No Medication: Day 9

I've stayed up later than I would like. Not trying to let it bother me or think about it too much. Probably the worst thing I could do to cause obsessive rumination.

I'll have some catnip tea, instead. It should help to calm down any ruminating that I could have in a half hour or so when I try going to bed.

But yeah, worrying about trying to sleep would become a big mistake. It would just create an obsessive rumination loop, which would keep my brain going and going and going.

That last paragraph reminds me that I may have used a misnomer of a title for this entry. I haven't officially started any medication or gotten a script from a doctor to address the ADHD.

I might have found a couple things that might help calm down the ADHD symptoms, though. My theory revolves around Strattera, the medication I had taken for awhile, being a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.

Finding any kind of natural dietary source of norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor probably lies somewhere beyond my skills and knowledge, but I thought maybe I could find a way of putting more norepinephrine into my body to provide my body with more than it usually has at ready.

Apparently, our bodies create the hormone-neurotransmitter norepinephrine out of the amino acid tyrosine. Norepinephrine then affects our brains in a way that influences our attention and impulsivity.

Next, I figured that maybe my body and most ADHD bodies have an issue converting tyrosine to norepinephrine. I have yet to find any natural place where I can get norepinephrine.

My next step came down to "how do I get more tyrosine, then?" Everywhere I looked on the Internet says that tyrosine falls into the category of "nonessential amino acid," which essentially means our bodies can synthesize it.

Our bodies can synthesize tyrosine from phenylanine. Unfortunately, our bodies synthesizes plenty of other things from phenylanine, so I really need to depend on some other source for tyrosine to test my hypothesis. After all, my body, apparently, doesn't address norepinephrine issues correctly. . .or possible dopamine issues, either, since it (A) is another hypothesized issue for people with ADHD and (B) our bodies also synthesize dopamine from tyrosine.

Having this information on hand, I intuitively explored the Internet then read some labels when I went to Whole Foods. I settled on a powder that has a mixture of greens, including wheat grass and oat grass (apparently, they both have a good amount of tyrosine and plenty of other good health benefits), and a brewer's yeast that has a formulation with a good amount of tyrosine in it.

I've worked with these two powders for the last couple days. No solid results that lead me to any conclusion yet. Nonetheless, I have experienced similar side effects similar to those that Strattera gave me along with a subjective feeling of having more control over my attention. Nothing drastic yet, though.

The test subject (me) needs to have a longer term of observation to find out more.

Interesting enough, though, plug tyrosine and ADHD into Google, you'll find some interesting articles on the topic. Maybe I am onto something.