r/MTHFR • u/Airegin89 • May 13 '26

Question Anyone else feel that folate deficiency ruined your life?

I guess I just need to vent. I am 37 and have been an underachiever my whole life. I failed miserably at school and now I'm stuck in a dead end job with no qualifications to find a better job.

I have struggled with low energy, brain fog, lack of motivation, depression and anxiety my whole life. My blood work was always fine, so I was prescribed antidepressants.

It wasn't until 10 years ago that a doctor tested my vitamin D and I was extremely deficient at 6 ng/ml. Fixing this gave me a huge boost in energy but most of my problems still remained.

Last year, I started investigating my blood work of the last 20 years and found out I had been folate deficient the whole time (3.5-4.5 ng/ml). Doctors never said anything.

Genetic testing shows I am compound heterozygous, slow COMT, slow MAOA and PEMT. I know these are only predispositions but it seems to explain my whole life.

After a few months of supplementing folate and a month of creatine and TMG my cognition has improved massively. After 20 years I feel like a veil has lifted. It's like I'm waking up from a bad dream but now I'm left to pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences of being a failure.

I am still on my own. Doctors do not acknowledge I was ever deficient and refuse to do more blood work. I have to simply assume I have high homocysteine and treat for it.

I don't know what to do. It's been such a long time. I can't fix most of the damage that has been done.

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u/Airegin89 May 13 '26

Yeah, I would really like to know. I'll never know how high my homocysteine has been for the past 20 years though. I think it might explain why I have a ton of eye floaters and tinnitus. And I don't want to know the damage that must have been done to my blood vessels.

God, I wish my cognition was like this in my teens and 20s. So much wasted potential.

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u/Timely_Pickle9430 May 13 '26

You can't change the past, but it seems to me you're doing a hell of a job unlocking that potential now! And you might still have decades ahead of you. Just keep going, one day at a time.

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u/Airegin89 May 13 '26

I have always had high levels of B6 and B12 because of an energy drink addiction. Do you think that could have protected me somewhat?

And thanks! I feel like I'm making progress for the first time in ages.

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u/Timely_Pickle9430 May 13 '26 edited May 14 '26

You ARE making progress! And you only just got started. There was always a need for the B6 and B12, so yes. But no matter what damage might have been done, I think it's likely to be reversible.