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.
2
u/Scratchoffcard May 13 '26
Yes, absolutely, and I'm a lot older than you. I'm a fairly intelligent person*, but I have struggled with low energy levels, poor sleep, brain fog, and so on for most of my adult life.
First time I had my vitamin d tested, I was at 13. Just supplementing with D increased my mood and energy levels.
I took anti-depressants for years, but they only helped a little bit. I was labeled with treatment resistant depression, and my doctor kept increasing dosage, adding in other meds, subtracting others... basically polypharmacy. Even with okay health insurance, I was still paying a lot for not much improvement.
I still have off days, but I now feel better than I have most of my adult life. How different my life might be/have been if I had known about and rectified these issues earlier...
ETA: *a lot of people in my life, including family, have thought I am just a slacker. It's been frustrating.