Living With Lifelong Anxiety and Finding an Unexpected Solution in a Peptide (Say What!!)

I believe I have lived with anxiety for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a dangerous household meant I learned early how to hide my fear, often numbing it with alcohol and drugs. When I got sober over seventeen years ago, my anxiety didn’t magically disappear. In fact, without substances masking it, the anxiety became physically overwhelming. Anyone who struggles with anxiety knows that rush: the pounding heart, the sinking sensation sliding down your body, the sudden sense of losing control.

During COVID, my mental health worsened, something many people experienced during and after lockdown. I was prescribed medication, and while it helped temporarily, every conversation with a doctor seemed to end with the same solution: more medication. As someone who didn’t even take vitamins before the pandemic, I wanted to reduce my medications, not add to them.

That’s when a different option was offered: Selank peptide. Selank is a synthetic analog of the naturally occurring human peptide tuftsin (Ashmarin et al., 1998). Research suggests that Selank may reduce anxiety and support cognitive function, in part through modulation of neurotransmitter systems. For example, Zhuravleva et al. (2015) found that Selank modulates GABAergic activity, which may contribute to its mild tranquillizing effects. Simply put (because I am not that scientifically sexy), GABAergic activity refers to the way the brain uses the calming neurotransmitter GABA to help reduce stress and maintain nervous system balance (Nutt & Malizia, 2001).

For me, it felt like a miracle. The first time I administered it, my symptoms faded within minutes, and for the rest of the day, I practically forgot I had anxiety at all. Since then, Selank has become part of my daily routine. At first, I only used it as needed. But the more I learned about peptides, the more I understood that consistency matters; their effects build gradually as they help balance neurotransmitters over time.

More importantly, Selank doesn’t sedate me or make me feel “drugged,” like medications such as Ativan or Quetiapine. Those can offer immediate calming effects but also carry risks such as dependence, memory impairment, withdrawal, and yes, even the next-day medication hangover. These risks are especially concerning for someone in recovery from substance use disorder (Lader, 2011). And as many people know, medications can also bring side effects and long adjustment periods.

Selank works differently. It helps me regulate anxiety without causing sedation, emotional blunting, or addictive potential. For me, it provides a clearer, calmer sense of relief through gentle neuromodulation; basically, helping the brain adjust its own signals, rather than chemically overriding it.

Peptides are not medications in the conventional sense; they act as signals within the body rather than forcing chemical change. Selank has offered me something I had never experienced before: relief from lifelong anxiety without compromising my recovery, my clarity, or my sense of self.

If you’d like to learn more or talk about how this has helped me press the button below or leave a comment on the discussion board.

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References

Ashmarin, I. P., Kamensky, A. A., Yutanova, N. V., & Lyapina, L. A. (1998). Tuftsin and its synthetic derivatives: Pharmacology and therapeutic potential. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 437, 109–118.

Lader, M. (2011). Benzodiazepines revisited—Will we ever learn? Addiction, 106(12), 2086–2109. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03563.x

Nutt, D. J., & Malizia, A. L. (2001). New insights into the role of the GABA(A)-benzodiazepine receptor in psychiatric disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 179(5), 390–396. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.179.5.390

Zhuravleva, O. A., Zakirova, N. F., Rizvanov, A. A., & Salafutdinov, I. I. (2015). Selank enhances the anti-anxiety effect by modulating the GABAergic system. Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 158(6), 766–768.