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B Complex Supplementation - coming down from very high amounts
Hi there,
I keep feeling quite on edge that i may have caused my own anxiety I had this year, due to withdrawing slowly over time from extremely high B complex supplements. Let me explain:
I have been on very very high strength B complex supplementation for a few years since suffering Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which began about a year after I had Glandular Fever. My doctors were not helping my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so I went to a homeopath/nutritionist to just try them out and it was recommended that I buy Biocare B complex (It had 50mg in it and 50ug of B12 - which is 5,000% of the RDA!).
On trying this I noticed a very big difference within a week and was able to manage to function normally and I went from part time to full time work again. I was very pleased. (I am a very determined person and have my own flat on my own).
In the last few years, there was a few times I recall trying to come off of the B complex (I don't like staying on something for the rest of my life), even just missing one every other day, and I don't know if it was just a coincidence but I suffered from extreme tiredness/exhaustion once again, and feeling pretty worried about this considering i were doing a full time job, I therefore decided to stay on it and try instead to withdraw from it very gradually to get off of it.....
I therefore decided a good plan would be to just miss one every five days and come off slowly (my plan was then to go down to every three days after a few months, then one day, etc etc...........). All was going well with missing one every five days when a few months later i started suffering anxiety/panic attacks. Although please note that at the same time I did have something pretty big to deal with.....(Confidentially I had in the past few months at the same time started a deep affair with someone in my area who I knew was married, and despite it breaking my heart because he said he would never leave his wife, I knew I would need to end it - better to at the begining - and get over it). I did break it off and I was feeling pretty strong for doing so, but all of a sudden I started getting very bad paranoia panic attacks (where I would actually lay there shaking until I got scary silly thoughts out of my mind - and the only way of relieving them would be to text my ex-lover who i missed so much and tell my fear to bring relief to myself or tell my parents what I feared from them, etc etc) and anyway these anxiety attacks enventually bought depression on.
It has been my worst year ever and I had to take St Johns Wort (I wouldn't go on conventional anti-depressants as I have been on them in the past and they made me extremely tired and my symptoms of CFS much worst which i why i then went to a homeopath), i've been on St Johns Wort for half the year and although I now feel like I am slowly going up now, on reflection of the year, I have started wondering whether withdrawal from the B complex could have caused this?.....
I am aware that B complex is not just for energy it is also for moods, depression, etc, and therefore feeling like I needed to know if i did need more of the B complex again to give me a boost, I recently paid for a vitamin and mineral deficiency test. My B's were ok but the test came back that I were deficient in zinc. I realised that this is true as I am suffering hair loss, depression, etc and a scab on my back wont seem to heal, all the classic zinc deficiency symptoms. I know that you need B6 to absorb zinc and therefore rather than reassure me, it has made me wonder whether actually trying to withdraw from the B complex did in fact a few months later cause my terrible anxiety/fearfulness moments and made me much worse in handling a situation that normally i would have perhaps handled better. Its made me doubt myself.
Although I have had depression/anxiety in my life before I had glandular fever, I had never had them completely different kind of initial panic/anxiety attacks which has only been present after CFS when trying to gradually withdraw from B complex. Is this just a coincidence?
I think it scares me the fact that at one point I was taking 50mg of B6 a day for such a very long time and keep thinking maybe my body had got used to that (or did need it from following on from CFS) and therefore could it have affected me by withdrawing? (a few months down the line?)
I really would be interested to know a professional opinion, and although I have not gone back up on them (I am now gonna give the zinc a go), I do wonder if i may have needed them to help absorb the zinc my body is deficient in.
I also realise that I still am suffering from anxiety a little to have these concerns (when I should be enjoying my life) and maybe I just worry that my body is soooo fragile. - I should also tell you here that I have a severe hearing loss with terrible tinnitus problems (which started at age 16) and resulted in me having a cochlear implant in my 20's (I am now 33) but I do feel it would help me to speak to a professional who would know about the effects of such high strenght B complex.
I thank you in advance
*****
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