"Dr thinks I am utterly crazy at this point and won't help

== Maybe because your insurance co won't pay. Dr Mark Hyman went to ten other doctors before someone realized heavy metals were involved--cf Youtube video. I'm not saying they are necessarily involved in your case but doctors are not medical gods, especially not necessarily benevolent ones.

"For about a decade I've had symptoms of extreme fatigue, anxiety, occasional depression, sleep problems, digestive problems, joint pains, and I could go on and on

== A close female friend and I had life limiting problems for over a decade. Doctors were only somewhat helpful. We learned we had to do our homework. Fortunately the Internet is a valuable resource, although we have to be careful. There is plenty of junk "information" too.

"I have now had diarrhea daily for 6 months.

== If you also have lost weight during this time you should consider the possibility of a parasite. I had two that showed up on a Metametrix stool test. After less than a week on medication I was back to normal.

== I'd be surprised if most of your symptoms are not related to adrenal insufficiency. mercury could be a cause or contributing factor. Your symptoms are very commonly reported in detox groups. You could check out the symptom lists under the 1000+ hair tests at this site used by detox groups.
http://livingnetwork.co.za/chelationnetwork/hairtest/hairtest3/

" it was probably from my hormones from having a kid (3 years ago!).

== Yep, that is exactly what I'm saying too. I bet your adrenals were weak before that but your body makes some of the sex hormones from adrenal cortex hormones as seen below ( note dhea is not abbreviated)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steroidogenesis.svg

== The additional stress of childbirth and caring for the little one was piled on top. If you got the flu vaccine containing mercury that would not have helped. Hg binds rather tightly to a hormone receptor related to adrenals and sex hormones. If fouls up this system in other ways as well. It seems that a majority of people in the detox groups benefit from adrenal support. It along with certain amino acids--GABA, etc--have been almost miraculous for a close friend with long history of PTSD.

"my Dr says adrenal fatigue is not real and that the supplements they suggest for it could hurt me

== Not real according to what the insurance co. will pay. It could hurt the doc's bottom line since you might not need psych meds.

"And she said the saliva test was not accurate.

== If you have fatigue in the mid afternoon, have the doctor order both AM and PM blood cortisol. Get that latter drawn just before the lab closes--3pm? That is not as good as the 4 samples per day in saliva. Of course you could do both on the same day. My friend had a blood cortisol on the day of her 4x saliva. The blood test result was very similar to her AM saliva.

== Progesterone is very tricky if your cycle is not normal. Levels vary greatly during the "month.". This is one reason I really like a blood pregnenolone as well. Preg is the immediate precursor and an inexpensive supplement. Don't expect the doc to mention it!

== The sex & stress hormone panel supports the theory that you could use more adrenal cortex support.

== You might start with 10mg pregnenolone x2. That is a low dose that even some people with chemical sensitivities can tolerate. I doubt it will resolve anything but just get you started. I'd include some adrenal *cortex* glandular and vitamin B5.

== The poor sleep might also be involved in the high cortisol in the AM. My friend's first 4x saliva had normal AM and low the remainder of the day. She had a history of poor sleep and being able to get some things done in the AM.
http://www.canaryclub.org/adrenal-article-980/706-cortisol-1-or-4.html

== If Hg is an underlying reason for this, it is affecting various systems in your body. You'll likely beneifit from supporting them--assuming you don't have MCS.

== Magnesium has a calming effect. The glycinate form probably would be nice for those with your symptoms. It is well absorbed and glycine also has a reputation for being calming.

== Epsom Salt is Mg sulfate. Sulfate is involved in the breakdown of brain chemicals that amp us up. Some like the more subtle effect of a foot bath.

== Glucosamine *sulfate* has been wonderful for my joint pain; however you have to catch it early.

" I feel horrible and I can't keep living like this. I can't even do my normal daily tasks and I'm a wife, and a mother of a toddler who I feel is suffering

== Dr Hal Huggins, a pioneer in Hg free dentistry once wrote about this in his page on Chronic Fatigue.
http://www.hugginsappliedhealing.com/mercury-symptoms.php

== You might feel like you are so strange but we hear that list of symptoms so often in the detox groups.

== It could be worse, you could also have the more serious symptoms of Hg such as terrible chemical sensitivites and MS-like tingling and burning of the hands and brain. My friend had some of the latter when she accidentally took ALA incorrectly around the time she had her silver fillings removed. Patti is an example of MCS
http://howirecovered.com/meet-patti-who-recovered-from-mercury-poisoning/

== I suggest that you avoid cilantro and alpha lipoic acid if you have silver Amalgam fillings. They contain 50% mercury. I've seen lots of unpleasant reports from those with that combo, including my close female friend.

-300mg ALA 2x/day while I still had amalgams....from really-sick-but-functioning to completely disabled, in just 6 months http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/24221

- KellyB. "...took 50 mg of ALA once per day for months...while I had Amalgams in, during the removal process, and even after they were removed....I have suffered tremendously because of this. My health deteriorated rapidly - MCS, extreme food intolerances , depression, anxiety, etc."

- 20mg ALA in the weeks after Amalgam removal. "...has given me the worst severe burning brain for 2 days straight, along with extreme burning muscle pain and weakness all over."
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/frequent-dose-chelation/message/96458

-R-Lipoate w/ hidden Amalgam //www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=2027011
...I took close to 200 different powerful herbs, and nutraceuticals including R-lipoate. It was at the end of that 5 month period, that I begin to get severe jaw pain around the rotten tooth ( the one that I did not know had an Amalgam in it). It was around this time that I essentially had chronic fatigue and anterograde amnesia set in. It was a profound, rapid, failure of my health, I went from ...going to college full time, to just being debilitated.