does anybody have days when they just couldn't be bothered to do anything. I find this is worse if I havn't slept well. It's hard because I have to put on a front for my daughter.

Hi. Yes, I get days like that. Mentally, I have been really affected by the mercury. Aswell as the anxiety disorders, I get other mental symptoms, including depression. I try to avoid stresses and break down daunting tasks into smaller ones. But mentally I am not a "well" person, I just try to do my best and be as little pain to people as possible. I know I'm not "normal", anyway. Soemtimes I get really down about things, and I get lonely because I can't really cope in social situations, and I am so weird in what I believe and how I live (by modern standards) that I feel like I don't fit in anywhere.

I just fill my spare time day with things I love and try to focus on good things and possibilities of the future. I think staying positive makes a lot of difference in recovery from something. Giving up never achieves anything, except failure, so I am a very determined person, within my limits. I try to count my blessings, and look at the good things in life, and things I have been glad I am alive to have experienced <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Luckily a lot of things I love in life are suitable for loners, lol, like music, art and reading. I read a lot, and I'm sure that initself helps fight the mercury by giving the brain something to focus on. I used to love crafts, but I can no longer do much needlework because I get so much pains in my wrists and fingers. I thought it was RSI from typing, which may be a factor as I spend a lot of time on keyboards, but mercury may have something to do with it aswell.

Hi tracy, i also feel depressed alot of the time, even though i have no amalgam in my mouth. I get days where i feel i cannot cope with the days tasks and feel very negative about life in general. I used to have lots of hobbies, ie, DIY, like decorating, painting, fixing things in the home, i also did night school, like painting, and mosaics, etc.Sometimes i just cant believe i did these things, i have no interest at all now, i have changed alo tbut hope to go back to the way i was one day.

Can mercury really change us that much, into completely different people and will we ever get ourselves back

Im hope-ing i will be back to my old self again one day. It will take time i know.

Probably it doesn't change us that much "directly", but indirectly. For example, by triggering conditions like OCD (anxiety/neurological brain disorder) it causes rise in anxiety, which then impacts our perception of the world. The anxiety attacks are debiliating and frustrating, which then makes us suffer emotional trauma. We become prisoners, mentally and physically, of the anxiety. We get so tired from the panic attacks, or the rituals, and so absorbed in them, that we can no longer enjoy all the things we did. It impacts our ability to go out and make friends (or even to go out in some cases of aggoraphobia), which in turns leads to isolation, which in turn leads to loneliness, which in turn leads to depression. It can impact personal relationships either because the person is unable to make that attachment because of the anxiety or problem, or can impact people because of the infertility mercury can cause, hence triggering depression. Then there is the other indirect impacts i.e. the fatigue of mercury poisoning might make someone have to think twice about a favourite sport, or the muscle pains can do the same. Being light sensitive might impact a person enjoyment of sunny weather or cinema, etc.

So, while the actual effect of mercury on the brain may be pretty standard (with various degrees of severity depending on sensitivity) the consequences and manifestations vary enormously depending on a person's lifestyle, circumstances, and the other effects that mercury has. If someone is already married or in a relationship, for example, and the partner is supportive, then that might help avoid some of the deprssion that a single person might go through because they have an additional isolation of being alone and not able to commit to relationships or dates because of the anxiety. But on the other hand, if the marriage is not good, or the partner not supportive, it could make the person just as depressed. And if the person is not depressed about their relationship, then they might be depressed about something else.

These are just my own thoughts, why I think it's hard for some medical people to accept there is mercury poisoning. Maybe they expect a set pattern i.e. a + b - c always = xy when with mercury poisoning, there isn't such a patterns, not only because the things that mercury attacks are dependent on variables like genetic dispositons, but that the mental areas affected can manifest differently in different people.

Right on, Demi! Also, the way we feel varies from day to day. Some days are much better while others are just devastating. I find that, whenever possible, I try to keep a sense of humour. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have a mouth full of mercury fillings, root canals, crowns etc. and have been pregnant more than a dozen times. There might be some other cause.

Hi Jill. mercury doesn't cause infertility in everyone. It attacks different systems in different people to differing degrees. It might make some people infertile, but other people just depressed. In some people it might make them infertile and depressed.