Okay so after a lot of thinking and research I’m getting back on Acetyl L Carnitine to help norepinephrine not L-Tyrosine to help dopamine. Sound reasonable?
I don’t really know. All I know is that amphetamine, and adderall, which mainly boost norepinephrine, are not good for sz. Maybe your doctor knows more about this.
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I told my doctor and he didn’t say anything. He didn’t say it was a good thing or a bad thing.
you take a med that depletes dopamine. Lack of dopamine causes:
One of the principal symptoms of dopamine deficiency is depression, chronic boredom, a loss of satisfaction, apathy, chronic fatigue and low physical energy with no desire to exercise the body. The body is chilled and feet and hands become cold.
or:
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the pleasure centers of the brain. It is responsible for feelings related to love, joy, pleasure, reward and motivation.
thus we become depressed through medication compliance. (It does stop positve symptoms though.)
they give you an antidepressant for serotonin to combat it. which is:
Serotonin is also a neurotransmitter and helps to regulate mood, irritability, impulse, obsession and memory.
to try and control the lack of dopamine.
Then the psychs try to tell you that you should get motivated and live a normal life with medication when they know exactly what it does.
Who is in denial, the patient or the doctor? Or both?
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Yeah, this isn’t completely true. It was an early theory of dopamine’s function which has been partially debunked. Dopamine is not associated with positive emotions or pleasure. It is associated with “wanting” (as opposed to “liking”), with learning and with cognition. The “wanting” part makes you seek rewards, which is why dopamine-boosting medication can lead to things like excessive sexual gratification and gambling disorders. Increased dopamine does not by itself increase the actual experience of rewards.
Interestingly, this meshes well with the observation that anhedonia in pure sz without depression mostly has to do with the expectation of reward, and not the experience of pleasure that comes from rewards.
It doesn’t take away the first points:
One of the principal symptoms of dopamine deficiency is depression, chronic boredom, a loss of satisfaction, apathy, chronic fatigue and low physical energy with no desire to exercise the body, which coincidentally are the lack of motivation suffered by many szs.
If it is the disease, or the medication is the question for me.
Yes, that’s true. When you stop seeking rewards, depression and boredom can follow.
It’s both. Anhedonia and lack of motivation are a symptom of this disease and a possible side effect of the medication we use to treat this disease. But the dynamic is probably too complex to reduce to a single neurotransmitter. A lot of neurotransmitters are involved in reward, motivation and learning.
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Doctors weigh this up. Are the positive symptoms so great that meds are necessary, knowing that the results are thus?
They cannot expect any or much improvement in motivation when they give a patient these drugs, thus their surprise when I write a book in my case… They don’t expect anything form a sz, just a controlled and zombiefied product. If you add anything that is a bonus, but it is not expected.
We add to our lives with supplements or meditation when we increase our dopamine. The problem lies when the dopamine is increased so much the symptoms appear again.
The fact is for most of us life as a zombie not exhibiting positve symptoms is fine for society. The point is that realising this can make others suicidal.
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Doc said dopamine could cause my positives like memory but wouldn’t do anything if the wiring is there for those memories ie if they were real. So the APs help. Too little dopamine and I get NMS.
I take L-Tyrosine along with an AP and it gives me euphoria as well as relief from my positive and negative symptoms with no side effects, I would highly recommend taking it! I also take L-Tryptophan (which converts into serotonin in the brain) and than helps me too.