The Niacin (Vitamin B3) and Vitamin C are working really well to help curb my hallucinations and delusions.

So well that I cut my Haloperidol completely out last Friday.

The withdrawal of that was fucking terrible.

Even though I had cut my dose in half for several weeks prior.

It still sucked to cut it completely out.

My body still hurts from it today.

But what was the worst was the nausea.

For about four or five days I could barely eat.

I forced myself to eat something.

And the constant dull headache was brutal too.

I wanted to sleep it off, but I kept having trouble falling asleep.

And taking naps was out of the question.

I felt super antsy but exhausted all at once.

For a couple of days, I just had to lay on the couch and wait for the feelings to pass.

And then I slept through therapy Thursday morning.

Because once I could sleep, it’s all I’ve been wanting to do.

I know coming off of any medication is tough.

But I wasn’t expecting half of these symptoms.

Luckily it’s all starting to fade now, as today is Friday and day eight without it.

Yesterday was the first day I was really hungry since getting off the haloperidol.

And it felt good.

I’m glad I just have the haloperidol as a PRN again.

And I know my psych NP will be happy about that too.

He hated the fact that I was on two different antipsychotics, full time.

He didn’t want me to suffer with side effects.

And I get it.

But my psychosis symptoms were just so bad, and he wasn’t giving me an alternative to that.

I didn’t know Niacin and Vitamin C could work for some people.

And I just happen to be one of the lucky ones.

I mean, I’m still on the Paliperidone, don’t get me wrong.

I can’t do this without it.

Maybe one day I could bring that dose down too.

But I’m moving slowly with that.

Very slowly.

But the supplements are helping curb the breakthrough symptoms now.

And I’m so grateful for that.

I turned in my DNA sample Wednesday – put it in the mailbox.

I’m so curious to see what the results will be.

And I’m hoping to rule out the methylation issues.

But we’ll see what the reports say when they come back.

But seriously, all in all I’m shocked at how well the Niacin and Vitamin C are keeping my hallucinations and delusions at bay.

Granted I’m at super high doses of both, and had to work my way up to that to get there.

But I was super fucking skeptical.

I did not think they’d have this much of an impact.

And like I was saying last week, I really don’t know how to explain that to doctors.

Well, I do.

I just don’t want to hear their naysaying if they don’t think it would work.

Because it is working for me.

And I hope they’re open to that.

Speaking of meds, I need to change up one of my RA meds.

Or cut it out of my regimen.

Hydroxychloroquine, one of the medications I’m on, can cause retina issues that are irreversible.

And I only have the one good eye.

And that makes me very uncomfortable.

So I need to talk with my rheumatologist about that next month.

Anyway, I have my annual assessment at the mental health clinic on Tuesday next week, a half hour before my psych NP appointment.

I always dread them.

It’s so triggering.

They ask about suicidal ideation and all of that shit.

And it’s like fuck man, now I gotta go on with my day like you didn’t just pry into my mind like that.

I know it’ll be okay, but they just suck.

But I am looking forward to my psych NP appointment.

And like I said, I’m unsure as to how he’ll take the Niacin and Vitamin C combination.

I’m going to tell him I’ve been working with my nutritionist/functional medicine doctor with it.

And we’re hoping it’s sustainable for me.

I know he’ll be glad I’m off the haloperidol full time – I know that.

But I don’t know how he’ll take the supplement aspect.

I guess I really just have to take the critics with a grain of salt, right?

There’s always going to be someone who thinks that what I’m doing is batshit…

I just gotta let them think that I suppose, huh?

Because my symptoms have been fairly contained since getting up to the “therapeutic dose” and the only thing that’s changed is the addition of the high doses of Niacin and Vitamin C.

Sure I’ve had some mild breakthrough stuff here and there.

But nothing big.

Nothing out of control.

Nothing delusional.

Nothing terrible.

And I’ve had some doomy days still.

And I still have some whispers, and radio DJ stuff, and murmurs, but I don’t think those will ever fade.

And they’re not like they used to be before the Niacin and Vitamin C.

Go figure.

I’ve been reading up on it, the phenomenon of it working for me. 

The bulk of articles I’ve come across have said that in order for it to work, I must’ve been direly deficient in B3 and Vitamin C.

And I found that most folks with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are direly Vitamin C deficient.

So that’s super curious.

There’s also this theory of adrenochromes, where basically adrenochomes are stopped from being fixed into adrenaline, as this physician, Abraham Hoffer, thought that adrenaline was the main culprit for psychosis. 

The linked article explains it better than I can.

He did hypothesize that it’s linked to methylation issues too.

But, some of his studies were linked to Pellagra after the fact.

Which is why the Niacin was so successful.

Pellagra is a severe Vitamin B3 deficiency that comes with a scaly rash, dementia and can even lead to death.

But the same author has proceeding studies that show similar positive results with his Niacin and Vitamin C therapy in schizophrenia.

It’s just “quackery” to most all mainstream medicine.

But all non FDA approved items are.

All I can say is it’s working miraculously for me.

So we’ll see how everything pans out.

I’ve also been looking into gluten sensitivities and how they affect mental health issues too.

Wheat allergies and gluten sensitivities.

It’s surprisingly significant.

Turns out that I was giving a huge side eye to this schizoaffective infulacer a few years back who was talking about how the keto diet was helping her schizoaffective symptoms subside significantly.

I unfollowed her at the time., thinking she was full of shit and promoting something that wasn’t true.

But, now I know there’s something substantial to that.

Not only has the Niacin and Vitamin C really been helping me, but I’m convinced on the fact that I cut out gluten (and sugar) that have been helping me feel better too.

It took a while.

Several weeks to a month or so for me to notice a significant difference.

But my energy levels have absolutely increased and my symptoms have decreased.

I’m not dragging in the morning like I used to be.

I’m less depressed.

Granted I’m still on the same dosage of my Duloxetine though too.

It helps with my depression, anxiety and my pain levels.

But my anxiety hasn’t been close to what it used to be either since cutting out the gluten.

It’s easily been cut in half. 

Granted it could be the sugar too – and I also cut out corn, soy and dairy.

And I knew I had issues with dairy already.

I’m lactose intolerant, and I already knew that.

Cheese was extremely difficult to give up, but my gut has been feeling so much better the last few months.

So it was worth it.

And the sugar was killing me.

My pain levels would go sky high later that day and even worse the next day, after eating any significant amount of sugar.

It was brutal.

But I know now that the gluten was my main sensitivity.

But I’m floored to find out that there’s a higher percentage of folks with Celiac’s Disease that also have schizophrenia compared to the regular population.

And that’s mind blowing.

And in the article linked just above, they talk about how gluten links to opiate receptors in the brain.

It’s fucking wild.

And the thing is, like I said, I feel it first hand. 

I feel the change after being away from it for the past four months.

The sluggishness, the moodiness, the depression is just not what it once was.

It’s mind blowing to think that all of this is from a fucking diet change.

If you would’ve told me in the beginning of November last year, when I first started the diet changes, that any of this would happen, I would’ve laughed at you.

And said bullshit.

I would not have believed you.

There’s no way I would’ve believed that this would happen.

But I’m shook.

I’m in shock that I’m experiencing really a huge difference in my moods and symptoms after cutting out certain food groups and adding some specific supplements.

It’s beyond surprising really.

I had no idea.

I was so skeptical before starting this.

But, honestly, I have always been convinced that my inflammation issues have something to do with my mental illness issues.

I’ve always been convinced that my brain is inflamed.

And that that’s a big part of my issue.

And if that’s so, then cutting out the inflammatory foods, along with adding Niacin, a natural antiinflammatory – doing all of that, ends up cutting my symptoms down?

It makes perfect sense really.

I just put that together while writing this just now.

Damn.

That’s heavy shit.

I know inflammation has something to do with all of this.

*gestures at my body and life*

And apparently it has something to do with deficiencies in Vitamins B3 and C.

And Vitamin D, but that’s been managed for years now.

And I hate to give TMI, but I’ve had diarrhea the bulk of my adult life.

Unless I had too much dairy, then I would be constipated.

But I never had “normal” BM’s.

It was extremely rare that I did.

And even with that, I never put together that I had food sensitivities either.

Because ever since I started these changes my bathroom visits have been perfect.

And I never, ever thought a food sensitivity could affect me mentally, let alone negatively mentally affect me.

Never.

But I’m grateful for my nutritionist/functional medicine doctor today.

She saw things in my bloodwork and medical history that no other physician has told me about.

She went out on a limb and had me try the high doses of Niacin and Vitamin C.

And the combination of that and the diet changes she had me do, helped take away the bulk of my breakthrough symptoms.

Which, the second twice daily antipsychotic that I was on, was doing a terrible job of curbing.

But she tried something new and god fucking forbid natural. 

And it’s working for me.

And I’m grateful.

And none of this is to say I’ll never have an episode again, or my breakthrough symptoms won’t get bad again, because I can’t predict the future.

But today, I’m hopeful at least.

And that’s better off than I’ve been in a while.

– Keren