Hi folks, after 8 years of “bliss”, my life has been turned upside down again by GAD rearing its ugly head. I’m a natural, competitive bodybuilder used to training 2 hours a day at a minimum. I also work in Sales and have been very successful over the years. I weaned myself off Citalopram about a year and a half ago as I believed I didn’t need it. Well after a very stressful year at work and an insane gym training regime, my brain seemed to finally gave up. It was back to 24/7 anxiety and all the crap that goes with it, insomnia of course and the inability to function. I managed 4 days off work and only then decided that the natural remedies were not going to help get me right. I’d been avoiding the pharmaceutical route as I remembered going through hell on Citalopram for weeks and it taking 8 weeks before I felt normal. I bit the bullet and ended up starting Escitalopram at the end of March. Once again, it was hell. Nausea, insomnia, diarrhoea, extreme fatigue etc etc for two weeks. I stopped taking all supplements besides Vitamin C, Fish oil and branch chain amino acids (BCAA), believing this to be absolutely A-okay. Anyhow fast forward to four days ago when I ran out of BCAAS and decided not to get any more. Yesterday morning I woke up and had increased anx, burning skin, no appetite and a slightly upset stomach. So it transpires that BCAA intake causes reduced seratonin levels as they compete with tryptophan for uptake - Tryptophan is the precursor to seratonin. In short, I now feel like a complete idiot as essentially my body is interpreting all of this as an increased dose in my Escitalopram and today marks 4 weeks at “10mg” but how much of the 10mg my brain has actually been getting is anybody’s guess. What an insane waste of time I feel this has all been. Of course I had to have one and a half Zopiclone to get some shut eye. Today was slightly better than yesterday but the anx is still there. I had hoped to start fresh back at work on Monday, having taken some leave over Easter but now I’m feeling less than overjoyed at the prospect. I am such an idiot, I hate myself for my stupidity. I pray that the side effects settle soon as I can’t afford to be out of action at work, work and certain colleagues being a major stressor for me. Anyhow, thanks for listening to my rant. If you can relate, I’d love to hear from you. All the best, Rich.