“No convincing evidence” that depression is caused by low serotonin levels

I should probably have said that I am self-diagnosed with (C)PTSD, and have never consulted a professional about it, then again I truly believe we will one day look at psychologist of today like they look at Freud and psychiatrist like blood-letters of the past.

This may sound wild and woo-woo snake-oil, but using cannabis products coupled with mindfulness/deep-thought, I am sometimes able to fire up my "mental debugger" and access parts of my subconsciousness that I cannot tap during normal sobriety. I can pull out memories that I had subconsciously blocked, but I am able to process them in a healthy, compassionate, and understandable manner.

> Distraction from pain is one of the most common ways we deal with pain when it's not possible to escape it

Probably explains my compulsive levels of video games and screen time as a youth, then again... I grew up on a small horse farm on the outskirts of society, so it's not like I had anything else to do lol.

I do sincerely believe that anyone that ever wronged me (especially my family) ever did anything intentionally. Parents aren't given a "Parenting an ADHD Child 101" course or anything. Hell, both my parents probably have it themselves, and my parents swear on their life that the school system never told them anything.

I do think my ADHD manifested first though, for a variety of reasons. A lot of signs and stories seemed to point that I was even symptomatic from infancy. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if it were environmental. All my male childhood school friends that grew up in a radius of me all received the same diagnosis at one time or another.

So, while I do think you are on to something, I do not think it applies to me directly.

Baumol's cost disease

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease

TV and automobile manufacturing are a lot more productive than they were 50 years ago. A teacher can still only teach one classroom at a time.

Therefore, service industries like healthcare, education, and even construction get less and less efficient relative to manufacturing and production industries, which enjoy massive increase in efficiency year after year. This is partly why an 80 inch 4K TV is eventually going to cost $500 and a 4 year college education is going to cost $500,000.

if i understand it correctly, its supposed that overall wage increases mean other industries have to compete to get/keep workers but they dont have effeciency increases like manufacturing so prices continue to rise

it makes logical sense, but i wonder if it really is wage competition causing this when wages have been mostly stagnant for the past 50 years?

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/industries-with-the-most-w...

Stop eating carbs, go out and get sunlight. Do mild but regular exercise. I got at least three people of AD medication with this and feel much better myself.

The uncomfortable feeling you get from 5-HTP can be from activation of parasympathetic serotonin receptors, as well as activation of 5-HT2C in the brain. You're essentially going through the initial two weeks of SSRI use, where 5-HT2C gets activated but hasn't downregulated yet, which is a hypothesized source of increased anxiety and suicidality from initial SSRI use. What would be interesting is to see if that discomfort would dissipate after 2+ weeks of chronic 5-HTP use, with the goal of blasting 5-HT2C until it's desensitized, which is what happens with chronic SSRI use. I don't like the idea of 5-HTP because of the potential for higher levels of serotonin in the blood potentially activating 5-HT2B in the heart, potentially leading you to need a heart valve replacement.

Regarding L-Dopa, from what I'm aware of, L-Dopa gets metabolized before it makes it to the brain, so much of the L-Dopa gets metabolized into dopamine and norepinephrine outside of the brain and then those neurotransmitters activate the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in increased anxiety, paranoia and physical discomfort. That parasympathetic activation can increase feelings of alertness and wakefulness without ever having L-Dopa enter the brain. Another interesting thing to see is how L-Dopa would fare when taking it with an inhibitor that would allow it to successfully enter the brain a la Carbidopa for Parkinson's patients.

Obviously don't do this, I'm just thinking out loud and fucking around with your body like this can have serious consequences if you aren't doing so under the supervision of your own doctor.

Finally, regarding THC, if anxiety and paranoia are problems for you, like you allude to when talking about L-Dopa, try delta-8-THC. I find it to be much more therapeutic than delta-9-THC. I get no anxiety or paranoia from delta-8-THC, but I do get the full therapeutic effect I got from normal THC when it comes to antiemesis, mood, pain, etc. It also has less of an intoxicating effect, and doesn't mess with my memory of motivation as bad as delta-9-THC does. I haven't used normal THC in years despite it being legal and readily available.