Reddit reviews OmegaVia EPA 500 Omega-3 Fish Oil, 120 Capsules, 500 mg EPA/Pill, High-Purity EPA Formula (Triglyceride Form), IFOS 5-Star Certified, w/Fish Gelatin Capsule, Gluten-Free, Non-GMO

I know exactly how you feel! I'm sorry you have to go through this--it's just the worst existential morass imaginable. And it blows that you have to keep having surgeries. If it will help, here's my story in a nutshell.

The little car I had rented got smashed when an 18-wheeler barreled into the driver's side door. I ended up in a coma, with my pelvis snapped in three places, a lacerated spleen, a subdural hematoma, and a bunch of cuts and bruises, some requiring stitches and other just ugly. Because of the coma and the head injury that caused the coma, I don't remember the whole first ten days after the accident, but I'm glad I don't: I think it was painful and horrible. And that right there is the only upside of a head injury: you forget some shitty stuff. The rest of it is pure crap.

It doesn't sound like you had a head injury, but I think our experiences after that were kind of the same. Your life screeches to a halt for a little bit, and then veers off sideways, and everyone else's lives just continue on the trajectories they were on before your accident. A few people show up every once in a while, at the beginning, but after a short time it becomes clear that you are on different life paths now, and they don't come around anymore.

Meanwhile, you are exhausted, because healing your body is hard and tiring work. Even if it looks (and feels) like you're just sitting around all day, your body consumes a lot of energy knitting things back together, and you don't understand why you're so tired at the end of the day (or in the middle, or at the beginning). You don't really have the interest or energy to pursue the things you used to pursue; you feel like the whiniest person in the world because all you really have left to talk about is your awful health; nothing distracts you long enough from how horrible things have become. Your old "friends" have moved on with their lives, and you can't find or make new friends because you've become boring, don't talk about anything but your health, and you're too tired to really go out on the town, anyway, even if you did have something interesting to talk about.

You end up feeling completely alone. In my case, I struggled because after the first six months of recovery and cognitive remediation, I was well enough and functional enough to fool everyone, including myself, into thinking that the TBI (traumatic brain injury) didn't have any long-term effects. I went back to law school. I could understand what the professors said, but I had to sit in the very front of the classroom to hear them. I could not understand the other students, who did stuff and went places and told stories about how wasted they'd gotten last weekend or how hard they'd worked to help their legal clinic clients. They kind of looked like aliens to me, like we were actually different species. My "friends" from the first year and a half of law school dropped me (to be fair, I don't really blame them, but it was still incredibly disappointing). I felt like my only focus for the rest of my life would be my recovery, which made me so sad and disappointed in myself--I had wanted to do something meaningful in the world, help someone, but all I could think about was how to help myself--I thought I was too crazy with PTSD and anxiety from the accident to be useful. I eventually graduated, barely, and started a job at a big law firm. It wasn't until they fired me because I could not keep up with the hours (I was too tired), despite everyone recognizing me as "the first year who can write," that I admitted to myself that the actual injury might still be a problem, not just my psychological response to the accident.

Which brings me to the next part of the story: endless, endless, endless therapy. I know it's not the same as endless surgery (how horrible!), but I imagine some of the feelings are the same. At one point, I suddenly stopped going to everything--cognitive remediation, occupational therapy, psychological therapy--because I just could not stand to be a patient any longer. I thought if I had to explain one more thing about myself to one more person, if I had to think about myself as sick or injured for one minute longer--even if it remained true--I might just explode. The weeks and months and years of trudging to one appointment after another had just worn me down so much, I couldn't even bring myself to communicate with my therapists about quitting. I literally just dropped off the face of the earth. I know that isn't an option for you (surgery is less optional than another hour-long session of memory and emotional regulation exercises), but I imagine you must feel kind of the same way.

So here's the part that might MYFB:

It has an end. You will not actually need surgery every year for the rest of your life. I don't even know exactly what's wrong with you or any details of your accident/injuries, but I can say that with confidence. You will not be a patient forever, you will begin to feel better, and you will have other things to think and talk about.

Time heals most wounds. And those it doesn't heal at least become mundane and unobtrusive. I still have problems from my head injury--faces kind of all look the same, I have no memory for names, time passes oddly for me in ways that are hard to explain, I still get the occasional devastating, blinding headache, I don't think my energy will ever come back up to what it was pre-accident--but none of them are important anymore. Some of them are funny, some require a bit of explanation, but no excuses (e.g., I tell everyone I meet that I don't remember faces and if I stare blankly at them the next time I see them, please don't be offended, just tell me who you are--but I'm over feeling bad about it!). Most of them, I just cope with. Time passes weirdly and I can't keep track of things? No problem, I have three calendars. My energy levels aren't what they once were, but they're good enough, plus coffee is a thing.

You will find new friends. This part is hardest and might take longest. But there's a new you, a new post-accident you, and you have to accept and love that new you. That will make it easier to find other people who can also accept and love that new you. For me, I couldn't really cope with people comparing new me to old me, and I kind of gave up on those few friends who didn't give up on me first. But that's OK! You will find people who don't make that comparison (either because they didn't know you then or because it doesn't matter). You will find that you are able to relate to them on a deeper level, and you will find that you have better friends. Not just St. Patty's Day drinking buddies, but real, honest-to-goodness friends. It will take a long time (I won't kid you about it), but it will happen. This is the hardest part--keep on keeping on, and it will get better.

Antidepressants kind of suck and you might feel better if you supplemented or replaced them. After my antidepressants picked me up off the very bottom but made me basically manic depressive, I switched to huge amounts of EPA-omega-3-only fish oil (the EPA has the good stuff for mood regulation, DHA is just a filler from a mental health perspective). This is what I take now. It's not cheap, but it helps. Also make sure you have enough B12 and D. Supplement! B12 has to be sublingual, because it's destroyed in the gut, but you cannot really take too much. D is one of the rare vitamins you can actually overdose on, so be more careful there, but definitely supplement that, too. Everywhere else in the developed world, those are recognized as important components of mental health--just not in the U.S.

Go volunteer somewhere with little kids. There's almost guaranteed physical contact, and it will help you feel more human. In big cities, most large hospitals need volunteers to come hold babies who are stuck in the hospital and whose parents cannot be there 24/7. They need human touch to heal and grow and thrive, and so do you. It doesn't have to be another adult to make a difference for you. I didn't feel so starved for physical contact, but to be brought out of myself and to feel useful, so I volunteered at a soup kitchen and shelter every weekend for a long time. I thought I was helping them, but it was really the other way around.

Get a dog, if you aren't a dog hater. It will sort of help with the physical contact thing. If you are not strong or up for long walks right now, go to the pound and get a little old dog who is a bit calmer and who might not otherwise find a home (because no one wants to adopt an old dog). Or go through a rescue group that keeps the dogs in foster homes, because the fosters can tell you in great detail about the dog's behavior and personality, so you can make sure you're a good fit before taking him/her home. The dog will get you out a little bit more, and put you in situations where you end up talking to people, which will make you feel more connected to the world. You may even met a friend (I met my husband). Just make sure you have a place for him when you have to go in for more surgeries (a couple nights boarding in a kennel or another home is OK for most dogs, if it comes down to that).

Sorry if this was too long! To sum up, you will feel better! Just hang on, and wait it out. This is the shitty part, and things will start looking up soon. I'm rooting for you! Stay in touch, feel better!

This is the one I just bought.

Holy crap it’s expensive. I forgot how much it was. I’m like a mad scientist right now taking so many things.
But today for the first time in years I haven’t taken a single Xanax. My rx is 1 mg, 3 times a day as needed, so it’s a big deal!

I never heard of EPA only fish oil, but I guess we learn everyday. It looks like the article just wants to make their own product to stand out among the many fish oil products. After quickly checking on Amazon, looking for EPA only fish oil, even this one has DHA in it, although the ratio is 4:1 instead of the usual 2:1

http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Naturals-Xtra-1000-Softgels/dp/B002CQU4Z6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425256232&sr=8-1&keywords=epa+fish+oil

This one has only EPA in it, the same 500 mg like the one in your link.
If you click on the small pictures of this product, that explains the supposed benefits of EPA only:

http://www.amazon.com/OmegaVia-Pharmaceutical-EPA-Only-Formula-Mini-Gels/dp/B00D37S0HC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1425256232&sr=8-2&keywords=epa+fish+oil

1. Works better for mood disorders, depression.
   
2. Doesn't rise the "bad" LDL cholesterol.
   
   If you don't worry about your cholesterol AND you don't take it for depression, I would just stick to the normal fish oils. Here is a site that helps you to choose:
   
   https://labdoor.com/rankings/fish-oil

I tried Picamilon for a little bit to help with anxiety and it did absolutely nothing for me. I usually spend my nights with my heart jumping out of my chest being unable to fall asleep. If you're looking for something to help with sleep, I'd recommend some high quality fish oil. I've found that if I take 1g, my heart palpitations will completely disappear for around 4 - 5 hours. This is the stuff I use: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D37S0HC/

It's interesting in that I really notice an effect with this stuff, whereas other fish oils I've tried have had no effect (Nature's Bounty and Sundown Naturals).

Selegiline is probably the most "nootropic" of the antidepressants currently being prescribed in the U.S. Transdermal is expensive because the generic is not available yet, but is more potent than oral and doesn't necessitate dietary restrictions even at the highest dose. You'd have to do a full washout/withdrawal from the SNRI, though.

I'm unconvinced by your fish oil choices. If you're drinking a bottle of that Souvenaid stuff per day, you're getting 2280 DHA / 1020 EPA in total, not 1080/720. An unopposed -1 g of EPA appears to slightly worsen depression, while the most consistent positive results are clustered around 1 g unopposed EPA.

Not to shill, but this is the one I use - labdoor, amazon at 2 capsules/d, so 1 g unopposed EPA, but you'd need to take 3 or 4 if you wanted to keep the Souvenaid - which is no more expensive than the 3x Blackmores, anyway. I do eat a fair bit of fish which generally have more DHA than EPA so I'm not sure what my true unopposed EPA is.