammation. High glutamate is very damaging to the brain. Glutamate hyperactivity will also tend to decrease dopamine transmission.

In your case I would look into NMDA antagonists/modulators, perhaps memantine, NAC, lithium or magnesium threonate. Anything that reduces inflammation in the brain is also likely to help.

I am suffering from both sleep deprivation and depersonalization (although I am used to the latter). My HSCRP is through the roof (although I have normal CRP and cytokines like IL6). It seems like my tryptophan is being converted into kynurenine due to inflammation and I might have high glutamate as well.

How does one stop the inflammation? Shouldn't I locate it? Does anyone know how to find where inflammation is?
I've been to several doctors and they've got nothing.

Are there any tests to verify having high glutamate or high kynurenine/low serotonin/tryptophan?

NMDA antagonists seem to have different results for me.
CBD (cannibidiol), lithium, 5HTP+EGCG and NAD boosters seem to help. Mag threonate made my sleep markedly worse. NAC either didn't help or made sleep worse.

Can anyone think of other NMDA antagonists or neuro antinflammatories?

I have heard naltrexone might help. Does anyone have experience with naltrexone and sleep/depersonalization?

Do the people with depersonalization have sleep disturbance/low serotonin? I wonder both are tied to the same inflammation process?

 

[Tunguska]

I am suffering from both sleep deprivation and depersonalization (although I am used to the latter). My HSCRP is through the roof (although I have normal CRP and cytokines like IL6). It seems like my tryptophan is being converted into kynurenine due to inflammation and I might have high glutamate as well.

How does one stop the inflammation? Shouldn't I locate it? Does anyone know how to find where inflammation is?
I've been to several doctors and they've got nothing.

Are there any tests to verify having high glutamate or high kynurenine/low serotonin/tryptophan?

NMDA antagonists seem to have different results for me.
CBD (cannibidiol), lithium, 5HTP+EGCG and NAD boosters seem to help. Mag threonate made my sleep markedly worse. NAC either didn't help or made sleep worse.

Can anyone think of other NMDA antagonists or neuro antinflammatories?

I have heard naltrexone might help. Does anyone have experience with naltrexone and sleep/depersonalization?

Do the people with depersonalization have sleep disturbance/low serotonin? I wonder both are tied to the same inflammation process?

Adreno isn't posting anymore. I'm starting to become drunk so I'm going to post in his place. He doesn't endorse me posting this.

You basically can't prevent trytophan going down the kynurenine pathway. That basically amounts to curing the disease.

You can lower it by lowering cortisol and cortisol's effects on the liver. The biggest amount of kynurenine is generated in the liver by TDO which is cortisol driven (not immune-drive). Even if you can't prevent the IDO conversion by the immune system.

There's a limited amount of research on this, but it's possible that kynurenine itself (the first in the pathway) causes issues. This is actually solved by exercise (!) which increases the kynurenine -> kynurenic acid conversion. I suspect this is an issue since people with ME/CFS don't exercise. Also, this conversion can be prevented by low glutathione, which is fixed by NAC + glycine + theanine.

Otherwise, you might be like me and suffer from excessive NMDA antagonism. In part this can be caused by kynurenic acid, which is NMDA antagonist, as well as a cholinergic receptor modulator I forget which (lowers dopamine). Anyway, the only thing that can slow down the kynurenine -> kynurenic acid conversion I'm aware of is COX-2 inhibitors.

Downstream from that you could have issues with quinolinic acid (niacin precursor) and picolinic acid (zinc absorption factor), but I doubt they affect me so I didn't look that far into them.

The simplest thing to try for any of this is actually high dose transdermal magnesium chloride. It affects a few of the kynurenine metabolite conversions.

I might or might not be able to reply to this.

 

[kallogann]

I was like this a year ago. It really hit me when I was with a really attractive and energetic girl but I couldn't get energetic and aroused myself. I even told her that "I felt dead inside," which she didn't like hearing. It happened again 4-5 months later with another girl I had just met who was super cute and energetic, but I still couldn't match her, though I was better by then.

There was yet another woman I met in a holistic class. We did an activity where we were supposed to look into each others' eyes for a while, then tell each other what we saw. She said it looked like I was hurting inside. She was right.

So true. You realize something is wrong when you meet a person so full of life, energetic, enthusiastic about everything....basically so charming in every aspect you would normally fight whatever is in your way to keep her company.

And yet you don't have the energy to even try or feel something. You even think she would be better off with someone else who is not a dead man walking. Nobody wants to destroy a shiny little star.

 

[Aerose91]

I am suffering from both sleep deprivation and depersonalization (although I am used to the latter). My HSCRP is through the roof (although I have normal CRP and cytokines like IL6). It seems like my tryptophan is being converted into kynurenine due to inflammation and I might have high glutamate as well.

How does one stop the inflammation? Shouldn't I locate it? Does anyone know how to find where inflammation is?
I've been to several doctors and they've got nothing.

Are there any tests to verify having high glutamate or high kynurenine/low serotonin/tryptophan?

NMDA antagonists seem to have different results for me.
CBD (cannibidiol), lithium, 5HTP+EGCG and NAD boosters seem to help. Mag threonate made my sleep markedly worse. NAC either didn't help or made sleep worse.

Can anyone think of other NMDA antagonists or neuro antinflammatories?

I have heard naltrexone might help. Does anyone have experience with naltrexone and sleep/depersonalization?

Do the people with depersonalization have sleep disturbance/low serotonin? I wonder both are tied to the same inflammation process?

Low dose naltrexone never helped me at all, with anything

 

[Waverunner]

Supplements didn't help me at all. The only time my cognition/feeling is nearly completely normal is during colds. However, I don't know why this is the case.

 

[crypt0cu1t]

I am suffering from both sleep deprivation and depersonalization (although I am used to the latter). My HSCRP is through the roof (although I have normal CRP and cytokines like IL6). It seems like my tryptophan is being converted into kynurenine due to inflammation and I might have high glutamate as well.

How does one stop the inflammation? Shouldn't I locate it? Does anyone know how to find where inflammation is?
I've been to several doctors and they've got nothing.

Are there any tests to verify having high glutamate or high kynurenine/low serotonin/tryptophan?

NMDA antagonists seem to have different results for me.
CBD (cannibidiol), lithium, 5HTP+EGCG and NAD boosters seem to help. Mag threonate made my sleep markedly worse. NAC either didn't help or made sleep worse.

Can anyone think of other NMDA antagonists or neuro antinflammatories?

I have heard naltrexone might help. Does anyone have experience with naltrexone and sleep/depersonalization?

Do the people with depersonalization have sleep disturbance/low serotonin? I wonder both are tied to the same inflammation process?

I have your same symptoms and my diagnosis is looking more and more like an autoimmune encephalopathy.

I used LDN and it helps slightly, it allows me to get out for a few hours each day and work, but I still have moderate symptoms.

I also have high CRP and a high ESR. Have you ruled out possible autoantibodies?

 

[heyitisjustin]

Which of my symptoms seem similar to you? I have had my problems for over a decade and the progression besides a couple of bumps has been slow/minimal. In fact, now I am consuming extra salt and that seems to be helping a great deal to the point that I am sometimes asymptomatic. I assume the salt is likely a bandaid.

My CRP has been normal recently, my horrible sleep is probably enough to explain the previous bad values.
I think my ESR has been fine.

I have not rule out all antibodies. My sex hormones are often off so I've had some thyroid antibodies tested and those were fine. What antibody tests do you recommend?

Have you tried CBD or lithium?

 

[hailkaine]

I believe I am suffering the same thing as you, except my symptoms also include MAJOR loss of sensation throughout my entire body, and crazy noises and sensations coming from inside of my head like cracking, popping, shifting etc. ive lost all ability to feel reward/motivation, focus, feel emotion.. even my ability to think has been destroyed. it’s as if my mind’s been shut off. I lay there with my eyes closed and it feels no different than when they were open. just blank nothingness. if you’ve found any answers as to what’s happening to you, please let me know. i’ve been stuck like this for 4 months, and it’s completely ruined every facet of my life.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

and crazy noises and sensations coming from inside of my head like cracking, popping, shifting etc.

a bunch of people with long haul covid are online discussing a neck symptom: crunching, popping cracking.

Generally the issues may be tied to weaking neck ligaments, collagen breakdown, related issues with CCI.

My neck on the right side cracks and pops endlessly at night. I'm really worried about it.

 

[hailkaine]

I’ve been having neck problems for quite a while, but I don’t think they’re related. It seems neurological for me. i also hear what sound like lazers,electrical misfiring, this “WAH WAH WAH” sound that comes from the sides of my head, and a lot of other absolutely crazy stuff. Relating to the neck issues though, I’ve noticed when I lower my neck to the right, my entire arm will start spasming violently.