You can search our site for ketamine info from members.
Most info might be on our RSD/CRPS forum.

Hi Mark. My quality of sleep has actually been pretty good. I'm probably sleeping on average around 9 hours or so.

I'm currently taking Olanzapine. Also doing a lot of supplements. DHA and EPA fish oil, Vitamins B, C and D, Quercetin, Coq 10, and Magnesium. Wasn't taking much prior to all of this.

I had the Covid booster last November in 2021 and these symptoms all came on in February so a number of months later. The only time I know I've gotten Covid was this past August and it didn't seem to affect things one way or the other.

I think it's fair to say I'm pretty tightly wound and a perfectionist. I have given in a lot to these symptoms. Have accepted that I may just need to listen to movies through audio description and haven't really tried to watch one fully in months. Doing sports this way I figure I actually watch maybe 15 minutes of a football game during it's 3 and a half hour broadcast so I'm trying to make many sacrifices to help things but still a work in progress.

I've had some on and off struggles with anxiety and depression but was in great shape for probably 5 years prior to this coming on this year. I don't tolerate caffeine well so no on energy drinks. I used to enjoy drinking alcohol prior to all of this but now I can't as when I do it seems to confuse my brain and my knees feel like they start giving out. Very weird but again that's another thing I've just tried to accept and have only tried once in the past 6 months to drink alcohol. I've had to sacrifice a lot.

The man who had the struggles after gaming, did he find anything that eventually helped to at least manage the symptoms or get things back to normal? I kind of figure it may not be realistic for me to fully go back to the way things were before all of this but would love to at least get something back or to be able to better manage.

Thank you for any additional thoughts you have Mark!

Dizziness and headache are side effects of Olanzapine. I would avoid it unless it is absolutely necessary. If you look at other people with sensitivities like yours, antidepressants or antipsychotics are often involved. Any drug that affects the neurotransmitters in the brain is bad for the brain.

You may have to taper the dose down if the withdrawal effects are bad.

Take a look at this book. It talks about anxiety and depression. The chemicals from medications accumulate in your body, so a detox plan would be good and can be used in conjunction with medications. It Takes Guts To Be Happy: A 21-Day Cleansing Plan to Heal Your Belly & Recharge Your Life

I didn’t start taking Olanzapine until recently and I take a very small dose only at night. I haven’t noticed it affect my symptoms.

I have tried many antidepressants and think they had an adverse effect so I stopped them. Have also tried 5-htp and l tyrosine and I love the effect of both of them but they definitely made me dizzy so I had to stop.

Olanzapine hasn’t had any of those negative effects when I take it so for some reason I guess my body can tolerate it.

L-Tyrosine is not tolerated by many, especially the high stressed types.

Have you tried L-Theanine? It helps the brain settle. I take L-Theanine and 5-HTP. They are a life saver. I was on an SSRI for 13 years... Yuck.

What is the goal with Olanzapine? That is a harsh psychotropic drug. I took it for 6 weeks a decade ago to stop dangerous stress induced weight loss.

I just watched a YouTube that talked about how video games can retrain the brain to a new function. Good ol'e neuroplasticity at work.

What part of the country do you live in?

If you have $10,000 to spend, CogFX in Utah or Amen Clinics might be a consideration.

If I remember, Chris learned how to settle his brain over time. He had a lot of other life issues, too.

Dr Walker's neurology clinic in Houston has done some great work with neurofeedback.

Hi Mark. I have tried L-Theanine and it does work well. GABA too. I've taken a slight break from them as I kind of just did a reset back in August. Unfortunately at that time I needed to check myself into a hospital for a week as I was not good mentally. Still struggling but having a better mindset since then. I actually visited AMEN over the Summer and they had recommended GABA and Tyrosine based on my scans.

AMEN also recommended Plasticity Centers (I live in the Atlanta area) so I visited them earlier in the year as well. Would Cog FX be all that different from them? I've already spent a lot of money and have done exercises from Plasticity, from vestibular therapy, and vision therapy, but haven't gotten anywhere from any of them unfortunately. I'm still trying and doing vestibular therapy right now and have another comprehensive vision exam coming up soon where we may explore more vision therapy. I had to stop that with my last group as the syntonics they gave me really made things much much worse.

Olanzapine was originally part of a plan with my psychiatrist to take alongside an SSRI but I didn't tolerate the SSRI very well so came off of that but noticed that the Olanzapine seemed to help me sleep and my mood so I've just stayed on it. Have been on for probably like 2 months now.

Was the YouTube talking about how video games can ruin your brain by retraining your brain or was there any science there about how someone has developed some type of video game to help retrain it back or something? I know I've seen some stuff at some point about some VR vestibular therapy helping people so wasn't sure if this was something that could help or not. Anyway, if you have the link I'd be interested in taking a look.

I guess let me know your thoughts on Plasticity Centers vs Cog Fx if you're familiar at all with the Plasticity group. I've kind of spent a lot of money already so my family is losing patience with that and would prefer me to stay within insurance realm if at all possible but would be curious as to your thoughts.

I'll take a look at the Houston place and also if you know any words I should search for on this site to learn more about Chris's journey I'd probably want to look at that as well.

Thanks Mark!

What's the website for the neurology clinic in Houston? I'm getting a lot of search results on that.

Dr Walker is in Dallas. Home | Neurotherapy Center of Dallas | 972-991-1153

CognitiveFX uses fMRI to direct therapy. About Us | Cognitive FX

Your mental health struggles complicate matters.

Many therapies and protocols takes weeks or even months to see consistent change/improvement. It sounds like you keep a short calendar when looking at results.

The YouTube comment was about the bad changes marathon video gaming can cause.

I've noticed a regression effect from pushing therapy too hard. Many have just tried too hard to recover. Unfortunately, many therapists believe if X is good 2X is better and 3X is even better. Not the case with the brain.

You are not dealing with a short term issue. You need to consider this period a part of your life/health that needs a long term solution.

You did not define your QUALITY of sleep. You mentioned quantity of sleep. Do you fall asleep quickly or do you lay in bed trying to go to sleep before finally falling asleep?

Hi Mark. Thanks as always for your comments. The quality of sleep is good as I fall asleep quickly after getting our kids to sleep. Most of the time I sleep fully through the night as well with an occasional wake up to use the bathroom.

I would be fine with any solution short-term or long-term but just not sure what solution I need. Back when I had my concussion back in 2016 I found out within a couple of weeks that if I run I could get my brain to calm down for maybe an hour or two and it would make a big difference but then revert back later in the day. It gave me a glimpse that I knew running would make a big difference and that if I just continued to do that then things would slowly improve over time. I'm just looking for that glimpse right now and can't seem to come across any. I'll be dedicated to vision or vestibular therapy for a couple of months and just not see much of the slightest of glimpses.

I do think I've noticed maybe a few times that when doing some eye tracking exercises with my thumb going across my right eye that it may have lessened symptoms slightly for a very short stretch. Also, the vision group that did the syntonics did a vision therapy session with prism and it was very multisensory where I'd walk one foot in front of the other while reading letters and while they swung a pendulum around in my field of vision. I was very dizzy and falling over without the prism as well as the first time they put prism on me. Then they adjusted the prism to a different setting and I was actually able to do it ok. Those are some glimpses I've had but this group kept pushing syntonics and eventually wanted me to just do that so I didn't really get much of a chance to pursue the prism as an option and I had to stop going there as the syntonics were just killing me. I'm going to a different place within the coming weeks for vision to see if we can explore that further.

I've just tried a lot of different things so far and don't have much to report on that I feel confident to where if I just keep doing it like I did with running and my concussion then eventually things will get worked out. I do still keep doing my vestibular exercises right now but just don't notice any benefit from them at this time. Will continue for a while longer but would love to just feel like I'm getting closer.

How much time do you spend in a day doing vestibular and/or vision exercises?

Do they cause you to sense any fatigue?

Others have reported mixed results from Syntonics. I have reservations about these systems that claim to input frequencies into the brain to retrain the brain. Light frequencies, sound frequencies, RM frequencies, microshocks, etc.

Your marathon on the video game inputted light frequencies into your brain.....

Do you have moments when you sense fatigue? How do you recognize fatigue? What do you do when you sense fatigue coming on? Do you push through?

Many think pushing through fatigue strengthens the brain. Is that what your therapists have promoted?