Mental Puzzles

As I alluded to in earlier posts I had a physical and mental set back last week.  I'm doing much better now but am left with a puzzle:  was I actually depressed or was it due to a vitamin B6 deficit? 

I had a great week three weeks ago.  I had lots of energy, managed to clean my house a little, cook a few dinners and even attend a wedding.  I was starting to make plans.  Maybe I would get to go skating!  Maybe I would be able to have company over!  Maybe I would be able to start exercising!  Oh the joy!! 

When my husband threw a ginormous hissy fit while I was doing so well, he upset the proverbial apple cart and I very quickly spiraled downwards.  But instead of leveling out at my "normal" bad day, I kept going down and spent several days moping around the bottom of the depression well.  After agreeing with my chiropractor and doctor that I needed to start seeing someone for therapy, on some whim I decided to take my vitamins.

Now I hate taking pills so I had stopped taking them.  My chiropractor put me on a regime that is used for FM and since we both believe FM is just the other end of the pain scale of CFS maybe the same regimen would work for me.  This means I have to take 16 pills a day plus a liquid multivit.  Did I mention I hate taking pills??  I tried it for a few weeks and didn't think it was doing any good plus I had a sore throat flare so I stopped and never started up again.

For some reason  (sometimes my intuition saves my butt) I started taking some of them again.  This included a huge dose of B6.  I did this two days in a row.  Now I feel normal again.  Well, CFS normal.  The depression is gone as if I never had it.

I learned about B6 many years ago from my old shrink.  We noticed that I had a bad depressive swing the day before I got my period.  She told me to take 50mg of B6 to help regulate my hormonal system and it worked!  I was shocked.  No more crying, weeping and beating myself up the day before my period!  This is awesome!  Of course, NIH doesn't believe me and says that a sugar pill would have the same effect and as much as I love Ben & Jerry's, ice cream doesn't quite do the trick.  Trust me I've tried.

Now I know the little buggers that have taken over my body are experimenting with my systems: there are huge problems with my power distribution grid, heat and vent sporadically goes on the fritz, and someone keeps leaving the lights on making it hard to sleep.  So why wouldn't they be dicking around with my hormonal system?? 

I am guessing that it was some combination of too much excitement, husband's hissy fit, actual depressive episode and a hormonal system hiccup that caused the physical and mental crash.  I got over the physical part by spending the last week and a half either in bed or on the couch.  The mental recovery was some combination of crying a lot, letting myself feel bad (yes that is actually good for you), getting angry at CFS and all the s*&^ that it has caused, fessing up to two of my doctors that I needed help, and my old friend B6.

More info on B6:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B6
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb6.asp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/349077.stm

WARNING: taking too much B6 will lead to toxicity and potential nerve problems (see above NIH link).  The daily upper limit is 100mg/day.  I never take more than 50mg/day and I only do this sporadically.  My normal dose is 25mg/day.  The RDA is 1.3mg/day for women 19-50 yrs old.