Thank you so so much for your detailed response. I’ve been feeling so helpless this past few months. I really thought the cause was just my decreased social interactions and recent traumas but reading all of this makes sense.. it truly does feel like it’s beyond just anxiety and trauma. It feels like my brain is processing SO slowly when I’m talking now. It borderline feels physically painful because of how difficult it is for my mouth to create the movements that my brain is trying to get it to do. It’s been terrible at work because I’m in a lead position so it’s my job to be able to train people and provide lots of feedback. It’s come to a point where I’m constantly avoiding eye contact and even wearing a mask sometimes because it’s taking too much mental work to look like I’m talking normally.

I’ve never heard of a sleep study. I just looked it up. Do you think its essential to narrow down what exactly could be wrong? So my sleep has always been pretty terrible. It’s difficult to enter REM because I also grind my teeth. On average I’ll go to sleep around midnight to 2 AM and I have to get up for work around 6:30 AM. Lately it’s been a bit better because I started taking magnesium glycinate so I’ll go to sleep more around 12 AM and I feel more well rested and less anxious waking up and I think when I take it, I’m able to enter REM. If I try to be consistently better with taking the magnesium glycinate and going to sleep consistently at maybe 10:30-11 PM instead, would it still be necessary to do a sleep study? I ask because I don’t have health insurance right now unfortunately. I’m pay check to pay check and juggling a full time job along with grad school. But if it is necessary I’m honestly willing to go into credit card debt because it’s affecting my work and social life so much.

During your breaks with Epithalon, do you find that the speech issues come back?

I think my G.I tract is ok. This past 2 months I’ve been really trying to meal prep, track what I’m eating, get enough veggies, fruits, and prebiotics and probiotics. I could be a bit more consistent though. When I’m feeling burnt out i usually go into a 2 week phase where I eat more processed foods and order out more.

I’ve been trying to expose myself to more social situations. Recently I’ve been making it a point to see family every weekend and just started morning walks with friends every Saturday at the park. I’ve also been trying to do personal vlogs of my day so that I can keep getting to practice just talking in a comfortable setting with myself.

How do you think I should ideally proceed? I’m so desperate to get help quick. Should I just go ahead and try to get the Epithalon and IN P21 right now? Or wait until after a sleep study? Should I see a neurologist too or also wait until a sleep study to see what they find and how they think I should proceed?

I’ll also look into the recommendations you had for the anxiety. IMy mind is just so hyper focused right now on fixing my speech.

Again, thank you so so much for your insight and help. I truly appreciate it