Let's talk about Theanine in higher doses

I spent like a week running through as much research on l-Theanine as I could. Reading as many papers as I could

find published on it RE: Anxiety, sleep, brain waves, you name it.

 

Next I spent a week taking it 3x daily at 500mg dose. That's pretty high compared to most 200mg std doses.

 

I purchased bulk like 100g's of powder from Amazon. It was super inexpensive compared to pills.

 

Oh! And I quit smoking about 2 days before I started the theanine.

 

How do I feel? Pretty good. My anxiety is minimal compared to before. It was getting pretty bad and my decision

to stop smoking was based on the premise that it was causing more base anxiety than it was helping. I'm still trying

to evaluate that premise.

 

Anxiety wise the theanine definitely works. Sleep wise is a toss up. It's hard to evaluate sleep with my

wife tossing and turning like a 12 year old.

 

It works great for the "low level" and "background anxiety" that I was feeling. It's not going to completely prevent

some horrible panic attack probably but in a high anxiety moment I felt slightly more... resilient? to panic. Like I had

a few more minutes to figure shit out before panic set in which allowed me relax and not panic.

 

 

The dosing came from someone in a nootropics forum saying that 200mg wasn't enough for most people to feel an

appreciable effect with respect to anxiety. And another person saying they took 500mg for their "ADHD" dose.

 

 

Anyone else's experiences with it?

Take note that l theanine can cause withdrawal issues after being on it longer than 10 weeks. If abrupt cessation occurs you may experience some hideous symptoms. Emphasis on may. I took it for 3 weeks. After I stopped I began having bad symptoms. But that's my case. Good luck.

Take note that l theanine can cause withdrawal issues after being on it longer than 10 weeks. If abrupt cessation occurs you may experience some hideous symptoms. Emphasis on may. I took it for 3 weeks. After I stopped I began having bad symptoms. But that's my case. Good luck.

 

There are no listed withdrawal symptoms anywhere.

 

Part of my research was trying to find any study of anything that listed withdrawal symptoms. None were found.

 

When searching for research on Theanine and "Withdrawal" you find research on people using it to cope with opiate and benzo withdrawals.

 

As far as I can understand it's a simple amino acid analogue that acts as an Antagonist in the glutamate system. The binding to a subset of

glutamate receptors acts to prevent activation of those receptors.

 

I guess that could cause over activation of glutamate system after cessation but evidence is largely anecdotal.

I've seen a few people express problems with it. A few others seemed to be mixing it directly with caffeine which

probably didn't help as they stopped theanine and kept the caffeine.

 

 

Thanks for the input!

 

I came across several medical journals of patients that were taken off L theanine CT for non related medical issues, who then got worse in their conditions. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with them until they realized their patients were self medicating daily with L theanine. Iv read of valerian root cases too. Patientsnhad to be reinstated onto their supplements, however it took the patients a significant amount of time for them to stabilize.

 

I found these randomly on Google so I can't remember the links, but my search title was "dangers of chronic supplementing".

There's got to be an answer to all this.  I mean, if these scientists were able to discover a "wonder" drug called benzo that basically makes everything better, makes life livable, then there must be a natural solution as well, right??  I figure, what's the problem with taking Valerian for the rest of my life?  It's no different than taking anything else.  I could theorize until I turn blue.  Maybe someone can make sense of my history before it all went to hell.  Here it is, and please comment if you have any ideas or solutions.  I was taking the following supplements every day for several weeks: Ashwaganda (spelling), viagra, Kelp, CoQ10, SamE, B complex, Ginseng, 5-htp, and Ginkgo.  I quit drinking for a couple of months too and lost 20 lbs.  I continued smoking.  Then my fiancé and I broke up and I started drinking heavily and stopped taking the supplements and went into a total spiral, out of control, panic and anxiety.  I thought I was losing my mind.  Akathisia and other symptoms started.  I was put on benzos.  All of the symptoms started getting worse when the interdose withdrawal would kick in.  What a living hell.  So then, I started taking Theanine and Ashwaganda again and eventually stopped the benzos.  I started taking Valerian, Kava Kava, some melatonin, Lemon Balm, and Chamomile.  I was slowly improving and I noticed I was getting better month after month.  But I made the mistake of drinking 5 times after I quit the benzos, and as I improved I started taking all the stuff less and less until I wasn't taking anything and I quit drinking.  And I have noticed I've improved in many ways the past 8 months or so, but I've also worsened in many ways too.  Over all I'd say I'm better, but I'm also worse in various ways and that's what scares me.  I don't really know if I'm actually getting better or not.  Yes, small improvements here, some worsening there, back and forth, but no real improvement that I can be confident about.  I'm still not sure about where I'm headed.  I wonder if I need to resume all the herbs and supplements again.  I was always improving while I took those.  Yes I had some really hellish days, but the one thing I was sure of was a gradual improvement.  I've hit a road block, I'm pretty sure.

There's got to be an answer to all this.  I mean, if these scientists were able to discover a "wonder" drug called benzo that basically makes everything better, makes life livable, then there must be a natural solution as well, right??  I figure, what's the problem with taking Valerian for the rest of my life?  It's no different than taking anything else.  I could theorize until I turn blue.  Maybe someone can make sense of my history before it all went to hell.  Here it is, and please comment if you have any ideas or solutions.  I was taking the following supplements every day for several weeks: Ashwaganda (spelling), viagra, Kelp, CoQ10, SamE, B complex, Ginseng, 5-htp, and Ginkgo.  I quit drinking for a couple of months too and lost 20 lbs.  I continued smoking.  Then my fiancé and I broke up and I started drinking heavily and stopped taking the supplements and went into a total spiral, out of control, panic and anxiety.  I thought I was losing my mind.  Akathisia and other symptoms started.  I was put on benzos.  All of the symptoms started getting worse when the interdose withdrawal would kick in.  What a living hell.  So then, I started taking Theanine and Ashwaganda again and eventually stopped the benzos.  I started taking Valerian, Kava Kava, some melatonin, Lemon Balm, and Chamomile.  I was slowly improving and I noticed I was getting better month after month.  But I made the mistake of drinking 5 times after I quit the benzos, and as I improved I started taking all the stuff less and less until I wasn't taking anything and I quit drinking.  And I have noticed I've improved in many ways the past 8 months or so, but I've also worsened in many ways too.  Over all I'd say I'm better, but I'm also worse in various ways and that's what scares me.  I don't really know if I'm actually getting better or not.  Yes, small improvements here, some worsening there, back and forth, but no real improvement that I can be confident about.  I'm still not sure about where I'm headed.  I wonder if I need to resume all the herbs and supplements again.  I was always improving while I took those.  Yes I had some really hellish days, but the one thing I was sure of was a gradual improvement.  I've hit a road block, I'm pretty sure.

 

Science wise you wanna isolate one thing at a time. So add/remove one supplement at a time and take it for a few weeks.

 

If it works for you, good. Try adding/removing more.

 

You're not taking Benzos so you at least have that going for you.

Iv been taking 300mg l theanine daily for some days now. I get rebound anxiety in the mornings. Making my mental confusion state worse. I don't know man. I'm suspecting that this will lead to upping the dosage and eventually reaching the threshold, then tolerance and withdrawal/rebound of the anxiety.

 

I wonder if can one live an anxiety free life till death. Honestly. Is that even possible? Nothing works long enough.

I wonder if can one live an anxiety free life till death. Honestly. Is that even possible? Nothing works long enough.

 

We're not meant to live without anxiety.

We're trying to not be debilitated by it.

 

Anxiety is a natural, normal thing. Being debilitated by it isn't.

 

It's a highly individualized thing.

 

I take 500mg mid day and 500mg before I sleep now. I don't need a morning dose I don't think. I'm not overly anxious.

 

Morning is when I feel the most calm.