Last night I took 2.5mg LDN at around 11:30. Also Trazodone for sleep. I slept soundly for about 4 hours and was able to go back to sleep again. It seems that it takes about 7 hours for the LDN to wear off and endorphins to start flowing. I really feel a difference. I still feel tired and yawned all morning, but feel an energy that is new since starting LDN. I feel an increasing mental alertness, but I still struggle to remember words. My vocabulary is coming back slowly. I was so mentally crippled for a while that I could hardly form a proper sentence. ( not that my speech is so proper now...)

Physical symptoms of numbness and the dragging feeling in my left side are improved. They persist most in outside of left ankle, across my forehead and around my mouth.  Also I didn't wake up sweating today or yesterday.  No headache either.. Pain in left shoulder and back, but no spasms yet.

LDN stands for Low Dose Naltrexone. Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist FDA approved for use in treating opiate addiction. It reduces cravings and when it is present in the body opiate use will not yield the euphoria that makes them so seductive. Same with alcohol. You just can't get a buzz like you used to if you are taking Naltrexone.  I will also cause immediate withdrawl if opiates are already in the system when it is administered, so it is used after detox has already been accomplished. A typical dose is 50mg for treating opiate addicts.

Low Dose Naltrexone ( LDN ) therapy (4.5mg or less) and Naltrexone therapy ( 50mg ) are two completely different things. Used full strength Naltrexone does NOT stimulate endorphin production. It actually blocks even naturally occuring endorphins from entering receptor cells. Because of this it can interfere with our bodies own pain management and mood regulation.

It has been discovered that using less than 1/10 the typical dose will temporarily halt natural endorphin production. When this happens the body will overcompensate by producing extra endorphins when it recovers the ability to do so ( within a few hours ). A typical low dose ( hence the LDN acronym ) is no more than 4.5mg. It is usually administered in the evening since peak endorphin production is btw 2am-4am. This way more endorphins are available during the day, when we are most likely to be aware of the bonus. This is why I thought it would help with depression. This mechanism also has a balancing effect in the immune system, and LDN is gaining a reputation for effectively halting the progression of Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Crohn's Disease,, and other auto immune disorders. It also does some thing I can't explain to some types of cancer cells ( basically I think it starves them ) and is used for that too, usually after Radiation or Chemo is finished. The reports of what it can do for people are just amazing. I'm going to put together a list of websites with information about LDN later as a separate journal entry, but here's one.

www.lowdosenaltrexone.com

I increased my dose  to 2.5mg last night and waited until 11pm to take it. I also took 100mg Trazodone. I slept soundly and didn't wake up until 6am. I slept hard, but it wasn't refreshing. I didn't feel the endorphin rush the first time I woke up and was able to go back to sleep for a while. But it wasn't as sound and I had a nightmare. I woke up again at 8am and by then I could feel the endorphins kicking in. I didn't feel like getting up, the nightmare I had this morning was a real downer. Same recurring theme.

I definitely feel a difference with the LDN. More mental alertness and I was able to make a play on something a friend said to me. She laughed at a couple of things I said in pun, so my mind must be working better. I still feel depressed, but more alert. I have an internal sense of dread that isn't going away. I feel like I'm physically feeling better but my mind isn't caught up with my body. My Dad said I sounded better on the phone, but I'm being really careful not to say anything that will worry him.

The physical symptoms that were better today are, less numbness in my face and my feet and don't feel like I'm dragging my left side through water. I just still feel an odd sensation in my left side and my left trapezius muscle is very tight and tender along my spine.

I took LDN last night at 9:30 but didn't go to bed until 12:30am. I took trazodone again at bedtime. I think I may have to take my LDN much later. A storm woke me up at 4:00 from a sound sleep. I had to get up to unplug some things and felt the endorphins kicking in. That made it hard to go back to sleep so I took a muscle relaxant. I still didn't sleep very well after that. I woke up with only a slight headache.

I have a lot of distressing things going on in my life right now. If that were not the case I'm thinking the LDN would make me feel a lot better. It is definitely doing something positive, but I don't feel as good as I did yesterday. Sitting here typing I feel a little stirred up inside, but not agitated. It's like there is something going on inside me that is keeping me from feeling pleasure from the endorphins. I don't feel foggy, but I do feel an altered sense of of perception, maybe more "normal?". I'm looking outside at the birds and critters and it looks beautiful and vivid, but I don't feel a thing.  I have no motivation to do anything. I feel a little  hungry, but I don't want to eat. I'd like to go back to sleep, but I doubt I could fall asleep. I didn't take Buspar last night or this morning and have no spike in anxiety. I still feel a little general anxiety, but it's manageable with breathing.

I wonder if the state of depression is a defense mechanism gone awry. If the fogginess is a way of dampening stimulation when senses are already over loaded. It's very difficult to describe how my head feels, but it's similar to how some SSRIs  made me feel. The big difference is that the LDN is not causing me to become agitated and anxious like the SSRIs.  I have a slight ringing in my ears, but I have that from time to time anyway. Headache is getting worse from sitting and typing. It may have nothing whatsoever to do with the LDN.

Well, it's only been 2 days and I think it's too soon pass judgement. I am still recovering from opiate withdrawI        (53 days), and have the added stress of a tenative MS diagnosis. Those things alone are a lot to deal with. As far as the physical goes, I still have tingling in my left side and feet. Still have facial numbness esp. around left side of  my mouth as well as the left side of my tongue It feels almost like burning . Twitching around left eye. The tingling down the back of my left leg was worse last night, but no RLS! I was sweating just a little bit this morning.

I'm going to take 2.5mg tonight and wait until just before I go to bed to take it. I'm gonna try to get myself to bed earlier too. 12am is too late. Bad habit starting here.