Where did I go wrong (or did I?)

[Tanner Blaze]

I went home to visit my family last year and my sister confessed that the real reason she wasn't at my wedding was because she was in an inpatient clinic getting treated for alcoholism. Thinking about this made me confront my own demons. I decided I needed to stop drinking as well, as I had been drunk almost every night for the past 14 months. Also, my weight had sky rocketed in one year from 190lbs to 232lbs. Both my dad and grandfather also suffered from addiction, along with an uncle so I knew there might be a genetic component. After numerous attempts at quitting (I could never go more than about 48 hrs without cravings setting in) I decided to start exercising. Although I had quit all drugs, I still could not put down the bottle, pinot noir red wine being my main vice. One day I did something extremely stupid, and this is where my question comes in. I went to Whole Foods supermarket and purchased the following:

Ashwagandha root 225mg
Passion flower 100mg
Rhodiola rosea root 75mg
Bacopin 75mg
L-Theanine 50mg
Eleuthero extract 50mg
Vitamin C 60mg
Vitamin B6 10mg
5-HTP 50mg
L-Tyrosine (free form) 500mg

Without doing any research and three days into my sobriety, I decided to take all these herbs together. What I was looking for I wasn't sure, I guess I was just depressed from the alcohol withdrawal and wanted something safe and legal to feel better. An hour in it hit me like a ton of bricks. My head hurt really bad. I had brain fog, the only way I can really describe this is one day in my twenties I was prescribed an anti-depressent called Remeron for my chronic anxiety and one pill made my head feel numb and compressed. It felt like this but this was ten times worse. I also got nauseous and vomited later that night. Here's where it gets interesting. After a few days of feeling better, I realized I no longer had a desire to drink alcohol. I even poured a glass just out of habit and fell asleep after only a few sips. I woke up to go to the bathroom and noticing the glass of wine and I just dumped it. It was crazy. Back at the height of my addiction I would never throw away booze. Anytime I passed out and woke to find a glass still with liquor in it, I would pound it and go back to sleep. It's almost 4 months in now, and I haven't had any alcohol since then. I know it can't be a placebo because I got invited to my cousins wedding and during the toast I instinctively grabbed a glass of white wine and drank from it. I just remember thinking "ughh... wine." During my addiction that probably would have been enough to trigger me to start pounding bottles as I could never just stop at one glass. Since then I have managed to lose about 7 lbs but still need to lose at least 20 more and my depression has lifted although thats probably just because I'm not hung over all the time anymore. I also know that I was told after taking the Remeron I must be particularly sensitive to SSRI's.Any ideas where I messed up on this? I was told by a friend I should not have taken 5-HTP and L-Tyrothine at the same time, but I remember taking half of what the recommended serving on the bottle was as to keep the dosage to a minimum as I've never taken any of these supplements before. And has anyone ever heard of this weird feeling of addiction going away almost like a reset switch? I almost feel like maybe this was a blessing in disguise. As terribly sick as this made me it may have saved my life.

(I wasn't sure if this belongs in Performance Enhancing or Sober Living so let me know if I need to move it)

 

[CFC]

Hi there. Congrats on getting off the booze and for feeling better!

A feeling of nausea on 5-HTP isn't unusual, however that's an exceptionally small dose to feel it - are you sure you didn't take more than that? The other supps (including the tyrosine) shouldn't have had a big impact, and they're all conservatively dosed, though perhaps together there's some minor synergy.

I'll move this to sober living where you may get more responses from ex-addicts.