When I stopped using Aspartame, I stopped being quite so nervous but I didn’t really get better until I was hospitalized for pneumonia. I suspect that the Aspartame and fluctuations in blood sugar left me open for rapid growth of lung bacteria (bacteria which is never completely eradicated in CF patients). However, the anxiety and intense suicidal depression left me, even though my lungs were screwed up, and I sought out other people to befriend. (I was still depressed but not like I was.) The leg cramps subsided. After hospitalization, my sugar levels stabilized. I was very weak and spent six to eight months working through the fact that I could never go back to graduate school because of my CF and working through my isolation. (I had to move back home, my parents worked, and I had no friends.) I finally joined a health club and for months the only time I saw other people was at the health club.
Finally, I met other people and joined more clubs. I do believe that the Aspartame permanently damaged my memory capability. When I was on it, I could not remember the scholarly articles I had just read and it was SO frustrating because I had to write papers. Short-term memory improved after getting off the Aspartame but I never seem to have the memory powers I once had and my attention span seems shorter. I just remember that before Aspartame it seemed like I could focus for hours at a time on one project. I’ve never really been able to focus like that again on one thing after Aspartame. I think there should be a study on Aspartame-use and ADD-like behavior. (ADD–attention deficit disorder)