Great supplement
Suntheanine, so far, has been a really great supplement to have handy. I have been using it regularly for 3-4 months as of now. The effects: While you may not completely stop thinking anxiously, I find the amount of time spent worrying is greatly reduced. Usually as soon as an anxious thought crosses my mind, it's dropped within 10 seconds, and that's that. Obviously this can have a major effect, especially if you tend to overthink things. Your mind is calmer, depending on how calm or otherwise you were in the first place. Other people report benefits for focus and mental clarity too, and some people also report some sedation at higher doses. The risks: I have had no side effects while using this, and I'm pretty sure many others can say the same. Suntheanine is infamous for being safe at high doses. I have taken up to 600mg (four capsules) at once and 1050mg (seven capsules) a day without any negative effects I can definitely attribute to the suntheanine. That's not to say there definitely isn't any, but you're pretty safe with this one. The dose: The bottle suggests 1 capsule (150 mg) a day away from food. And for a lot of people, that would probably be okay. However, you are not strictly limited to this, and people with anxiety disorders can derive a lot more benefit from taking more than one. I have been told that I could take up to 1200mg a day (eight capsules) if I need to, and that larger doses in some people induces some degree of sedation (and even if it doesn't, the stress relief is still a good thing to have right before bed). I typically take one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one or more just before I go to bed (I also take one in the middle of the night if I can't go to sleep, and I find it tends to relieve symptoms of not sleeping, which in my case, are worse and probably more anxiety-based). Lately I've been taking 600mg (four capsules) at night in response to Insomnia - I can't yet conclude that this helps more since I've only done it three times. But in the beginning, one capsule was a fantastic way to end the day - it felt like all the stress of the day just vanished. The drawback of having 1200mg a day is... you'll run out of this in less than two weeks. So I prefer to keep my consumption as low as possible without ignoring this in times of high stress. My average use for right now still cleans out a bottle within 1 month (it IS important to note, however, that I am currently attempting to drop other anxiety meds, so of course I am subject to some extra stress during this time, and the fact that I use this a lot definitely does not mean that you'll have to as well). Another big plus over anxiety medication is you can simply take this as needed, not at set times every day. No withdrawal, no addiction, nothing like that. My psychiatrist has told me, however, that there are long-term benefits to using this. I haven't been able to verify that (actually, she's the only person I've heard that from, I've never read that online), but if you want to attempt to benefit from that, taking at least one a day as instructed is recommended. In general, I am very pleased with this safe and generally effective alternative to potentially risky prescription medications, and hopefully soon this is the only thing I'll be taking for anxiety
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