I am interested to know peoples views on nutrition/CBT psychology based therapy for mental illness as apposed to being prescribed medication you have to stay on long term..

in 2007 I was diagnosed with Schizo-phreniform Psychosis, I couldnt tell the difference between dreams and reality and was hospitalised for 2 weeks.

I have been on over many different meds since, most I could not tolerate the side effects.

in the end I was on dose ‘200mg’ of amisulpride for over 4 years.. this was meant to prevent a relapse of illness.

I found overall I still dealt with a certain amount of paranoia, anxiety, depression, lack of energy and mood instability along with the occasional delusional though process or hallucination despite my medication. I could not go on a higher dose as the side effects would make me almost unable to work.

So after Reading Dr Abram Hoffer’s Book titled ‘Healing Schizophrenia’ I decided to begin to try vitamin B3 treatment.

I experimented with nicotinic acid at first, trying a dose of up to 3 grams, split up (4 250mg tablets 3 times a day)

with nictonic acid there is a harmless ‘flush’ reaction you should know about, but the most interesting thing about the B3 was it actually worked wonders for my breakthrough psychotic symptoms.

within a week I found myself feeling no paranoia, no strange delusional thoughts, I had more energy, actually I may have been a little hypermanic (this may be due to my illness sitting somewhere in between Bi-Polar and Schizophrenia… something referred to as schizo-affective disorder.) So sure… maybe it doesn’t stabilise my moods and prevent my slightly manic behaviour (something I’m still working on) But for the negative symptoms like paranoia and depression I had almost instant results.

After a few more months trying a few other things, including a mood stabiliser (lamictal) than landed me in hospital and off work way too many days due to it making me violently ill for 1.5 months… I have had enough of the psychiatric drugs.

After realizing my diet is more likely the key to my overall and mental health… to stop the amisulrpide all together and find a GP who supports me in taking the nutrition based approach to my mental health issues.

So I have now got a holistic GP, I have sourced something called Naicinol Forte (slow release niacin) which I am taking 4 Grams a day with no flush reaction.. And so far, I am feeling pretty sane and no longer feel ‘dosed’ like I have all these years on the amisulpride. now the focus is on learning more about food and cooking and other healthy routines.

I’m happy to reply to comments with more info or answer any specific questions anyone has…

and heres a few cool niacin/nutrition based therapy related links I’ve found:

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/schizophrenia-ortho… http://psychdrugs.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/bipolar-schizophrenia-me… http://www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?id_Content=1638 http://www.crnusa.org/safetypdfs/010CRNSafetyvitaminNiacin.pdf http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/articles/art_niacinforpsychosis.html http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n11.shtml