# Daily Recovery Diary!



## CravenKnight (Jul 22, 2010)

*Daily Recovery Diary​**By CravenKnight​*
*1) Introduction:*

Hi everyone and welcome to my recovery diary, this shall serve as a reference for people ready to recover, as well as a log of my progress on my own recovery. I really do hope that this proves to be useful for others. I will have a list of vitamins/supplements and dietary suggestions, routine suggestions that include exercise.

*2) My story:*

I am an 18 year old male from New Zealand, who is just starting the recovery stage of DP/DR. It all began almost three years ago now, in the Christmas School Holidays of 2007, I had just visited my family in England and completed year 10 of High School. For the first 4 weeks out of my 6 week vacation, what did I do? I trashed myself! I went to bed between the hours of 2-3am and then I woke up at 1-2pm in the afternoon the next day, I did this every single night of the holidays. Not only this, but even though I was just 15 years old, I trashed myself with alcohol also, at any given chance. I drank a 1.5L bottle of Coca Cola since I was twelve years old, when I turned 14, this would be accompanied by 'Coruba' rum after I got back from High School. Then, the final blow came...

One night, I sat with a good friend of mine in our sun room, as it was summer here. We listened to very mellow, relaxing music and had a good talk about life, where we plan to go, an all round good time. We had drank over half a litre bottle of Jim Beam between us, with Cola. Then, stupidly, I pulled out a joint that I had rolled a week in advance, saving it for 'the right' moment. We were already quite drunk, I smoked half of the joint in a couple of puffs. He then finished the rest. I felt fine, then one second, it hit me, as I know it did to a lot of you. The panic, the feeling like I was going to drop dead at any given second. I ran into the house, my friend swiftly followed, asking me if I was fine. I shakily told him "Yeah, man, I just... Need to go to sleep... Right now..." So I lay down and stared at the wall, drunk and panic stricken. I hallucinated also, which leads me to believe that the weed was laced with something hard. I somehow fell asleep in the panic, the next morning I awoke. I felt okay, given what had happened last night. I talked to my mother as if nothing had happened, my heart did race for short periods of time, on and off throughout the rest of the day.

The next morning, the world as I knew it was gone. Brain fog, heart palpitations, terrible vision, feeling stuck in a bubble that I just can't quite burst to escape from. I was so depressed, I told myself, however, that I would recover as if it were a flu. "Just give it a couple weeks, it'll be gone." This hasn't happened, not in almost three years. I left high school, unable to concentrate, cope, when I laughed it exerted me to the point where I would nearly faint. This followed by me failing correspondence, then failing a college course. I tried so hard to find out what was wrong with me, I thought I had a brain tumor, of course this was false.

What I have found over the last couple of years, is that I am gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant and that my intestines are not functioning properly, therefore not absorbing the nutrients and/or important vitamins that I need to have my normal brain function. It was by complete chance, whilst on google, just two days ago, that I found this site. I now know which came first in my chicken or the egg? Question. The marijuana triggered the DP/DR and also my gluten intolerance symptoms, as Celiacs often do have triggers. I also just found out exactly what this unbearable brain fog is, it is DP/DR.

Now, it is time for me to break free, escape and grasp my dream. Teaching English in China.

*3) How I know that I will recover:*
It is clear that my intestines cannot absorb nutrients normally, so I must supplement to boost my vitamin levels until my intestines can do so for me. I have already made slight progress already. I also read a post on here stating that smoking a large amount of Marijuana in one go can cripple your Serotonin. So I believe boosting it will be a huge part of recovery.

I also believe in myself, I have to do this and I will to make my dream come true!

*4) What is needed:*

1. COMMITMENT
2. Patience
3. Positivity
4. Certainty that it will work
5. Stubbornness

*5) Supplements:*

*Here is my initial supplement plan:*

1. Omega 3, Fish Oil Capsules
2. Sublingual Vitamin B12
3. A vitamin B6 Oral Suppliment
4. A Folic Acid Oral Suppliment
5. A Vitamin D3 Oral Suppliment
6. L-Tryptophan Capsules

*Here are the Doses:*
1. 1000-3000mcg Vitamin B12 (Experimenting between these dosages at the moment)
2. 500mg Fish Oil Capsules
3. 300mcg Folic Acid
4. 200mg Vitamin B6
5. 100mg L-Tryptophan (This was previously prescribed for me, by my nutritionist)
6. Fish Oil varies, there are a variety of vitamins which differentiate between the various products.

*This is my understanding of how these should work:*

The Vitamin B12 and B6 should help with mental clarity (brain fog) Memory and also Energy.

The Vitamin D3 Should help maintain a healthy Calcium balance, boost the immune system and best of all, it should help the production of Dopamine in your body. Dopamine helps with the mental symptoms, so I recommend this.

The Fish Oil Capsules help with the brain fog also as well as Memory and Concentration. It also improves your Energy.

The Folic acid (AKA Vitamin B9) Helps with metabolism and is also believed to help with mood also.

The L-Tryptophan, my Nutritionist informed me, is a raw form of Seratonin which greatly affects you mentally, depression, clarity etc.

*6) Diet:*

I believe the diet to be very important also, especially as I am gluten intolerant and lactose intolerant. I am eating a basic diet, what, well, everyone should really be eating.

Raw vegetables, as much of these as you can eat! They should preferably be half the meal.
Basic meats that have had nothing added to them! (Preferably organic if you have the money for that) Limit these, fish is preferable, meat and fish both have beneficial protein and nutrients. Too much meat can be detrimental, you've heard the stories. Heart disease, cancer, blood disease.
Fish, as much fish as you like!

I recommend eating just raw vegetables, because, when you cook, boil or fry vegetables, they may lose a lot of their beneficial nutrients! (I believe boiling to be the worst cooking method of vegetables)

By basic meats, I mean meats such as Steak and Chicken. Not sausages that have had bread crumbs stuffed inside them so that the butcher can save money by using less meat! It is shocking, but, typical burger patties contain just 60% meat!!! This means that almost half of the patty is made up of bread crumbs and who knows/wants to think about what else?!?

Fish is good, raw or cooked. I mean raw as in tinned sardines, salmon and tuna. With tinned fish, I strongly recommend that you check what it is preserved in. I believe lemon juice, spring water and possibly olive oil to be the most beneficial. I do recommend avoiding smoked fish, as I have seen many labels on smoked fish products stating that these aren't gluten free. I am not sure why, maybe I have the wrong idea of the smoking process. Either way, if it has gluten in it, then it must be altered and not a truly natural product.

*I know that right now you must be thinking "I'm not celiac and/or lactose intolerant, why should I follow this?"*

Let me clear this up, whether you're intolerant or not, this is a natural diet. Preservative free, nutrients all in tact, ready for your body to absorb! There are no nasty refined sugars, horrible preservatives, food colourings or anything else you might worry about being in your food. If you wish to get healthy then I believe nutrition is a vital key in this process!

*7) Exercise:*

This is simple, humans used to be an active hunting species. In top shape and fighting fit, literally. We are not made to sit in a dimly lit room on the internet, we are supposed to be active. People tell you to get half an hour of exercise at least, per day. I however, do not believe this is enough, considering what we were made to do. So I like to go for a walk for around an hour to two. I recommend that work outs be used in conjunction with walking, as the sunlight outside provides you with great serotonin, fast. Also, it may help you with your anxiety, walking past other people, adjusting and realising that you are safe!

*







Sleep:*

I feel that this is another CRUCIAL part in recovery, maintaining a proper sleep schedule. If you are getting to sleep and waking up at sporadic hours, how can you expect to have 'mental clarity'? I believe that this will also reduce stress, fatigue symptoms and help with energy and a general sense of happiness/positivity.

I will add more information here soon on the importance of sleep.

*9) Contact:*

If you have questions about my routine, what I have written and if you think the answers will be beneficial to others here. Please post them here! If a question is too personal for everyone to see and you think that less is best, IM/PM me if you can!

If you would like to contact me privately, feel free to add me as a friend on here, send a personal message here. You can also add me on MSN, I'm always signed in to it, so I will reply to you immediately if I'm there, if not then you'll have a reply later on! *[email protected]*

*10) Daily Recovery Entry:*

For now I will put these here, please check back frequently, I shall edit this post with them! If I run out of room then I'll place them in following posts!

*Day 1: The B12 Arrives!*

Today was exciting, the Sublingual B12 that I ordered arrived. I bought these online, they took 2 days to arrive after my order was placed. I put one under the tongue, it took between 5-10 minutes to completely dissolve, despite its small size. Literally, within 5 minutes of taking one, I felt an energy surge, not intense, but by no means was it mild. Bear in mind that I have a cold at the moment which, of course, drains what little energy you have left from the DP/DR symptoms, as well as makes the dizziness worse. I can only imagine the feeling these would give if I didn't have the cold at the moment. I popped another one after the first dissolved. Boom, another load of energy, I picked my guitar up and played for 2 hours non stop, hard music. I then jumped to cleaning the house which took HOURS. I took my omega 3 fish oil at lunch time. I still had energy to burn at 7:30PM, I felt like running around the block. It is late now, I still have energy but feel that I will rest well.

Please note: I hardly ate at all today, as I haven't been able to get to the stores to by my necessary dietary food!

*Day 2: The second day on B12 and glimmers of reality???*

I woke up at around 10:30am, my sleep schedule is a bit mixed up still, I am working on it and just about have it back to sane hours.

For the first time in three years, it was slightly easier to open my eyes AND KEEP THEM OPEN! First thing I did, reach for the B12 and pop goes the weasel! Another surge within 5mins of the capsule dissolving under my tongue (Sublingual is definitely the way to go) I took my fish oil capsules and hopped to my natural breakfast. I cannot eat fruit yet as fructose will upset my already damaged intestines, this early into my gluten and lactose free diet (3 weeks). So I ate several Chicken drumsticks (yes for breakfast) With lettuce, olives and some cabbage. I squeezed lemon juice over the lettuce leaves to use as a sauce.

Please note: Lemon juice is an acid, though it cleanses your body and leaves your body non acidic (alkaline) This is very important for detox, it aided mine very well. It is important for your body to be more Alkaline than Acidic, if your body is acidic, you are at greater risk of cancers for example.

For lunch, I had a tin of salmon with some cucumber slices. The protein helped my energy slightly and kept me going well into the afternoon.

Exercise was wonderful, I power walked for a little over an hour, upon getting back I had around 15 seconds where my brain fog was slightly relieved! I have a feeling that this will be a very crucial role in my recovery! As I said above, exercise improves circulation, thus helping the blood reach the brain for some more mental clarity!

My dinner was a simple steak and lettuce combination, lettuce and cucumber are my preferred vegetables. I find them easy to digest. I had heart palpitations following this meal as I had a greedy two pieces of steak instead of the normal one. I will have to work on that.

I experienced what I imagine to be 'glimmers of reality' today, just for a split second at a time though, this must be a good sign however, especially this early into the routine! Things normally feel 2D but these little 'episodes' felt as if my surroundings and my hands, body that I could see were 3D again. This has given me hope, I am going to bed feeling very optimistic.

*Day 3: Almost a healthy sleep schedule?*

This morning I woke up and got up surprisingly early, 7:30am. I took my Sublingual vitamin B12 as soon as I got up, again, within 5 minutes of taking it, my eyes were wide open and I didn't feel like falling asleep on my feet, for the first time in... How long? I sat down to my breakfast and ate some olive salad with tinned salmon and a dressing consisting of: Lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. I also took my fish oil capsules and L-tryptophan.

During breakfast I had several short episodes of seeing things in what appeared to be 3D again, just like I used to! But I still had my cloudy, foggy vision. I had several more of these '3D episodes' throughout the day and into the evening also.

I finally put my boxing bag back up again in the garage and lifted some weights after my lunch. (The same food as breakfast time) I then had a workout with the boxing bag. After that intense exercise, my symptoms felt slightly relieved, though for under a minute! My vision was clearer and so was my mind, I felt good, though temporary. I believe that if I continue with my boxing bag workouts as well as my diet, sleep schedule and especially the vitamin B12's... That temporary comfort should soon become permanent!

I felt tired after my steak and salad dinner, which should be expected, I suppose. Seeing as how this is the first time in months that I have been up before 10:30am and been doing intense exercise. I also read several articles online stating that intense physical exercise as opposed to light aerobic exercise, provides good results with DP.

Once again, feeling very optimistic and going to bed now, without a pressure headache and the feeling that someone is trying to crush my brain between the palms of their hands. It is nice and I am very optimistic and excited.

Please note: My folic acid, vitamin D3 and B6 supplements still haven't arrived just yet, expected on Tuesday.

*Check back tomorrow for more!*

*11) Thank you!*

Thank you for reading this and I hope I receive your support as I promise you mine. I hope that my daily entries are beneficial to all of you. I don't know anyone personally and haven't even posted here until now (What a first post huh?) So my thanks are collective for the information I have gathered from all corners on the internet.

I promise I will recover and will not let you down, I want to do my bit to help the people here, as I have battled this for long enough and I wouldn't wish this on anyone. We're in it together!


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## Xerei (Feb 17, 2010)

CravenKnight said:


> *Daily Recovery Diary​**By CravenKnight​*
> *1) Introduction:*
> 
> Hi everyone and welcome to my recovery diary, this shall serve as a reference for people ready to recover, as well as a log of my progress on my own recovery. I really do hope that this proves to be useful for others. I will have a list of vitamins/supplements and dietary suggestions, routine suggestions that include exercise.
> ...


YAY!!! ANOTHER PERSON DECIDES TO RECOVER!!! WOOT WOOT!! HOORAY!! BLESS YOU!! And good luck


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## CravenKnight (Jul 22, 2010)

Xerei said:


> YAY!!! ANOTHER PERSON DECIDES TO RECOVER!!! WOOT WOOT!! HOORAY!! BLESS YOU!! And good luck


Hey!







I know that it is a choice, you can either sit there feeling miserable and waiting for the fairies to wave a magic wand and have you recover magically, which will never happen. Or you can get out there and make it happen!







It is high time that I recover!







And thanks for the support!


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## CravenKnight (Jul 22, 2010)

Updated with Day 3!


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