Oh, and I haven't had a drink in 6 months and I'm still not seeing any positive changes.

Hello there

Sorry you are going through such a rough time- and yes you can heal, ofcourse you can. Here is what you need to think about:

Anxiety/ Depression is often biochemical; influences can be poor diet, dietary deficiencies (vitamin mineral deficiencies, almost certain with purging/extreme dieting, heavy metal overload, parasite overload/ hormonal imbalances. You said in another post you're hypothyroid - I would get onto Iodine supplemention to heal your thyroid. I would also think about doing a parasite cleanse as the other poster has suggested given your high Sugar binging and poor diet. Clean up your diet, but DO NOT extreme diet or fast. You need to NOURISH yourself appropriately, calm your nerves (acupuncture? or herbs? valerian, massage therapy, Art therapy, anything nurturing and calming, calming minerals, magnesium etc. Get some sun in moderation.

Perhaps start with a naturapath for support and guidance if you can afford one, and follow directions, do not do this without proper support. Your behaviour indicates a propensity to go to extremes and you need to bring yourself into balance.

Do not panic as this brings more extreme behaviours - and you know where that ends!

Best, xx

I'm going to ask you to think outside the box for a moment.

I'm not suggesting that I know what factors are involved in your situation, but I'll share a few leads I've heard have been helpful to others.

Are you trying to self-medicate the anxiety and Depression with alcohol?

Besides the obvious use of medications for anxiety and depression, you could take vitamins, minerals, etc that the body needs to make its natural anti-anxiety and anti- Depression chemicals.

Magnesium is at the top of the list of things to try since it is involved in production of brain chemicals related to both symptoms.

Epsom Salt is magnesium sulfate. some like the more subtle effect of a foot bath rather than full bath. Sulfate is involved in the natural break down of a group of chemicals associated with focus and attention. In excess they are associated with anxiety/panic.

You could take things that the body uses to repair the brain.

The "stuff" in fish oil is used in brain repair. It has mild mood stabilizing properties.

The stuff in lecithin is used to make the brains primary memory chemical, acetylcholine. It also helps with brain repair.

Btw. You can see in the following video from the U. of Calgary one way mercury damages brain cells and probably contributes to what is known as Alzheimers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDnfeIwd0wI

The circles under the eyes might be due to stress on your liver, possibly sulfation pathway. The trace mineral molybdenum is involved in production of sulfate and I hear it is also involved in breakdown of acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is a by-product of alcoholic beverages and candida/yeast. Molybdenum is in most multi vitamins.

Various B vitamins will likely be useful to you, but when mood problems are present, I think it is important if not critical to take supplements 3 or 4 times a day. This keeps blood levels fairly stable and so production and break down of various mood related chemicals remains fairly stable. You might purchase a B50 tablet and cut it in quarters. A quarter of it with each meal might be reasonable.

A. Cutler thinks it is helpful for people to take magnesium several times per day for similar reasons.

Be careful what you eat, especially in the evening when you need to settle down to sleep. You want to eat calming foods, not exciting ones. You don't want to be tempted to use alcohol to help with sleep. There is much more available on this if requested.

I like books by Dr Daniel Amen on using supplements and diet to help with mood. You could get a inexpensive used copy of "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" on the net. If you have a Christian background you'll likely appreciate the angle Amen presents in "Healing the Hardware of the Soul".

Obviously people can be trying to self medicate "wounds of the heart" with alcohol. However it can be difficult for medical professionals to sort out the psychological influences from the physiological ones.

For example a close friend had a tough childhood due to alcoholic mother. She was a victim of a violent crime while a teen. She had anxiety, fatigue, depression, brain fog, etc!

It was understandable for her many counselors, psychiatrist, spiritual director, etc to assume that her problems were psychological. However, most of her symptoms remained after decades of talk therapy sessions and support groups.

She got some life-changing gains when she cleaned up her diet, got medication and supplements for thyroid and adrenal insufficiency, started taking supplements for mood (Mg, Li, Bs, etc), got rid of her silver-mercury fillings and started to detox (Cutler protocol).

Fortunately you are quite young. I'd be surprised if you don't improve with appropriate change. You know that your brain does not have an alcohol deficiency! : )

However, if you have a brain chemistry problem and you don't address it, I would not be surprised if you are dead by age 30.

The fact that you have not been drinking suggests to me you are ready to turn your life around. I wish you all the best with that!

Joe

Your brain's probably not shrunken. There's bone between your eyes and your brain so a shrinking brain won't suck your eyes in.

Whatever's causing your symptoms can be fixed. Live a healthy life and you'll heal. Eat the right amount of good foods, get regular and restful sleep, eliminate stress (including your own anxieties).

Brain shrinkage? You joking? Not trying to undermine your suffering by any means, but what you're saying just isn't physically possible. I will say that based on my own experience your eyes can look more sunken in after severe and quick weight loss, and can take some time to look normal again even after you've gained your weight back. A couple other possibilities- hypothyroidism can make the skin around your eyes puffy, making them look sunken in; there is also the factor of collagen loss in AF which can also make the eyes look more sunken in due to the thinning of the skin around the eyes, leaving many of us with those lovely "dark circles" under our eyes.

You can try to put cold compresses over your eyes to counteract the puffiness, or you can get yourself a good concealer to put on the skin. Guarantee they won't look as sunken in. That is of course if this post is serious and not a joke!