It's been almost 2 years since I stopped using LDN. I went through extensive testing to see if I had MS, and also tested for Mast Cell Disease ( Mastocytosis ). Nothing was conclusive. I still have numbness in the left side of my face, feet, and left hand, that comes and goes. I also still have intermittent severe pain in my thoracic  and cervical spine, and migraines. BUT....I started B12 injections and that seems to be helping. I am supposed to inject 1 cc every two weeks, but sometimes if I wait that long the pain gets unbearable. Last time I thought I might have to go to the ER. I tried to wait the full 2 weeks between injections, and I won't do that again. Now I take my injection at the first sign of  numbness returning or pain flaring up. I still can't work with my hands up above my waist tho' or I'll be sorry. Makes doing dishes and folding laundry difficult.

I sometimes think about starting up LDN therapy again. One of my fingers is starting to get crooked from RA and I'd like to nip that in the bud. But now that I've been diagnosed with BPD and PTSD I am leery of using any medication.  I've been really stressed out lately and I don't want to do anything to increase anxiety. That seemed to be a problem for me on LDN in the past. I've had over 2 years to heal from the pain meds my Dr. RX'd so maybe I'm producing endogenous endorphins in adequate quantity. It's difficult to know, because with BPD I feel so flat. Hardly a good feeling ever. It wasn't just from the opiate withdrawl. That process was just aggravated by the BPD, hence the protracted withdraw.

VLCD day 1. Time to get serious again.

HCG Protocol Weight LossTracker

I decided to give LDN another try. This time I'm starting at a much lower dose. I took .25-.3mg last night. After listening to Dr. Lawrence tell about how he starts his patients at as low as .5mg and that some of them stay at much less than the "typical" protocol, I also got plenty of support from Garnet who also thinks that very low doses may be indicated for some people. She started a new Yahoo group this week for very low dose naltexone users. It's at

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Very_Low_Dose_Naltrexone/messages?o=1

I took my dose at around 11:30 PM. I woke up at 6:30 AM with a headache. I took tylenol and used my ETPS on just the points on my head and the headache went away immediately. Wish I hadn't taken the tylenol. I went back to sleep pretty quickly and slept until around 9:00 AM. I did seem to dream more than usual, but nothing particularly vivid. I can't remember the dream now.

I don't feel the wierd detached feeling in my left side. My feet are tingly, and the ringing in my ears persists, but no anxiety. In fact, I was able to calm down in spite of a very upsetting phone call. Usually something like that would set my anxiety off for the whole day. But so far so good. I feel calm and even.

I'm pre-menstrual and that may have caused the headache.

I took LDN for 33 days hoping it would help with depression after quitting chronic opiate use. It seemed to help with depression, but made anxiety worse. When I got up over 1.75mg the anxiety was not tolerable for me. I could feel as little as a .25mg increase, which is not typical.

The good news is that about 20 days after stopping LDN I felt better than before I started it. It's possible that it sequesters in tissue and that allowing enough time to get it out of my system may have been necessary in order to feel better. Naltrexone is known to increase cortisol and noradrenaline levels, and for someone sensitive like me, that might be too much to take.  It's believed that LDN causes an exponential increase in endogenous endorphin production. For some, that immediate endorphin increase improves mood. But it appears that for others  there's a problem with endorphin uptake at the receptors, not an endorphin  deficiency. But LDN might still help in the long run if ( as it's thought ) the increase in endogenous endorphins also stimulates production of new opiate receptors.

Overall I think taking LDN  for protracted withdrawl symptoms helped me.  It helped a lot with the restless legs, tingling in feet, body vibrations and facial tics and numbness. Some of these symptoms came back after stopping LDN, but are not as bad as before.

If I knew I had MS I would have stuck with the LDN indefinitely in spite of the side effects. But I don't know that and I'm hoping I don't have a relapse in symptoms.I am going to try it again after a few months and see what happens. But if my physical symptoms return and worsen I'll start immediately and try to stick with 1.5mg nightly to see if it helps.