HI, sorry to hear you are suffering this. Many of us here can relate to what you have and are going through (plus not being able to get into the working world). I have also been through the psychology stuff, anxiety courses, the lot. NONE of it made any difference to me or helped in anyway. Antidepressants included. I was at a loss at what to do.

The only thing that helped me was being put on a candida diet, which enabled more health to return to my mercury poisoned system and depression improved/lifted, plus anxiety. I was still mercury toxic however. Later, I had amalgams removed, but had no idea about the proper procedures and stupidly rushed in. Did not know about proper testing for materials either. I seemed to get away with it though, but later my body erupted into trying to detox the stored mercury and it was pretty hellish. I was not warned about this and didn't know what was going on. Following a proper effectiveness mercury chelating protocol finally began to get me on the right track. I also found that certain antioxidants were very helpful to me also and I think precipitated a certain amount of metal elimination too in the process, though only the mercury that my body was already attempting to eliminate. Vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium and zinc seemed to be the ones that did that. Though if you are going to take them, start slow, start small to check for any reactions. When you are VERY toxic, it does not take much to set your symptoms off worse. A bit of detox from antioxidants can do that. But I don't believe they cure mercury poisoning because they are not in themselves chelating agents. And I found that DMSA taken the right way did that for me! I did get well eventually. My sufferings now are more related to viral infection (in 2003), which I did not recover from and possibly I still have some mercury left over too.

As for safe dental materials? I have heard cerec porcelain is a good choice because it is hard and doesn't tend to leach out its components, plus is apparently biocompatible. However it is highly expensive.

As for composites? that is very much an individual thing. You maybe wise to get yourself tested in anyway you can. The more testing to narrow down which materials come out ok on most tests, the better. Some people don't bother with this and do ok. But those that are concerned about possible reactions or going from the fire into the frying pan, particularly if they are very toxic and sensitive, may want to get a blood serum test done. Here is one place that does it in the US: Click on this link --> http://www.ccrlab.com/
There are others, but I cannot recall them. I hope someone else will.

The costs vary re amalgam removal and replacement. The best way is to email some biologic dentists and ask for a vague estimate at least before commit yourself further. Also wise to ask what procedures they follow during amalgam removal, to ensure you are going to be fully protected. You do NOT want a slack dentist or one that is not following things properly. Exposure to mercury via remova can result in a devastating outcome. Ask Jinx on here! It is probably much wiser to do things little at a time, to lessen your exposure as much as possible with full protection. E.g. perhaps 2 teeth at a time might be ok. Depends again on the expertise and protection that dentist willl provide.

I would not take any chelating agents (e.g. DMSA etc) when you still have amalgams, in case you make things worse. Some people "can" do it and find it helps, others get worse. It maybe wise to hold off until you have ALL amalgams COMPLETELY removed.

Also, taking chelating agents (e.g. DMSA) in the wrong way can result in a wild movement of mercury resulting in redistribution. This is like a backfire effect when the mercury is moved around and may settle in more sensitive areas (e.g. the brain) and make you much worse. It does again depend on the individual, but I would highly recommend you look into the work of Andrew Hall Cutler, who has studied and worked with mercury toxic people for many years. he has cured himself and is helping and even curing many others with his tried and tested/logical and safer protocol.

You can check this link out which may help you in your journey. http://home.earthlink.net/~moriam/ANDY_INDEX.html

I highly recommend to you to get his book "Amalgam Illness, Diagnosis and Treatment" by Andrew Hall Cutler. It is available on this forum (top left of screen in yellow). I have it and I cannot tell you how valuable this book was to me! The safest protocol I have ever used and one that finally did not cause me insane symptoms. You can also check his book out here on this link http://www.lymebook.com/mercury

I hope this link might help you in your search for other biologic dentists - http://www.holisticdentalnetwork.com/directory_splash.php

You can also 'ask the doctor" on that site too (options at the top of that screen) who might be able to help you in this search also.

With mercury is often the condition of candida. It is often overlooked and can cause a great deal of similar symptoms to mercury or maybe mistaken to be ALL mercury related. In treating candida, you may find improvements and sometimes dramatic. I highly recommend you go on a candida diet as many here have done or are doing. For me, without this diet, I would probably not be here now! It is often essential to help handle the mercury in your system.

Candida diet - no sugar in any form, no gluten, limited non gluten grain (or eliminate completely), limited or no fruit, no high carbs like corn, potatoes etc. no millk or cheese, no honey, no yeast.

Concentrate on eating mainly healthy foods that will not feed the candida yeast in your body. Candida apparently makes mercury more toxic, plus allows the mercury to do more damage because candida messes up the liver and the gut. The liver and gut are required to help you detox and handle other toxins. If candida is high you can be REALLY sick and wind up going in circles.

You can eat freely - meats, eggs (unless you find sulfur foods stir your symptoms up too much, mercury is typical for that), vegetables, acidophilus plain sugar free yoghurt, almonds/brazil nuts, seeds (pumpkin and sunflower), herbal tea (oust the coffee if you can, it doesn't help).

You may get away with having "some" fruit and "some" milk and some grain (as long as it is non gluten grain). But I had to go on the more stricter diet this time around. There are variations of the candida diet which can be confusing, but you get a pretty good idea what is definitely not allowed and what foods are negligible.

You can go through an intitial detox, which can make you feel pretty revolting for awhile and crave the very foods that the yeast requires to survive. So it can be a real battle and test of will power for a time until the cravings settle. You "should" experience improvement in a few weeks or maybe even earlier, depending on how serious the condition is. It took me a few weeks and the improvement was at that time quite incredible. It also helps your body absorb nutrients more, restores functioning in some areas, aids everything you can imagine. Skin, hormones, hair, eyes, and everything internal as well.

You can look up candida symptoms online and see if you recognise any of them. Because it may well be adding to your mercury toxic condition and causing more havoc than you realise.

By the way, pumpkin seeds apparently are good for the prostate etc and contain zinc....