Interesting. I think it would be much easier to get Gabitril then Xyrem. It is also used in Narcolepsy.
Mew thanks for the links. Yea basically from my symptoms, lack of deep sleep, chronic insomnia, racing thoughts, muscle twitches from hell, some anxiety issues etc I really know i am severely deficient in GABA. Like the one study says there really are not many drugs on the market right now that upregulate GABA in the brain. Drugs such as GHB and Marijuana both upregulate GABA so it would explain a lot about Paul Walters claims etc. I know from trying Marijuana definetly has some overall improvement on my sleep quality. Now we know Propecia can disrupt the All0-preg GABA process, and also lack of deep sleep depletes the body of GABA, hence my symptoms getting worse as time goes on. I think the main question in my case is whether Propecia causes some sort of possibly permanent damage to the GABA receptors and synthesis process in my brain causing all these problems or did it have some sort of physical adrenal/hormonal effect on my body causing me not to get into delta sleep and lose GABA over time? I’m hoping it’s the latter of the two, and am also hoping that xyrem can help with this. The thing is as i’ve stated before sodium oxybate is basically the baby cousin of GHB so I’m not sure of how it will affect GABA levels and produce the same overall effects as pure GHB. I know just from observation that GHB seems to have a profound effect on male sexual performance and arousal while xyrem does not as well. I hopefully will be on xyrem starting sometime next week so I will keep everyone updated, and I also am working with a friend on getting some GHB we will see though.
I would almost forget to tell you my two days of recovery with these two terrible years that have passed by.
I was feeling completely normal when I took COCAINE once at the party. It did something to my brain that for the two more days I felt great and had a great sexual libido and vigour.
I do not tell you this to encourage you to take COCAINE, but it is known that COCAINE has also something to do with raising serotonine via GABA (I guess), so there may be something going on here…
Cocaine primiarly boosts dopamine.
Yes, but there is something in serotonine department too… will look for that.
my rx for xyrem is officially in the mail today and I should have it by sometime next week hopefully. I’ll keep everyone updated. pray for me
Well yes it finally happened. after busting my ass going to doctors over the past year I’ve finally been prescribed xyrem for my situation so I have decided to keep everyone updated with the effect it is having on me via a new recovery log that I plan on using. (FOR THE ADMIN PLEASE DO NOT MOVE THIS INTO MY OTHER RECOVERY POST AS I FEEL THIS SEPERATED HERE HAS A CHANCE TO HELP SOME PEOPLE) The Xyrem should arrive sometime tomorrow so hopefully, it will really help. Anyway, as I realize the Xyrem alone won’t cure the situation right away, and I do feel that at the same time I want to make certain life style changes to compound its effects. Anyway, I’ve come up with a whole regimented recovery protocol that I will be using over the next few months in order to hopefully restore my life and take back my health. My main goal is that through my research, and putting everything together I will be a true real life example of what is required to get over this horrendous shit. I just had a whole extensive panel of blood work done today also, so I should be able to provide a hormone profile before, during, and after my use of xyrem. So basically the main goal of the plan is to restore deep sleep, get back on some kind of natural rhythm and schedule, feel better mentally in terms of brain fog etc, lower cortisol, and support the adrenals.
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Sleep- in my opinion the most important factor throughout the whole recovery process by and large is getting deep restorative sleep. During deep phase 3 and 4 sleep the body shuts down, deep tissue repair takes place, hormones are reset, and other endless positive effects happen in the body. I think the fact that pretty much no one on here gets that deep refreshing sleep we used to get could very well be part of the vicious negative feed back loop that is going on with all of us. I know sleep was the first thing that went for me while on the drug, and is probably the number one underlying factor and problem for me now. So here is what I plan to do.
-Restore Deep Sleep- This is where xyrem comes into play. There basically are very few if any substances that truly send the body into stage 3 and 4 sleep while increasing GH output tenfold in the process. In my opinion body and brain has forgotten what deep sleep feels like, and this could also be part of the problem. So hopefully xyrem takes care of this and allows my body to recover in the process.-Try to get Natural Sleep Wake Cycle back- in order for recovery to take place I feel I need to get the natural feeling of being able to get through a day energized, and then get the sleepy crashing feeling at night. Getting to bed at a decent hour between 10-1 should hopefully help with all of that as well. Also try to get 8 full hours of sleep every night and wake up at a decent normal hour. -
Diet – I also feel that diet will help in the process as well. Basically, being an athlete all of my life I know how to eat and take care of myself properly, but this is going to be a whole different ball game. First off, I want to drop the excess fat I’ve gained, and also allow myself to fully get all the meals that are probably backed up in me out of me and all. I’ll be starting a strict anti-sugar and wheat diet in order for the process to work. That means I’ll be eating vegetables multiple times throughout the day while also taking vitamin and protein shakes to replace minerals etc. I only really drink water anyway so that shouldn’t be a problem as well. I hope to lose a good 20 pounds of fat.
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Exercise- Basically, I feel this is another vital component to all of this. I used to be an athlete, and up until recently I would say I was still able to run around and be somewhat active when I got the urge. However, as time has gone on I’ve found that I’ve had little to no energy to do so. I plan to take it very easy at first simply by running 2-3 miles at a slow pace in the mornings and take it from there. I’m sure there’s some hormonal/medical explanation as to why running in the mornings is good for you, but I’m just going by the fact that I’ve always felt the best in my life when I could get a decent run in the mornings and had energy throughout the day. As my energy gets better, and I start to drop weight I also feel that I may get around to start lifting again. This probably won’t be for awhile though as I’ve been having pains in my muscles etc, but we will see. Either way exercising more should help with everything hormones etc. I just have to sure I don’t overdo it, and do too much too soon.
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Medicine, Supplements, and Vitamins that I plan to or may be using.
-Xyrem (GHB)- for deep sleep obviously
- Magnesium- taken at night or twice daily, one of the best things for you
- Vitamin B and C- going to bombard the adrenals with them as they are critical for proper adrenal health
- Hingvastak- a herbal supplement that helps with digestion
- Acidophilus- helps with digestion and promotes friendly bacteria
- Vitamin D- has anti-depressant qualities
- Fish Oil Omega 3s and 6s
-Melatonin- to promote and restore sleeping patterns
-Phosphatidyl- to lower cortisol levels
-Apple Cider Vinegar- promotes good digestion and other health benefits
Supplements and Medicines that I may possibly be using:
-Hydrocortisone- taken 10-20mg in the morning and afternoon- yes I know what you’re thinking why would you want to raise cortisol when it’s chronically raised to begin with? Basically, by taking HC you’re taking the pressure off the adrenals that have to keep pumping out cortisol due to chronic stress and lack of sleep. Also I’m hoping to restore my circadian rhythm naturally just with the use of xyrem, but if all else fails spiking cortisol levels in the morning so that they are the highest I’ve found works when I’ve used it in the past.
-Armour thyroid- I don’t know if I will need it yet. However, it promotes faster metabolism etc, I’m going to wait and see how well I respond to what I plan on doing.
- DIM- estrogen balances etc
- Nysatin- an anti-candia drug. I’m not sure if candida really has anything to do with this, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to take for a few weeks.
- Progesterone Formula for Men- If the theory hold’s true from Paul Walters and my adrenals keep pumping out progesterone this could help take the load off them. I will wait and see as to whether I will use it or not.
Mental Recovery Goals:
- Get rid of brain fog
- Be able to think logically again
- Be able to be as sociable and outgoing as I was before
- Get my sense of humor back
- Get rid of anxiety
- Overall feel like the person I used to be and be able to keep up with school and other daily tasks and long term goals.
Physical Recovery Goals:
- Drop 15-20lbs of fat
- Get Rid of Weight Gain in hips and chest- hopefully this is related to cortisol and as it lowers the weight gain will
- Improve skin quality
- Get tired look off face
- Get back fat layer around eyes
- Reduce edema on face, and get facial features fully back as they were
- Get overall body frame back and then build muscle back to what it was
Sexual Recovery Goals:
- Improve morning erections so that they are fuller and firmer
- Improve overall ejaculation force and hopefully see more fluid and normal ejaculation
- Get sensation back in penis
- Feel hornier overall
- Improve prosatitis- hopefully mine is hormonally related right now and as they come back into balance so will the prostate.
- Get erections and sex drive fully back to what it was
good luck 
Three days on xyrem, and here has been my experience with it so far. I started at the lowest dose of 2.25g per dose for the first two nights, and found that the stuff did indeed knock me out and send me into a deep sleep. The type of sleep you get with this stuff is something I’ve never experienced before, and so hard to describe in words. All I can say is that you fall into such a deep sleep that it literally feels like you wake up five minutes later, when in reality you were out cold etc. The main problem for the first two nights were that I was waking up around 3 hours to take the second dose, but after taking it I wasn’t able to go back to sleep. Thus I ws only really getting 3 hours of sleep a night, and I would have a decent amount of energy in the mornings which is great, but then would have a bad crash the rest of the day. Last night taking the higher 3g per dose seemed to fix that, and I got about 7 hours of sleep last night with no real problems. The best thing about this stuff though is that like Paul Walters said it truely does send you into a deep sleep where you wake up relaxed and refreshed, truely such a God send considering the shit we all usually wake up to.
Anyway, I’m sure you guys all want to know the huge impact this had on me, and all the changes that are taking, but bear in mind it’s been 3 days so there very if few definitive conclusions I can come to, but I have noticed some changes first off.
When you wake up refreshed, and have energy the dopamine feeling sort of starts to come back. For a few hours anyway, I feel very much normal, happy, no brain fog, ie not emotionally numb etc which is a great feeling. The best part is though that throughout the day even though I still sort of get the crashes etc, I don’t get the chronic fatigue spells where I literally couldn’t move at times, and felt like I was dieing anymore. So in that regard I feel an improvement in that area as much more relaxed and calm etc. Another thing is, and I don’t want to get anyone too excited here, but I have noticed improvements sexually within only 2 days of use. As I said before, I had sexual ed issues related to this stuff, not nearly as bad as many users on here, I could still get erections, and maintain them fairly well to a certain extent after fin, but I did have smaller erections that were less pleasureable, I was less horny etc, and most off very little in terms of ejaculate fluid. I also was having some slight what could be prosatits issues etc. Well after two days when I’m not lying when I say I felt hornier overall, my nuts felt like they were connected to my body again, most off ejaculation has become very much pleasureable again, with more fluid coming out. The fluid also isn’t the clear watery fluid I’ve been getting for the past months, it’s actual full on normal ejaculate fluid.
Lastly, I have also noticed that while I haven’t lost any weight really my metabolism is way up, I’m not craving food as I used to be, and meals don’t seem to sit in my stomach anymore.
Anyway, after uping the dose last night it was the best sleep I’ve had in close to a year, and I’m hoping as it’s morning now my energy level can last throughout the day. From a physical standpoint I would love if this stuff could work, but I relaize that for all that stuff to come back it’s going to take a very long time, and it may never fully even do so. All in all though this has been nothing short of a great experience thus far as I feel I can almost fully function again. I’m hoping if this stuff does continue to work I can get back to the guy I used to be.
Sounds encouraging so far, man. Keep us updated.
I’ve been sleeping terribly lately. 
I don’t know much about dopamine, however I almost always feel very run-down (no energy) and muscularly weak. Despite exercising. The feelings you described there are some of my primary symptoms, so I’m impressed by those problems reversing. Can’t wait to see how you feel in a week or two… congrats on your improvement so far.
Sometimes it just take your body a little while e.g. 5 or 6 days to adjust to a new medication, and maybe it will soon help you sleep fine, even with a small dose. Whenever I go back on Celexa (SSRI medication), at first I have trouble falling asleep for hours, the first few days, but once my body gets used to it again, after a few days, it becomes like clockwork, and I fall asleep for nice nice refreshing sleep. I take it before bed.
It like anything else. It takes one’s body a little bit to adjust to a foreign substance/medication, so it might not necessarily mean taking a higher dose, but maybe just getting used to the schedule, and getting used to the drug.
Hope this helps.
Good luck. Cant wait to hear more.
~B
I am going to the doctor Monday evening and I am going to ask about Xrem. I hope I can get it and see if it will help me with my terrible sleep. I am writing this on 2 Ambient CR’s I took over an hour ago and I’m not even sleepy.
second night at 3g per dose and overall I feel great. I’m much more relaxed and calm than I have been in the past year, and it seems to be getting better with each day. I still get an energy crash, but now it’s happening at around 10PM at night which isn’t a bad thing. I’m hoping that with time on the medication I can get back to having as much energy as I had before over a 24 hour period etc. I tested myself sexually again last night on this stuff at the higher 3g dose for the first time, and I have to say my erections were not only larger and fuller than they usually are, but I felt like I could have lasted forever if I had the chance to. I would love to have sex on this stuff though, and wouldn’t be surprised if I could go hours on end. I’m going to give it a rest though for the next week or so, and see what the results are then, but it really seems to be helping. Another thing too before all of this I would only get morning erections rarely, and if I did they were weak at best, well guess what they’re back and bigger than ever, it’s unreal. Even when I piss now it feels better than it has been so this stuff is definetly doing something to help, what exactly the deep sleep is doing I don’t know, but whatever I’m sticking with this stuff for a long time to come. Physically, I’m starting to feel less bloated with each day, and although I haven’t really lost any weight I feel much lighter, and less bloated than I have been. My energy level is awesome right now though, and I just feel kinda weird at times because I guess i forgot what “normal” feels like. In fact I just got back from running a couple miles, something I wouldn’t have even thought about doing a couple weeks ago, and I feel great! By no means would I consider myself cured from all of this I still have long way to go, but considering where I was only a week ago to now is out of this world.
Oh and as far as side effects on the stuff the only thing I’ve found it to do is that it gives me a case of dry mouth, and also dehydrates me a little bit. probably because of the high salt content of the stuff. To counter this I just drink a ton of water throughout the day which helps with it. I’m excited though I feel like i’m getting my life back.
ithappens, it is great to read such a good news. I keep fingers crossed and wish you perfect recovery. Keep us updated.
Looks really promising. I always felt most of my problems were from lack of quality sleep.
hey ithappens,
I have similar symptoms as you where I could not get a restful night of sleep for 9 months after quiting Propecia (1mg). But it has gotten better where I get into a dreaming state, but will wake up if the dream gets intense (full of emotion). If this drug works for you, then I may give it a shot.
How long do you have to be on XYREM or is this a temporary thing to teach your body how to sleep again per your other thread? Also when do you plan on going off the drug to see if you can sustain a restful sleep without drug intervention? Thanks.
I went to my doctor this evening and he would not prescribe Xyrem for me. He said he would not get involved in this medication because there is a lot of paper work and you have to sign up for a program where you receive the drug from the program not a pharmacy. Ithappens how did you get this script and what type of doctor did you see to get it?
I believe he had a sleep study done that showed evidence that he was not getting Stage 3 or 4 sleep and in fact the examiner noted it was one of the worst sleep studies he’d ever seen… hence Ithappens’ willingness to push on the docs for Xyrem, backed by his sleep study proof and his own research that showed Xyrem may help his condition.
Thus you would likely need to follow a similar path.
yea that’s basically how it happened. You gotta understand that xyrem (ghb) isn’t just some medication like ambien that your doctor can just write a prescription for, and then you can go down to your local pharmacy and pick up. It’s a highly regulated highly controlled substance where they make you sign up and go through a program to get it. The drug is distributed out of only one pharmacy in the US so the medication is mailed to you over night, and from then on someone calls you every ten days or so to check up and see how you’re doing on it. Also, it’s highly expensive , I believe around 500 dollars monthly, and only a few insurance companies will cover most of it. I’m lucky enough where mine leaves me with a copay of only around 100 dollars month.
If you guys want this stuff you’re basically gonna have to put some work into it, and get lucky along the way because that’s what happened to me. You need to get a referal from your regular doctor to see a neurologist/sleep specialist, and after that have a sleep study done. I’ve been urging you guys for the past couple months to go get one because we’re all waking up tired all the time, well yea we’re not getting deep sleep etc. Once my sleep study was done, and it showed jsut a mess of insomnia and lack of stage 3 and 4 sleep my doctor didn’t prescribe xyrem right away. I had to try a bunch of other stuff first in order to eventually persuade him to let me try it. All and all that’s basically the process you have to go through to get it, and it is possible if you find the right doctor.
Anyway, the xyrem continues to help me in many ways. It’s very strange to wake up at 8AM and feel fully energized etc just unreal. Last night was funny because I’m actually dreaming again, like vivid dreams in the middle of my sleep. The problem is both of my dreams last night were nightmares, not fun times, but hey at least I’m dreaming again i guess. The only major problem remains that I think with the 2-4 hours out of around 8 of deep sleep i’m getting and the dopamine rebound I’m more energized during the day, and around 10PM at night I crash big time. I’m hoping as I keep going up to the maximum dose this improves. anyway I’ll continue to keep you guys updated.