This stuff helped me a lot with my pure-OCD.

It also makes me enjoy socializing more and has a mild anti-anxiety effect.

It noticeably makes me more ADD unfortunately.

Doses used - 12g/day.

I've been using Inositol powder for a little over a week now and it definitely has a calming effect. The major downside for me is that in high enough dosages it gives me horrendous diarrhea. I'm at the point where I'm trying to work my way up instead of going for the 18+ grams all at once which is what I did initially.

This worked for me! I used inositol powder by NOW foods with good success. Unfortunately my medications were changed due to severe OCD, and with the cocktail I'm on, adding inositol proved dangerous. I ended up in the hospital with mild serotonin syndrome. This was a few months ago, and I want to try it again now that I'm used to the medications I'm on (Luvox, Buspar, and Clomipramine). I don't want to have to deal with another lofty hospital bill though lol, so I'll probably use like 25% of the dose I used to take. We'll see what happens!

I had problems taking this w/ an SSRI too.^I'm taking an SSRI (Celexa) 10 mg and tried taking Inositol while on it. I felt my heart do some weird stuff a few times that day so I'd say be careful to anyone who plans on trying this while on meds.

Update:

I'm not on citalopram anymore so I tried Inositol again. I said before i went up to 8 gram of Inositol and didn't notice much. Recently I was taking this (200mg of Inositol, much less) with 2 capsules of Lithium OROTATE (the supplement form, not prescription) a day. I'm not sure of the safety of this but this was definitely much more effective. BTW Lithium by itself might actually decrease Inositol:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9588758

I would be careful if you want to try this combo because the LO appears to be significantly increasing the affect of the Inositol...so definitely do not start out taking megadoses.

Cons:

Have to redose every 3-4 hours and takes about an hour to kick in. After about 4 or 5 hours I start feeling sort of caffeinated so there is some rebound anxiety. Causes some laziness and apathy but not nearly as bad as SSRIs. can cause diahrrea at first and i had very light sleeping for a couple days (which from what i've heard is an indication of taking too much). so like i said the combo is very strong but i'm extremely sensitive to meds/herbs/supplements otherwise i probably would not recommend it.

Also, I didn't like I having to redose every few hours so I'm trying LO with Bacopa now.

I've just started using this supplement yesterday evening. I use it in combination with 300mg/day of 5htp for the treatment of Pure O. I use NOW Inositol Powder, two bottles of 1lb which I had to import from the US, and it's still cheaper than buying a powdered form here. Screw you, euros. I have noticed it makes me sleepy and causes slight stomach cramps. Apparently this is a temporary thing that can last up to two weeks and should then subside.

Here's a link to three pub med studies about inositol

https://sites.google.com/site/miscar...lin-resistance

It lowers insulin glucose diastolic blood pressure and serum triglycerides.

I brought a few containers, It does have some interesting effects its pretty much side effect free, I've even tried super dosing it, It did kind of make me a bit hypo-manic where I was running around singing and dancing at 4x 18gram dosage, But even the lower doses can do that, Its interesting to say the least just because it can lower diastolic blood pressure and potentially can be good for heart health.

It might be good to stack with a low dose SSRI to minimize side effects from the SSRI.

I did kind of notice cramps in my arms although, I don't know if that related to inositol.

In the study it said it lowers diastolic BP by 11% with only 4 grams that is much lower then the dosages used to treat OCD.

I take about 6 grams when needed for anxiety. I'd take it every day, but large doses give me gas. Also measuring out 6 grams, multiple times a day can be annoying. It works very well at reducing my anxiety and sound sensitivity. It also makes me feel somewhat more sociable.

I've been using Inositol for about 6 months. I completely love it.
I initially started taking it to help with sleep. After a while I noticed that it really helped my mood and my social anxiety. My doctor said repeatedly that inositol is completly harmless, non toxic. It's also made in the gut, blah blah and you'd have to take bucket loads to do anything.
I found that it really helped with my social phobia / anxiety. I wasn't expecting this and it was just great. I would go out and just be happy to be talking to people etc.
A telling moment was when my partner told me that his ex wife was having a party and that, even though he would be away, she said I would be welcome to go. Normally, I have to be dragged out of the house to anything and I particularly dislike the ex wife due to history. But suddenly I wanted to go and thought, yes, that'd be a lot of fun and felt that I'd really enjoy it etc etc.
Unfortunately, I didn't go because I decided to go to something with my own friends.... but ... it was just great to see how much improved I was....
I notice that I can pretty much tell how socialble i will feel by how much i take. I generally take it at night. If I fall alseep before taking it the next day I'll be back to my normal non social self. Days after I've taken a small amount I'll feel sociable in the morning but it wears off in the afteroon. Then if I'm taking larger amounts I have greater effects.......

all it did for me was give me baaaad brain fog, really bad.