Anxiety after starting B12

[ilfc]

Hi Everyone, this week I started to have extreme anxiety. So far my treatment has only been 1 - 1000ug shot of cyano and some about 6 2500ug methyl tabs. I am curious is anyone has had this before. My levels are up to 550 pmol/L but this new symptom of anxiety is debilitating. Any advice is appreciated

[Poppet11]

Anxiety is a symptom of b12 deficiency not a side effect of b12. It is quite possible because you have only had 1 shot of cyano (which is the least effective) and oral tabs (which are also not as effective as jabs) that the b12 isn't getting through to the cells. I don't know what period your have been medicating for but 550 does not seem that high.

[Ma79ja]

Sometimes oral supplements can make you anxious. I am sensitive to meds and supplements. B vitamins increase energy and for some people can cause anxiety. I think shots are ok but read carefully what is in tablets.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Glad that you seem to have found a way of taking B12 after the experience with your first shot.

It is quite probably that the experience with the first shot may be the source of the anxiety. You are still in the very early stages of building up your B12 levels and undoing the damage that the deficiency has caused. One effect of deficiency is that the lining around nerve cells isn't maintained properly with the result that they don't function properly - which can result in lack of feeling but also in spasms in muscles and weakness in muscles.

Until very recently - when I started supplementing a t high levels because I was just going backwards on the regime here in the UK - I suffered from really bad anxiety just prior to my periods ... and to be honest I really didn't cope with stress that well at other times. Bad anxiety happens when the bit of the brain that deals with fear goes into a loop - short-circuits and goes balistic. Unfortunately this part of the brain is really primitive and operates by sending the rest of your brain images of danger in the expectation that this will make you act on the danger - which works if you need to run away from a bear at the back of the cave but isn't much use when the problem is anxiety itself, so you just get into a horrible feed-back loop.

I really wasn't expecting it but as I've got B12 levels up to where they need to be for me my ability to cope with stress and the pre-menstral anxiety have become much less if not disappeared completely, so the likelihood is that if you can keep going with the B12 things should improve. Methylcobalamin is probably the way to go on this as a) it is closer to the metabolised form of B12 and b) it tends to have more impact on repairing the damage to nerve cells and c) it can cross the brain-blood barrier so likely to be more effective with psychological problems.

However, this doesn't get you over the immediate problem of dealing with the anxiety at the moment. I found that mindfulness meditation helped me in dealing with my anxiety levels in the past - gives you the awareness to separate yourself from the thoughts and chose which thoughts you follow up on.

I had problems with suicidal thoughts in particular and this technique really helped me there: I imagined them as unwanted visitors - I had 2 choices - hide in the house until they went away or open the door and politely telly tell them I wasn't interested which would let me go back and actually live in the house rather than keeping the lights off etc. the first obviously wasn't working so I decided to try the second - each time a thought came I would acknowledge that it was there and thank my brain for telling me that I was anxious but say no-thank you to the thought and think of something else. I thought it would take months to learn a new way of responding but actually it just took a few days.

Possible that you might find nasal spray more effective than sub-linguals but you'd probably need to be cautious about that as well given that you had an alergic response to the injections.

Really hope that you can get through this and back to a place of health.

[Hidden]

Are you taking methylfolate or folic acid with your B12 shots.I had problems with folate, it didn't agree with me.

Why don't you try giving yourself a split dose of the B12, 1/2 ml am and 1/2ml pm, let your body adjust to the B12 more slowly.

I would wait and see how you are coping with the shots first, your body will tell you when you need to add in the methyl tabs.

Are you taking (6) 2500ug of methylcobalamin tabs a day,if you are, I think this is where your anxiety is stemming from.That,s a lot to take in one day, plus your shot.

Also, anxiety can be the result of excess adrenaline, if you realize this when it happens, remind yourself

this is just too much adrenaline in my system, and try to relax.

Check to see what ingredients are in your tabs.