Hey guys & gals,Meso wrote: Minimizing the risks of others' trial-and-error as providing an idea on what option is more likely to help is the goal of my endeavor. A cure is never the goal - if I find a full cure for myself, it likely won't work universally since it doesn't target the very root cause of PSSD. Ergo, it's not a replicable cure by any means - even if many find some relief on it, many others may not.
If I ever stumble upon a universal/replicable cure - it would be a stroke of blind luck. It would be akin to picking a random grail (hypothesis) and it turns out to be THE holy grail. Chances of that happening are slim, to say the least.
It has come to my attention that there are rumors circulating on different forums accusing me of being a fraud/guru especially since I'm receiving payments/donations. I find this understandable, since it's the Internet and everyone can be any one they want. However, the term "guru" is both demonizing and condescending. Whoever came up with that term needs to have their morality compass fixed.
Before I continue, I have provided PSSD admins with proof of my claims with a photo of my degree/certificate (uncensored, even). I can also provide further evidence if need be. They can vouch for this.
As for why I'm receiving donations/payments:
In the earlier days, I have helped everyone free of charge. Helping others is my passion and I have refused any sort of payments back then despite many people offering it.
As the financial condition of my country deteriorated, I had to work double shifts (16 hours per day). This meant I had to quit PSSD research and possibly PSSD forum altogether. I shared this news with a few members I confide in, and they have suggested that I should keep working a single day shift (8 hours per day) while receiving a small donation enough to cover the basics of living (literally $400 USD).
Eventually, members here have made me an offer: quit my day time job altogether and work on research reviewing and they would pledge $400 USD per month. I have since accepted their offer. $400 is a slave-wage that only covers the very basics of living, but it's all I've asked for.
Note: I keep a monthly financial-report on the Discord server for all to see.
One of the main problem is people not understanding what I'm offering:
Trial-and-error is a process that involves trying various intervention and hoping that something would lead to relief. What I offer is a guided trial-and-error approach based on educated guesses. I can't ascertain which symptom is caused by which neurotransmitter or receptors deficit, but when I look at the rest of the symptoms, they can give me an idea of what to try first.
Take for example poor concentration or brain fog. They can be caused by dopaminergic, glutamatergic, noradrenergic, cholinergic, or other deficits or imbalances. If I see a person is suffering from brain fog + anticipatory anhedonia, I recommend trying a phasic dopaminergic first (a psychostimulant). If that doesn't work, then move on to a glutamatergic.
Instead, if it's brain fog + memory problems but without any anhedonia or dopaminergic deficit, then that person should try a cholinergic agent first.
For someone who doesn't know much about neurochemistry, they can try a cholinergic to relieve brain fog despite having anhedonia. This will worsen the anhedonia and probably won't be effective for brain fog.
I'm not a fortune-teller who can predict the neurochemical state of patients with any certainty. What I offer is an educated guided approach of trial-and-error to avoid using drugs which would most likely fail to improve + instead use drugs that would most likely help. No more, no less. At the end, it's STILL trial-and-error.
Four more things (often misunderstood):
My self experiments are tailored around my own neurochemistry through previous trial-and-error.
1) I have never claimed that people should try my regimens. In fact, I have strongly recommended people NOT to try my regimen, as everyone's neurochemistry is different and a reigmen should be tailored around each person's neurochemistry (based on symptoms and previous trial-and-error).
2) I have never claimed that I can cure PSSD. In fact, I'm still experimenting on my own self for a cure! When I say that I believe PSSD is fully reversible, all it means is that I'm optimistic and believe that a cure is possible given time and enough animal research. ("believe" is the word used here)
3) My blog "The Research Zone" is a personal space for me to:
A- Compile knowledge I've gained reviewing other scientists' research papers on Pubmed with citations (It's not my own research).
B- Provide my own hypotheses regarding what might have happened in those conditions. These are not scientifically-backed by any experiments, they are merely a "thinking out loud" hypotheses. Therefore, take them with a grain of salt.
C- Educate the masses on simple neuroanatomy and neurochemistry.
4) As I said several times before, the PSSD subtypes I describe should be taken with a large grain of salt. These are not meant to be scientific subtypes or a classification. Just more along the line of a general outline for people to report the cluster of symptoms they experience. Nothing more. Even on the thread of said subtypes I have this note:
"Note: This post is merely to help people report me their symptoms quicker. This is not a scientific post, and shouldn't be regarded as such. Take these subtypes with a grain of salt."
http://www.pssdforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... t=subtypes
Thanks for reading
I'm not a fortune-teller who can predict neurochemical states with any certainty. What I offer is an educated guided approach of trial-and-error. No more, no less. At the end, it's STILL trial-and-error.
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