I've had bad headaches and an overall fuzzy feeling in my mind for quite a while, *especially* in the past six months or so when I moved from Wisconsin to Nevada. Lots of major changes going on in my life, so I figured a lot of it was stress as well as the major change in climate. Also changed my glasses prescription and started taking allergy strips in hope of relief.
It's been hard. No energy, no appetite, no motivation to do much of anything, so many days I just wanted to shrivel up and cry. I totally lost my independence. I wondered if it was just all in my head or a sign that my depression was back.
I got particularly bad during my last vacation from work a few weeks ago. The headaches were so intense I couldn't make myself get out of bed some days. Any amount of noise or light about killed me. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't do anything to stimulate any of my senses, about all I could do was sip on a drink and lay in bed in hopes that it would somehow go away.
The easiest thing in reach was either my diet tea or diet soda which seemed to go down more easily than water. Heh, and my boyfriend finally made the connection for me; I have water at work, diet drinks at home, and on days I stayed home I'd typically get much worse.
And sure enough, I gave it some thought. I had been feeling particularly well a few days before, but when he came home from work that night a killer headache came on, quickly and hard. I teased him, saying that he was the one that brought it on, but looking back, I realized that he had brought me a liter bottle of green tea sweetened with aspartame which I downed rather quickly.
So I laid off the aspartame to see what would happen. Felt like I was going through withdrawal or something for a few days. An when my head was starting to clear up, I was still taking my allergy strips when the headaches would surface and realized that they were making them worse, not better. Looked at the label and saw sucralose on the list of inactive ingredients so I've cut that out too.
It's only been a few weeks, but I feel like a cloud has been lifted. I'm feeling better now than I have in the past five years or so, physically, mentally, and especially emotionally! I'm even breathing better (I am asthmatic). I've been watching the ingredients of everything I eat and have opted to let myself have real sugar (but only in moderation). Next time I can hit a health store I'm going to look into trying stevia (a natural alternative to sugar).
Anyway, I'm sure that it can't affect everyone this way but felt I should share my experiences with it (I've also read about others going through similar experiences). I honestly feel that it has somehow built up my system as I seem to be getting better every day without it. I just wonder. . . I've had artificial sweeteners on and off probably since I was 12, which is about the time I started having health problems (asthma, weight gain, allergies, etc.), I wonder how much of a connection there may be?
I've been very careful to listen to my body to see how it reacts to whatever I put in my mouth these past few weeks. Do I feel any pain in my head, joints? Am I tired, depressed? Does light or noise bother me? I'm still in the early stages of figuring this out, but if I'm right? I'm on the road to feeling like a normal person once again.
I'm certain different things effect everyone differently, it's just a matter of figuring out what it is if you're having some kind of problem.
