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Guanfacine Trial


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Best of luck mate! I'll have to have a closer look into why this stuff's potentially beneficial - I have done but it's since all leaked out, haha.

Thanks mate!

To be honest I'm not as versed as I was a few months ago, but luckily got all my notes.

They actually sent a really detailed bunch of notes with it. Pretty cool.

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So, today;

14:32pm: 2mg 5-HTP (I didn't realise I'd be getting the Guanfacine and hadn't tried some for a while so thought I'd see how I feel).

Onto Guanfacine (oral doses):

15.42pm : 0.5mg
17.05pm : 1.5mg

I took my blood pressure after the second dose, it had already dropped quite a bit, as expected, but is obviously not low as far as BP goes.

22:30pm now. 

- I feel slightly sedated, relaxed, calm.
- Concentration, focus seems to all be okay, I would say fractionally better that is has been lately.
- I felt mild brain fog, esp. after the first induction dose, I had to put my head down for a bit. Now just mild head tension (could be from drinking last night). Nothing that bad.
- Visuals seem to be slightly worse, but can't be sure this is anything to do with the Guafacine, perhaps fatigue (I didn't sleep much last night, although I don't actually feel tired). Also visuals could be worse from my binge drinking on holiday coming back to get me. I'm now detoxing though.

- - 

So, let's not infer too much from that. Some of that could be placebo or maybe the 5-HTP. The I feel slightly sedated, relaxed, calm I am very sure is not though. This is a new kind of feeling, already.

I will keep updating this. Planning to do 1mg BID from tomorrow for x amount of time and depending how it goes, possibly up to 2mg BID. Unless anyone else has other suggestions :). Will also do it as clean as possible i.e not mixing with other meds/drinking blah.. only supping with vit C, magnesium, omega 3 + 6 and NAC.

Keep ya posted,
S

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Today:

10am; 1mg Guanfacine

- Around 13:30pm I had the dry mouth side effect.. had this for quite a few hours after.
- 14:30pm : I felt slightly drowsy, heavy, almost want to say brain foggy.. unmotivated. I put my head on the pillow a bit. Somnolence is listed as a side effect so this was not surprising, especially starting out.
- 16:00pm : Now this surprised me.. I headed out to drive to various appointments; 40 minutes (in the car), then another 30 mins, and another 60 mins. On all occasions, I had none of this weird zoning out shit that I have had for the last few years. See here. No problems at all, and consistently I have had this for the last few years. Interesting. Let's see if this continues.



2am: I am taking my second dose of the day. Will be good before bed, considering the drowsiness earlier. Sometimes with Guanfacine you are advised to dose only before bed, but I am basing it more off the ADHD dosing plans I have read, so twice a day. I hope that the morning doses will cease to be drowsy, if not, will cut down the dose till this ceases.

Generally I feel moderately better.

Visuals the same.

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good luck pal, look forward to seeing your progress

 

 

good luck man.. really cool photo with the dog also :)

 

 

Awesome synth! And what must-be said, haha!

Hope you manage to keep a 'cleaner' trial than I usually do. I tend to get impatient and end up being inconsistent with my methods :P

And of course; good luck :)

Cheers guys :)

I won't be keeping this updated every day, only when there is something interesting to say.

I'm going to up to 2mg BID tomorrow. Was going to give it a week, but f- it, side effects aren't too bad thus far.

Not much to report other than feeling a bit tired, brain foggy + BP has dropped quite a bit below it's usual, so the drug's definitely in the system and doing part of its job. I have not been supping NAC which normally removes my brain fog to see if Guanfacine will do this without NAC. If Guanfacine doesn't appear to do that after 2-3 weeks (when it should be fully working), I will supp NAC to see if I can reap all its benefits.

Also of note that my driving issues have still been fine. I wonder if it is to do with the supping of Omega 3 + 6 for the visual pathway at the same time.. I find it hard to believe though.

Stay tuned.

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Not much to report.. I can't say I have noticed any positive.. I have been really brain foggy most of the time. Sleeping has been much better, but generally lethargic.

It is hard to tell whether it is the Guanfacine is making me feel groggy/lethargic. It is a side effect, but I can't say I noticed a difference when upping the dose to 2mg BID, I could cut back down but think I will hang in for the minute, I'm not so convinced it's the Guanfacine. I started the trial a day after being on holiday for a week, where I drank heavily in the evenings and also forged a relationship that was particularly wonderful and made me feel like I had no problems at all (I have often found new social experiences have completely lifted my feelings of feeling shit.. the most efficacious treatment I have tried!). Since I got back, I cannot see the person for a few weeks, and talking frequently on the phone, the situation is a little upsetting.. so, the brain fog could be a big come down from the week of booze +  loss of new bond (apologies for the life story, but trying to be as frank as possible).
Tomorrow will be a week, the drug is definitely in the system (diastolic BP has gradually fallen from 75 to 41 over the last week). 

I do feel different.. I feel like there is some sort of mild stimulation in the head (like a feeling of lightness), but it feels entirely inaccessible due to the brain fog. As much as I wish I had the patience to wait 2-3 weeks, on second thoughts, as I know NAC removes brain fog for me, I'm going to start supping it and see how I feel.. maybe I can lift the veil and see what Guanfacine has to offer. I can then try supping without it to see how I feel. But yeah, I can't be bothered for the fog again.. !

Best,

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Okay, so today was a good environment for testing. I got the ideal amount of sleep (just under 8 hours) and managed to get out of bed despite the fog of brain. I got up, took 2mg Guanfacine on an empty stomach, then had breakfast 30-40 mins later and took my daily dose of Magnesium, Omega, Vit C and Vit B and NAC which usually removes my brain fog. I also took some NAC last night after writing the last post before going out.

4 after my Guanfacine dose this morning, I have basically done nothing and had to put my head down for an hour because I was so foggy. I have had a lot of stuff to get on with as well. My head is still quite foggy now, visuals quite bad. I guess my brain fog is bad because of my visuals, but I can't think why the Guanfacine would affect my visuals. Yet it still remains that the Guanfacine could be causing my brain fog, lethargy being a side effect and all (but, to me, this seems very much like the classic HPPD brain fog, as opposed to some distinct lethargy).
Last night, after second 2mg Guanfacine dose of the day and some NAC, I was spacing out in weird ways too... it seemed to me it was an epileptic sort of spacing out, absence seizures I would say, and getting weird muscle spasms that would knock me out of them.

I have a few options.. cut down my dose, or split it up more. Perhaps 1mg TID or 1mg QDS. Important to note that I am not using extended release Guanfacine, so perhaps, the 2mg is just hitting me a little bit too hard.
I've looked into making my own extended release tablets, but, well.. f- that!
I have tried to find extended release tablets that ship to the UK but no luck.
Also, I wonder how introducing Modafinil would be which has sorted me out with my lethargy in the past beautifully. Maybe, again, I will be able to experience what Guanfacine has to offer if I can sort out my believed dopamine issues. Even though Modafinil to this date has been the best thing I have used to relieve my symptoms, it was by no means perfect. Trying it would Guanfacine would be interesting.
I think the rest of today I will split my dose into 2x 1mg (total of 4mg today).. and do 1mg QDS tomorrow + 100mg of Modafinil in the morning and see how that stacks up.
The other option, but I don't think it's safe, is to wipe out/heavily decrease my visuals with a benzo (I know a Lorazepam will do a good job of this).. but I have read they contraindicate. Well I mean it makes sense considering Guanfacine is lowering my BP so much, a benzo, probably not the best of ideas.
That reminds me now, I totally forgot of a very large factor in this batch of fog -_- whilst I was on holiday I took altogether maybe 6mg Lorazepam over a week.. way more than I normally do, I was being a bit recreational in the sun. That could explain why everything is fuming up again.
Anyway, so as you can see I don't want to write of Guanfacine so quickly, I want to give it a few weeks. I can only see it being beneficial, but maybe on it's own it's not that helpful for our cases. I could also try and stack it with full spec Bacopa Monneiri which might help the what I believe to be epileptic nature of zoning out I have experienced.

If anyone has any suggestions - well, I'm your guinea pig :)

 

EDIT: Actually decided to do 1mg QDS Guanfacine alone tomorrow rather than implementing Modafinil already, will see how that goes.

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Today, did 1mg Guanfacine first thing with 100mg Modafinil + usual supplementation, hit my second 1mg about 30 mins ago (around 6 hours after first dose) and will be doing 1mg more Guanfacine before bed, so 1mg TID for now. Hopefully my BP will raise into the more normal zone, if not I will go back to 1mg BID and try to keep my BP in the right spot. 

I've been feeling really good today.. can't say for sure that the Guanfacine has contributed much to that, Modafinil tends to help me have a (comparably) really good day. All I can say different is that I feel slightly more relaxed than being on just Modafinil, which makes sense. I feel pretty clear headed, slight head tension, but no brain fog and no lethargy, non-surprisingly. I haven't actually taken any NAC today either.

I can't say that experientially Guanfacine is doing much for me, but in theory and practice what it is doing in relieving hypertension, I suppose that is a reason to use it, even if there are no huge ding dong alarm bells for how you subjectively feel. I should still give it 7-10 more days before making a final judgement on the subjective experience, it might still have something to offer. Visuals the same.

 

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