what has worked the best for recovering from long term comedowns

[pmz]

I figured I start a bit a different thread for recovering from LTC.

For those recovered and for those recovering who have made significant improvements. let's have a discussion about what of our efforts have been most effective and beneficial.

This is not a thread to discuss scientific theories about anything. It's purely to talk about what you have done and how it worked

Also. What have you done and received negitive results

Please let's avoid talking about what has not worked or gotten no results. It seems to be a pattern of people trying things for a few times and then complaining how it didn't do anything for them. When in reality that person might not have given it a long enough chance to get results

So let's only chat about what actually provided significant results and what has given us negitive results.


I'll start.

Emotional healing - I have been forcing my self to socialize more. Surrounding my self with positive people and positive influences. By doing so, I've actually been feeling a subtle love in my heart again. Even though I still feel quite flat emotionally. I've been happy and much more emotionally stable.
Also a lot of positive self talk actually goes a long way. Recently in times of depression. I will formulate mantras in my head of nothing but self motivating positive self talk. This shoves away the pessimistic voices in my head

Relaxation - I've been meditation daily. I try to meditate at least once or twice a day. If you would like any meditation advice. Please contact me. Find this is the one of the best things a person a can do. Its proven to positively change the way the brain is wired, in opposed to how we so negatively rewired it and it needs reversing.
I also found laying out in the sun in my hammock one of the most relaxing things I can do. I find my self just absolutely loving life one evening by just laying and lookind around my at nature and trying to just be in tune with nature around me. And I felt so amazing. So please find your self outside as much as possible. And just rest in the sun.

Supplements - I've previously been taking a whole ton of supplements. A few things that have a neurotransmitter effect, such as inositol, theanine, phenylalanine, 5-thp. When I stopped taking then all. I noticed that I have been able to sleep a much better night. And I wake up much better. I really feel that taking phenylalanine was actually causing me sleep issues.
I now only take a ton of fish oil, vitamin D and B, astaxinthan 12mg(a powerful antioxident) and that's it.

I drink about a gallon of water a day and have been noticing my fatigue is not nearly what it used to be.

I've also been going to yoga a lot. And I realize to make it a daily activity. Yoga is amazing a calming the body down as we can feel very tense throughout your body. Yoga can really help release a lot of negitive energy
And I of course go to the gym often. I try to do a lot of balance exercises. I read that balancing exercise helps to focus the mind and improve cognition. And I feel that is true when I do that. Its almost like meditation.

And also seek spirituality. Do what ever you can to find a connection to your "higher self" or meaning

I also go a job that helps stimulate my mind in a pace that that I can handle and not get stressed. This is helping ton.

I've done a lot that I didn't get the results I wanted. Such as IV amino acid treatment. I did not do it enough. Only 3 IVs because the treatment was a bit more than I was willing to handle at the time. So I can't say if it will work or not.


Anyone else. Please chime in with some specific things that seemed to provide the best results

What have you done that actually helped anxiety, brain fog, memory, depression or fatigue?

 

[India111]

Pmz it's as if you read my mind. I was just about to start exactly the same thread! I was particularly interested in things that help fatigue that don't involve caffeine, as getting through a shift at work is my hardest challenge right now

 

[pmz]

Pmz it's as if you read my mind. I was just about to start exactly the same thread! I was particularly interested in things that help fatigue that don't involve caffeine, as getting through a shift at work is my hardest challenge right now

Haha. Nice. Yeah man. I bought a gallon jug of water that I carry with me throughout the day. Aim to finish that by 5pm. Its Hard sometimes. But you can only do what you can.

Also I would recommend getting to bed by 9-9:30 it helps to get as much sleep as possible. And meditate before bed. It will make a huge difference the next day at work If you do that every day.

 

[Dawglaw]

CBT and focusing my energy and life on topics other than my comedown. It's hard but helped me immensely.

Also, time.

 

[India111]

Yeah enough sleep (but not too much) is definitely good, the only problem is although i love my current job the hours are so long so i don't get enough sleep, i weighed up the pros and cons though and i think being in this job is helping me more than being in my old job and getting more sleep. It's annoying though as i feel like if the hours were less my recovery would be coming on much faster!

 

[me2point0]

Not a trick, but a lifestyle: acceptance.

I stopped being frustrated when I noticed my symptoms everyday. I just stopped saying in my head:
-oh damn im dizzy
-i feel my heartbeat oh noes
-my brain is foggy, is my brain dying?
-holy shit Im having dp/dr, is this real life?whats going on? Am I in the K-hole?(thats the most important one)
-I see little fireworks in the sky, do I have HPPD forever?
-I dont like that, have I lost all my emotions and am I ever gonna enjoy anything?
-I cant figure out this math problem, am I now retarded because of the LTC?

I literally stopped saying this over and over in my head. I just tell my brain and my mind"look bro, it's happening and you can't fix it overnight. Thats our new life, like it or not. If someday you wake up and decide to fix it, thanks, but i'm ready to live with this, and so are you. Little shit."

As stupid as my post sounds, it really helps me, ALOT. Because I haven't mentionned my condition once since I accepted myself. Im not struggling to find an answer. I just live life with this, and I like it. I see it as a "you didn't die, congratz, now go out there and win at life with this shit, or die trying"

I hope that within this poorly-written post of pure ideological chaos some of you learned something and will stop crying about how you feel, and begin accepting that it's there.

TLDR: The goal here, is to STOP comparing how you feel with how you FELT before it happened. Accept that it's the new you. And you will start enjoying things again. Ta-da.

 

[derok]

Totally agree with the last post, but you should know that being a positive thinking guy like me, to accept the new me was totally impossible the first steps in the dark hell of the LTC , you need a minimum of clear mind and ofc your anxiety have to slow down in some point to start saying, ey this is the new me, im not ok, but im not so bad. You simply cant accept the HELL of the first months having this, then you just have to SURVIVE, and SUFFER until the undeserved punishment slow down leaving you some control over your mind to start taking the good path.

myprofile : 2+ years in HELL neurological and crippling anxiety 24/7 , last months starting to feel the light back to (almost) close to a normal life.

My advice: SURVIVE and then take the last post advice as follows. take care with food and chemicals (medicine and so on) cause your body now its a little bit reactive to stressants (correct typing of this?? :/ ) whatever is their kind.

 

[Dawglaw]

Me2point0 speaks the truth.

 

[ScaredFirstTimer]

myprofile : 2+ years in HELL neurological and crippling anxiety 24/7 , last months starting to feel the light back to (almost) close to a normal life.

Great to hear man. When exactly did your sleep start to improve/get back to normal? Do you remember?

You simply cant accept the HELL of the first months having this, then you just have to SURVIVE, and SUFFER until the undeserved punishment slow down leaving you some control over your mind to start taking the good path.

True. What me2poin0 explained is exactly how I accepted my situation, hence why I say that "accepting that I'm brain damaged" helped me tremendously. But the acceptance itself is a sign of recovery. We don't really have a free will in the way we think we have, and the seeming "choice" of acceptance is rather what will happen when the most immediate and intense suffering starts to abate. Absolute acceptance is impossible for the first weeks/months.

Acceptance is a sign of recovery, and I think it is itself a catalyst for further recovery.

 

[derok]

i was using meds to induce 4 h of sleep per night (not sure if i did good here, but i was in a very bad place) for 4 months, then i was starting to sleep 4 h on my own, for 1 year or so 6 h i could reach, then i start to sleep like a baby on 1,5 years goal. But everybody is difference, but the get a good sleep by yourself is a good sign of recovery for stress related problems. Right now meditation induce me sleep very well

 

[ScaredFirstTimer]

Do you still have anxiety every day man? ^

 

[derok]

nope! just mood swings , i can say that sometimes i have some nervousness but this could happen before all this happened.

 

[pmz]

Not a trick, but a lifestyle: acceptance.

I stopped being frustrated when I noticed my symptoms everyday. I just stopped saying in my head:
-oh damn im dizzy
-i feel my heartbeat oh noes
-my brain is foggy, is my brain dying?
-holy shit Im having dp/dr, is this real life?whats going on? Am I in the K-hole?(thats the most important one)
-I see little fireworks in the sky, do I have HPPD forever?
-I dont like that, have I lost all my emotions and am I ever gonna enjoy anything?
-I cant figure out this math problem, am I now retarded because of the LTC?

I literally stopped saying this over and over in my head. I just tell my brain and my mind"look bro, it's happening and you can't fix it overnight. Thats our new life, like it or not. If someday you wake up and decide to fix it, thanks, but i'm ready to live with this, and so are you. Little shit."

As stupid as my post sounds, it really helps me, ALOT. Because I haven't mentionned my condition once since I accepted myself. Im not struggling to find an answer. I just live life with this, and I like it. I see it as a "you didn't die, congratz, now go out there and win at life with this shit, or die trying"

I hope that within this poorly-written post of pure ideological chaos some of you learned something and will stop crying about how you feel, and begin accepting that it's there.

TLDR: The goal here, is to STOP comparing how you feel with how you FELT before it happened. Accept that it's the new you. And you will start enjoying things again. Ta-da.

this im honestly still struggling with. Some days im all proud of the work ive done and how far Ive come and completely hopeful. And other days, Im totally in despair, feel like Ill never get better, mind is racing about nothing good.

I guess its all mood swings. I used to get stuck in huge pessimistic thought behaviors for weeks at a time with no relieve. Now its reduced down to days, and now even down to hours sometimes. SO the lows are not as low and they dont last as long. So I have to really acknowledge that things are improving and Im gaining a control of my thoughts and mood swings finally.

But its hard to see improvement during a spell of depression. Im just happy they are not as long lasting or severe as they used to be.

 

[me2point0]

this im honestly still struggling with. Some days im all proud of the work ive done and how far Ive come and completely hopeful. And other days, Im totally in despair, feel like Ill never get better, mind is racing about nothing good.

I guess its all mood swings. I used to get stuck in huge pessimistic thought behaviors for weeks at a time with no relieve. Now its reduced down to days, and now even down to hours sometimes. SO the lows are not as low and they dont last as long. So I have to really acknowledge that things are improving and Im gaining a control of my thoughts and mood swings finally.

But its hard to see improvement during a spell of depression. Im just happy they are not as long lasting or severe as they used to be.

Honnestly I figured after posting this that the problem is actually even deeper than I thought. You are right, let me explain:

When we feel "better" we like to see it as a new standard, and when it goes back to bad, we think it's only getting worse than it ever were. "One step foward, two steps back". I think the most important part of the concept of acceptance is actually not noticing when it's good or bad, and that's the hardest part.

Sometimes I wake up and i'm feeling really good, and then I think " wow this is better than it is normally, incredible"...and right there, that's the mistake. I go right back at square one almost instantly, I feel head presure and stuff, you know the drill.

That's why it's so hard. Because a little hope is good, but too much will make one go mad.

I don't want to sound negative, instead I want to give hope but I really have to say that I made peace with the idea of being like that forever. Because I like to think recovery will come when i'm not expecting it. Slowly, silently, but of course, surelly.

Stay strong, what other choice do you have? Have faith that the god damn human brain is the most sophisticated component you will ever come across. He improved for millions of years and he won't give up after you ingested a few chemicals, and neither will you. Give him time, don't give hime a hard time

 

[pmz]

Honnestly I figured after posting this that the problem is actually even deeper than I thought. You are right, let me explain:

When we feel "better" we like to see it as a new standard, and when it goes back to bad, we think it's only getting worse than it ever were. "One step foward, two steps back". I think the most important part of the concept of acceptance is actually not noticing when it's good or bad, and that's the hardest part.

Sometimes I wake up and i'm feeling really good, and then I think " wow this is better than it is normally, incredible"...and right there, that's the mistake. I go right back at square one almost instantly, I feel head presure and stuff, you know the drill.

That's why it's so hard. Because a little hope is good, but too much will make one go mad.

I don't want to sound negative, instead I want to give hope but I really have to say that I made peace with the idea of being like that forever. Because I like to think recovery will come when i'm not expecting it. Slowly, silently, but of course, surelly.

Stay strong, what other choice do you have? Have faith that the god damn human brain is the most sophisticated component you will ever come across. He improved for millions of years and he won't give up after you ingested a few chemicals, and neither will you. Give him time, don't give hime a hard time

You are exactly right about the mentality when you feeling good verses bad. Just tale it as it is I guess is the best way to handle things. When you are good. Appreciate it but don't expect that Its gonna last or you have made some kind of breakthrough, because your only gonna dip down again and then get all butt hurt because you were feeling good last week and why all of sudden not this week.

I think even in normal life we have good ad bad days. We just experience it on a much different amplitude. Its the practice of letting the bad energy flow out and not trying to force it out or beat ourselves up.

 

[JWills20]

Analogous to Me2point0's posts, I'm going to post some of the things I learnt during undergraduate sport science that I thought some of you may find useful. On a module called the 'Psychology of Injury' we learnt about just how psychologically destructive an injury can be to an athlete. Athletes are brought up spending their whole lives devoted to sport, and solely sport, as this is what becoming a professional sports player requires. Players are drafted into academies at very young ages and spend the majority of their upbringing entirely devoted to that sport. As a result, that sport begins to become a part of the self. Being an athlete is no longer just a job, but a deep underlying part of your identity. Unlike normal young children and adolescents, who go through periods of life where they experiment and try new activities (remember how when you were 15 you might have tried drinking, smoking, trying new hobbies, meeting new people, studying new subjects at school), athletes spend their entire childhood and adolescence devoted to sport. The demands of sport do not afford them to socially experiment in life, and therefore the critical period of defining who you are, comes down to the sole definitive of sport.

So, when an injury occurs, the damage stems deeper than simply physical (the broken limb etc) and into a deeper psychological shattering of their identity as an athlete. Those of us who have developed alternative identities and senses of our selves (formulated from a more varied upbringing), can draw on different meanings of the self. For example, if I developed a leg injury which stopped me from being able to play tennis (my favourite sport), I'd still have an identity of being a masters neuroscience student, being interested in drugs, being interested in the brain etc etc. Athlete's don't have those alternative identities, their identity is that they are an athlete and ONLY an athlete. Such a shattering of the self can cause deep depression for the athlete which can last extremely long periods of time (years & years for long-term injuries). Some athletes have even committed suicide from life-long disabling injuries as they just can't deal with the new person they now are. However, on the other hand, some athletes are able to adjust to the new person they are having to become and accept these 3 crucial psychological concepts: what has happened is in the PAST (and therefore they have no control over it), what is in the present is ACCEPTABLE (the new self) & that what is going to happen in the future is UNPREDICTABLE and therefore NOT WORTH WORRYING ABOUT. Some of you may be wondering how this is exactly relevant to LTC's, but from my observations a LTC causes a shattering of your sense of self, similar to how an injury does for a serious athlete. We're all intelligent people here; we value who we are - our intelligence, humour, social skills etc. So when MDMA comes along and causes a disruption of our ability to perform, and this disruption doesn't seem to go away like it does for most people, we then feel a shattering of the self, wishing that we were still the person we were before, which can trigger depression and anxiety (just like an injury can for athletes). We then get into a mindspace which is stuck in the past or the future, and never truely accepts the present. We're stuck in the past because we want the old us back, the smart, funny & happy person. We're then also stuck in the unpredictable future, because we are thinking about whether the old us will ever come back in the future. This means we never truely accept the present, because the present no longer feels like ourselves (I hope you can see the analogy with the athletes who cannot accept their new disabled selves). The point is, and what the sport psychology research shows, is that athletes who are able to accept that the past is in the past, that the future is completely unpredictable, and that the present is acceptable, are able to psychologically adjust much quicker and more efficiently than those who cannot. Therefore, they recover from the psychological trauma of injury MUCH faster. Perhaps this would be true for those of you struggling with LTC's. It's not an easy process and it may even feel like you have 'made it' but only when you come out the other end do you know you've truely made it. Most athletes who do psychologically recover, then report feeling more mentally stable and happy in life.

I hope this made sense. The brain is more complex than simply = serotonin fucked = long-term depression. YOU can control how your brain works. As soon you embark on the journey of acceptance of the new self, the self that is now a LTC, and acknowledge that the past and future are not in your control and not worth thinking about, can you begin to psychologically recover and come out of the comedown.

 

[t-girl72]

I don't know what type of come down y'all are talking about, but I could not fathom relaxation techniques, getting to bed early, and many other suggestions mentioned. I have no come down from coke, my DOC, but from Bath Salts and meth I get crazy come downs. I lay in bed praying for death, sucking on a Pedialyte, and cuddling my dogs. When I can move again I try to eat some rice, or a slim fast shake.

 

[pmz]

I don't know what type of come down y'all are talking about, but I could not fathom relaxation techniques, getting to bed early, and many other suggestions mentioned. I have no come down from coke, my DOC, but from Bath Salts and meth I get crazy come downs. I lay in bed praying for death, sucking on a Pedialyte, and cuddling my dogs. When I can move again I try to eat some rice, or a slim fast shake.

Dear God. There is so much wrong with this post.
1) bath salts? Common!!! Not to be a dick but, are you stupid? I don't understand how people actually do that shit. Stick to coke.
2) Your recovering from a drug come down and all you eat is a slim fast and rice? That's like the least nutritious thing you can eat. Take care of your self.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "cannot fathom relaxation techniques"?
Ever try a meditation or breathing techniques? Your also bringing a totally different drug into conversation here.

I'm kind of getting a lot of negativity from your post. I've created a space in this thread so people can offer what they have learned to others. What can we help you with or what do you have to offer?

 

[futura2012]

Nice post mr PMZ I look with a smiling face to see reports of my fellow LTC sufferers are also recovering too. I was there when you were at the pits of despair I am VERY HAPPY to read things are lifting for you

My experience of the hell and back Or the living horror movie.. What things helped me recover?

(1) TIME (its really the only healer as my belief the brain is too complex and vast to 'fix' with a pill or potion)

(2) HOPE / CONFIDENCE / BELIEF (this wont be a permanent thing despite how awful you feel at that moment) (ie never give up you might want to die but eventually it lifts)

(3) BLUELIGHT (as naff as this sounds this place without it I don't know where I would be. The despair, the pain, the entertainment there was always someone there who would reach out and be my friend) (this really is the only place I could find with knowledge over and above my local GP who in true honesty didn't know shit about MDMA or street drugs other than reading about them in front of me in her office on wikipedia.

(4) FITNESS

(5) HYDRATE

(6) HELPING OTHERS (weird but in the process of speaking with other LTC sufferers it made me understand A LOT about my condition. During this process I also made some very good friends that will be with me until the day I die)

 

[pmz]

Nice post mr PMZ I look with a smiling face to see reports of my fellow LTC sufferers are also recovering too. I was there when you were at the pits of despair I am VERY HAPPY to read things are lifting for you

My experience of the hell and back Or the living horror movie.. What things helped me recover?

(1) TIME (its really the only healer as my belief the brain is too complex and vast to 'fix' with a pill or potion)

(2) HOPE / CONFIDENCE / BELIEF (this wont be a permanent thing despite how awful you feel at that moment) (ie never give up you might want to die but eventually it lifts)

(3) BLUELIGHT (as naff as this sounds this place without it I don't know where I would be. The despair, the pain, the entertainment there was always someone there who would reach out and be my friend) (this really is the only place I could find with knowledge over and above my local GP who in true honesty didn't know shit about MDMA or street drugs other than reading about them in front of me in her office on wikipedia.

(4) FITNESS

(5) HYDRATE

(6) HELPING OTHERS (weird but in the process of speaking with other LTC sufferers it made me understand A LOT about my condition. During this process I also made some very good friends that will be with me until the day I die)

Thanks. I feel like we needed this.