(Update : there is mast cell involvement as a cause for all of this something that I did not know yet when I wrote this. See post “There is mast cell involvement” )
Just some mostly neurological symptoms involving the brain. And yes this list is also far from complete.
– General clumsiness in all kinds of ways, general motor skills problems. If I want to break an egg I either can’t do it or I squash the egg completely.
– Observable movement effects like slight head bobbing when looking from left to right, no smooth physical motions if I want to grab something I start to move then stop half-way for a short moment and then complete the movement. In general all my movements are not smooth and sometimes a bit shaky effects. I even walk strange.
– “Drunk-driving” without alcohol use. It was almost too dangerous to drive !
– Eye “tick” -like things, periodic straining of the eye muscles / eye lids.
– One side of my face felt more “saggy” including my eye lid falling more shut
– Almost started to drool. Noticing that saliva sometimes starts to flow from a corner of my mouth.
– Speech problems : semi-stuttering repeating things “it’s….it’s…. the…..the…..”. Slight pauses mid-sentence. Not uttering words / sentences properly, slightly slurred speech sometimes.
– Brain fog like things, short term memory problems (what did I want to do ? I forgot…) and yes it almost feels like an IQ loss you are not capable anymore to solve simple thinking problems like multiplying / calculating sums etcetera. Every task that involves thinking has become difficult to do.
– Brain keeps talking to itself more (that internal voice : blablabla…)
– More general repetitive behavior and difficulty task shifting
– Very sound sensitive. Noticing every little sound everywhere and it irritates me. I startle easily from sudden sounds. Very loud continuous sounds close by even give me a whole-body scare / frightening effect even when I already expect it.
– Everything “gets” at me. As if your nerves are shot. The brain gets easily overwhelmed / over-stressed from all kinds of inputs happening and it needs long recovery time afterwards.
This acetaldehyde stuff seems to be quite a bit toxic to the brain and also leads to a sort of semi-intoxicated state of being in its effects.
I want to mention something especially :
1 : All the weird physical symptoms are real, they are literally physically made on the spot in the body. For example I was at one time almost a cripple I could hardly walk for long because of the pain, well that is most definitely not made up in my brain. And neither are all my other physical symptoms that I have noticed.
2 : However something interesting happens too : the brain is also hyper-sensitive on top of this which makes it even worse ! All these pains and strange bodily sensations that I “feel” are more amplified and noticed in the brain. It is literally in a panicky / over-sensitive state all the time.
3 : And also very interestingly the brain, when triggered by a stressful event or even just a thought can also produce all kinds of strong physical sensations that you feel in the body itself. I have had all sorts of sudden weird stabbing pains, electrical nerve tingling feelings, stiffening muscles and more from just a stress-provoking thought. Even very strong positive feelings could give strange effects. The brain just can’t handle much.
4 : As if this is not enough effect 3 can even lead to effect 1 again in a self-amplifying back-feed loop which now makes it even more worse ! And it takes a while for the whole system to slowly calm down again in less stressful circumstances afterwards.
A lot of these things are so often mistaken as having a psychological cause. Or something aching to a horrible biopsychosocial model. The doctor / researcher will think :
“I don’t believe one bit of all those weird symptoms. The patient has a mental health problem. Here take this anti-stress / antidepressant pill and with a visit to the psychologist / psychiatrist and some cognitive behavior therapy and some relaxing mild exercises it will all get better”
But all those problems are as real as can be.
And when it comes to those seemingly psychological problems well at its basis as a causal factor it has nothing to do with that, the whole brain is just in a different mechanistic “state” in how it works. It is a biological mechanical problem of the illness. And there are also only psychological or physical triggers which are simply experienced / amplified and handled differently by the hyper-sensitive brain. You would not have all those effects without the influence of the acetaldehyde the brain starts to work really differently. If you have this as an illness you would feel and react normal if you could magically take that away.
Acetaldehyde, apart from all its other weird and many interesting properties that it has is a strong anxiogenic ( = anxiety making ) substance I have noticed.
Of course I already know all these things myself for certain because I can vary the severity of my symptoms through what I ingest and how I treat my digestive system. If I provoke it the effects / changes can be noticed literally in minutes sometimes. Although it affects the whole digestive tract it seems to be mostly a stomach problem for me otherwise you could never have such fast noticeable changes. On top of my ever present background level I can make myself more “drunk” of acetaldehyde very quickly.