I have the same as you though I get to sleep around 3am usually. I find the less I eat the longer I am up and I hardly eat anymore. It's a real struggle, I know how you feel. Please just don't take anymore drugs especially anti-histamines and sleeping pills - very bad.

I used to be really skinny but put on weight rapidly because of hypothyroidism. It's coming off slowly now from thyroxine, but the stretch marks are a pain in the arse to get rid of. It's so horrible! I've started getting them on my boobs too recently, and my boobs aint that big! It's not fair! I'm thinking I'm obviously not on enough zinc and p5p if I'm still getting them. I take 1g vitamin C a day, how mucg Vitamin E do you recommend?

Another great book I highly recommend is "The Schwarzbein Principle" by Diana Schwarzbein, M.D. and Nancy Deville. It's all about metabolism and thyroid and serotonin and weight and hypoglycemia. I think thyroxine is not such a good choice at the moment because there are so many things that happen in the body that can directly affect the thyroid. AF is just one of them, so is not eating enough protein. What was your TSH? I also take around 1 - 2g of C every two hours or more if I smoke or have inflammation. Sometimes I take 20-30g a day. I recommend mixed tocopherols or alpha tocopherol 1,800 IU max daily for now (if it is in milligrams don't bother cause its synthetic) later 400 - 600 IU should be enough.

I take loads of supplements but I don't eat well. I did a candida diet and the candida's gone on which I ate healthily. The problem is, I have a very poor appetite. I have to force myself to eat. My stomach will be empty and hurting because it wants food, but I feel too sick to eat as it's so empty. I had irritable bowel for years, but it got better from doing the candida diet. But I still get bowel problems, they are very sore alot. I have leaky gut too. When I'm feeling tense, my bowels and stomach just go all horrible and painful. I sometimes wonder if there's soemthing wrong with them.

When I was young and I never ate my doctor gave me some iron to take to increase my appetite and it worked well. I should try this! Do you take probiotics? I take them with raw milk. If I take them alone I get D. I think its like 80-90% of our neurotransmitters are found in the gut and also 90% of our immune system. This is how we get the "butterfly" feeling. I resist eating when I'm nervous 'cause nothing will get digested anyway.

I take a supplement that has B6 as p5p - 50mg, magnesium - 28mg, B2 - 20mg, zinc 13.7mg, beta carotene - 10,000iu (providing 1000ug retinol equivalents) - don't know what that bit means!

In my mutli-vit there is p5p 75mg, and zinc 10mg.

So, that's 125mg p5p, and 23.7mg zinc.

I think many will agree that at the start maybe boost your doses say to 100mg x 3 of p5p a day and gradually increase till feeling good and 30mg x 3 of zinc a day and 10 mg of manganese a day (as recommended by a respected doctor here in Oz). Then gradually decrease but stop before you start feeling bad again - just adjust.

I don't know if this is enough, the only difference I've noticed is I don't get so pissed off and stroppy, and I'm not as effected by stress as negatively as i was, but it still does effect me alot (stress has put me in the loony bin before!). I can chill out a bit easier. I don't work though, I cannot take the stress you would at work, I don't socialise since I've stopped drinking, the thought of seeing people makes me nervous. I hardly leave the house and I'm always tired. How are your energy levels? I hate being so pale too, I hope that corrects itself! I used to be a lovely golden colour when I was a kid, and when I started to become ill at 14, I looked as white as milk!

**You sound exactly like me. How old are you? I also don't work - too stressful also. I stay at home and stopped socialising once I stopped drinking and smoking too. I had to tell everyone to leave me alone (nicely) including my fiancee which was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I can't be bothered to do anything. Maybe it's not that but I think whats the point?**

If I were you I would consider a vitamin D test. D is also a hormone and so esential especially for depression and since you are pale, from the UK and don't get out much I would make this top priority - Although vitamin D pills today suck!

I think my multi only has 1mg manganese in it. How much do you take? I've heard it's imptortant too, do you know why?

I take around 50mg of mang at every meal. This is real excessive but I take it for Myasthenia Gravis which is a WHOLE nother topic! But basically it almost always occurs after stress and severe malnutrion and I am just overcoming anorexia and major stress so I have a lot of the symptoms. Here is more info http://users.mrbean.net.au/~wlast/myasthenia.html

How much E and C do you take? I take an omega GLA supplement. Can't have cod oil, allergic to it. How much primrose oil? Don't think I'm taking any. How much magnesium and what form? I was taking citrate but I think I was having trouble absorbing. Been trying to find liquid magnesium but having trouble. And how much potassium, lecithin, milk thislte and MSM?

I take Evening Primrose oil as a source of GLA, though I'm probably not getting much. How do you know you're alregic to cod liver oil? I take around 600mg of magnesium daily. Just remember B6 is basically ineffective unless you have magnesium! This is a money saver tip. I'm taking a "complete" with different forms but chloride and next, orotate would be best see http://users.mrbean.net.au/~wlast/magnesiumchloride.html

Potassium - I'm mega dosing (no less than 5000mg a day but its hard since they come in 100mg tablets thanks to the AMA!) as well as sodium, because these two are lost in the urine whenever you are really stressed. I had rapid heart beats all the time and now their gone. Do you pee a lot? I do, I think thats a sign I need HEAPS of sodium.

Thanks!!

P.S can I email you in future? :o)

Of course you can! atr1601@optusnet.com.au

Mandy