I've noticed two things

I did some serious refurbishing of my vitamin regiment. After many hours of research and refocusing my search words and what I expected and what I wanted to change, I came across a new vitamin (well, new to me) that promised to relieve the feelings of stress and anxiety. Now, as you know, I am skeptical to say the least. I have seen loads of vitamins and medications that promised to change my life with their herbal relief but few, with the exception of Niacin, have actually made good on that promise. But, seeing as how my life is currently lived with the confines of my four walls and my front porch, I needed to do something different. Hence, new vitamins. 

A lot of sites that deal with helping people with anxiety issues mentioned adrenal fatigue due to the constant high levels of stress and constant hypervigilance. What is hypervigilance? Well, vigilance is being alert, watchful, For people like me, that alertness and watchfulness takes on a whole different meaning. We are constantly... CONSTANTLY on alert, always watchful, with never a moment to relax. When the body is under that kind of stress, under that kind of constant vigilance, the body overproduces chemicals that makes the body constantly vigilant. And that, takes vigilance to hypervigilance. So, what happens to the body when this occurs?

When the body is under that much stress, overwhelming amounts of stress, the body produces large amounts of adrenaline, over and over and over, for days, for months, for years upon years. Eventually, those glands stay partially to constantly active, even when there is no danger around. Those glands can keep up that overproduction for a very long time until... well... they get tired, they get fatigued and then in some people, they stop working altogether. Luckily for me, they still work but they are fatigued. During the course of my research I came across a vitamin I had never heard of, ashwagandha. This vitamin has been known to treat adrenal fatigue but also has been known to treat depression and anxiety and greatly reduce stress. This basically means since the body is producing less adrenaline, the adrenal glands can rest. It also means that large amounts of adrenaline is no longer being pumped into the body making the stress and anxiety worse. This also means that the hypervigilance begins to ease up. Of course, I am a skeptic. But I have to try something. 

Day 3 on ashwagandha. I added 500mg of this vitamin to my regular regime that I have been on for one year solid. I take 6,000mg of niacin, 2,400mg of calcium and vitamin C, 5,000 IU of vitamin D3, 500mg of Magnesium, 1,000 mg of Fish Oil, 3,000mg Valerian Root at bed time, and a lot of water. I have been systematically cutting down on caffeine and cutting way back on coffee. I know what most people say when they hear the amount of each I am taking, "That's way too much! You are going to shut your liver down!" There has been no proof that those amounts cause damage. I have not felt my depression in over a year and I WILL NOT go back to living in that darkness. Besides that, I get a physical each year and my liver is fine. 

The ashwanadha is amazing! Truly amazing! The day after my first dose, I felt like I had taken a xanax. I was relaxed, almost to the point of not functioning but still able to concentrate. I did not have the cloudiness associated with xanax. The bad neighbors turned their car stereo up and I barely noticed. THAT was when I noticed a change. Usually I would have been on the phone immediately to the police but it barely phased me. I noticed it but I wasn't bothered. If that makes sense. I slept like a rock that night. I didn't move for 7 hours straight. That rarely happens but two nights in a row, I actually slept. I had bad dreams but I didn't react as I usually do. I woke up and was able to fall back to sleep immediately. My appetite is lowered but I am not stressing about that either. For 30 years, I have chosen to stay fat, to stay heavy because that is my safety blanket but I am not worrying that I may lose weight. And today, I left the house with my wife and I was fine. We had fun... let me say that again... we had fun. Now to give a short reason why that is important. I can go months without leaving the house and when I do, I am usually is a foul mood and I snap because of all the noise. I'm very unpleasant to be around when we are out of the house. So, to say that we had fun is not only an important step, it's a colossal achievement. 

Now that I have given the good points, there are a couple of downsides that I am hoping fades with time. First and most notable, I am in pain. One of the ingredients in ashawanda is lactic acid.  Lactic acid is the chemical that is produced by your muscles when they are used and it is also a by-product of milk. Why is this information important? Because it can settle in your muscles after a work out and cause soreness. See where this is going? So, i need to drink a shit ton of water to help my body flush the excess. And that is why i hurt. Because I am constantly putting it into my body before my body can fully flush it out, I have to increase the amount of water I drink in order to get to a balance so I can keep taking it and it will not cause as much soreness. 

Second this I noticed, it is hard for me to stir in the mornings. The ashwagandha causes such relaxation that it is or can be difficult to get up in the morning. But overall, I can honestly say I am liking the results of this. I will stay on the 500mg per day until the soreness goes away but if I keep getting results on this dosage, I will most likely stay on this level.