#since the effects only last for the duration of the drug and akathisia comes back worse inbetween

[leafened]

akathisia rabbit hole posting

the successful treatments for akathisia and the successful treatments for self-harm in autism are the same

after months of reading up on causes + treatments for akathisia, i am pretty sure my issue is converting glutamate into GABA?

Low GABA is its own issue and can cause mood problems -- but excess glutamate causes brain and nerve damage that, in the short term, cause sleep and nervous system dysfunction, and in the long term can cause parkinsons and alzheimers

The most successful treatments for both akathisia and self-harm/distressed fidgeting in autism (which effectively is autism-related akathisia, since akathisia just means chronic distressing restlessness) are b6 + magnesium + potassium. extremely oversimplified of course, but B6 helps with glutamate to GABA conversion, magnesium helps tamp down the nervous system, and potassium helps magnesium work.

there are papers showing all of these help improve the quality of life for adults with akathisia and children with autism (and ADHD and various neuroses too). Most papers give the subjects only one of the treatments to avoid confounding results, but I've found a few where they combine two of the three with success

editing bc i forgot to mention -- if you have low GABA and excess glutamate you might be tempted to take things that enhance GABA. But i found sources saying GABA supplements can trigger your body to produce even more glutamate lol?

Which tracks because L-theanine (GABA supplement) has a paradoxical effect on some people and also me specifically

I posted ~7 years ago about my terrible experience with L-theanine. Soylent Cafe gave me severe panic attacks that got worse over time until I had literal constant chest pain, even after I cut it down to only half a drink a day. It was only 35mg of caffeine at that point so it made no sense. I googled every ingredient on the label trying to figure out why regular Soylent was okay but coffee Soylent wasn't. I eventually found reports of paradoxical effects with L-theanine. So I donated my boxes of Soylent Cafe

...but when I went back to regular Soylent it also gave me anxiety, just not as bad, so I gave it away too. I figured I'd developed some kind of mild soy allergy or my body had some aversion to chugging 400 calories at once lol

but as it turns out. soy is a big source of glutamate. so I was directly upping my glutamate levels by drinking soy first thing in the morning and probably also upping my glutamate levels by taking a GABA supplement. Soylent Cafe era was the worst era of my adult life