Status Quo

My stomach was in knots yesterday as I counted down the hours to my doctor's appointment. Two weeks ago, I took a neurotransmitter test...I was about to get the results. While I sort of knew what to expect, the nervousness of the unknown worked its way through my body.

As soon as I stepped into her office and exchanged greetings, my doctor slid the results across the desk. The first thing I noticed was that almost everything was normal. That's was a good thing. No surprises.Then she drew my attention to my serotonin and GABA levels. Even with my antidepressant, my serotonin still tested low. GABA is a brain chemical that is used for calming and it was, by far, my most underfunctioning neurotransmitter. When GABA is low, the symptoms present as anxiety, depression, fatigue, and an inability to handle stress.  Yeah, I have that.

My biggest concern going into this appointment was the treatment. I've gone off of my antidepressant before and it was awful...I was afraid she was going to ask that of me...and I wasn't sure how I felt about that possibility. But, she didn't want me to go off of my meds.  To get my serotonin levels up, she is just adding a supplement to my antidepressant. When I got that news, I breathed a sigh of relief!  Also, because of my levels of serotonin and GABA in combination with some other symptoms I have presented with, she thinks part of my problem is zinc and b6 deficiency...we're just doing some simple supplements for that.

So, the news was not really news and the treatment is kind of minimal.  I'm good with that.  Now we just wait and see if I feel better.  Fingers crossed.