5 Jun
Okay so. Rant incoming but also genuinely asking because I feel like I'm losing my mind a little. I am 44 and for the past eight months I have been in what I can only describe as a supplement spiral. It started because I was sleeping terribly, waking up at 3am completely wired, then exhausted all day. Brain fog so bad I reread the same email four times and still sent a reply that made no sense. Hot flashes that weren't even that dramatic but were just... constant and annoying. And the anxiety. God, the anxiety. Just this low hum of dread that I couldn't shake. So I did what any reasonable person does at 2am. I went on Instagram. And now I follow approximately nine thousand women who are all very confident that the thing that fixed them will fix me. Magnesium glycinate. Vitamin D. Ashwagandha. Seed cycling. Collagen. Some kind of adaptogen powder that costs thirty dollars and tastes like dirt. I have tried probably six of these things. Some overlapping. Some dropped. I have no idea if any of them helped because I started three things at once like an idiot and then my sleep got a little better but also I changed my coffee timing and also I started going to bed earlier so. Great data set, Courtney. My OBGYN is lovely but every time I bring up supplements she kind of smiles and says "some women find them helpful" and that is the entirety of the guidance I receive. I don't need her to prescribe me anything. I just want someone to help me figure out how to actually know if something is working or not. Do any of you track this in any structured way? Like actually track it, not just vibes? I started a notes app log but I'm inconsistent and honestly looking back at it is depressing because I just wrote "bad night" seventeen times in a row. I'm not anti-supplement. I'm not even that skeptical anymore, I've just been burned enough times by hype that I want some kind of method. Some way to separate the placebo from the real thing. Some way to walk into my next appointment with something more useful than "I've been tired and weird for eight months and I bought a lot of things on Amazon." If you have a system, please share it. Even a rough one. I will take anything at this point. ETA: yes I know I should probably just get bloodwork done. Working on it.