Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo - PaleoHacks.com

Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T04:40:25Z

Hello-

I started eating the autoimmune version of paleo about 2 years ago to combat severe rheumatoid arthritis. I had amazing success and improved my health a ton. I did still have lingering fatigue.

About 2 months ago I had a panic attack followed by ongoing anxiety and severe depression. I have never experienced anything like this before - it is really horrendous depression.

I am also experiencing a dramatic drop in appetite, menstrual irregularities, feeling cold all the time, and irritability.

I have had some improvement by removing acetyl-l-carnitine (I think this is what precipitated the anxiety attack) and by adding in 5-htp, tyrosine, DLPA and other things suggested in the Mood Cure. However, I am not back to normal by any means.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? I have never been particularly low carb, but added in some daily rice since this started just in case. I take fish oil and vitamin D3. I eat so much healthy, nutrient dense foods that I just don't see how this could have happened.

Thanks to anyone who can provide some suggestions.

Answer by Dan for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T05:14:49Z

Yeah, it's not all diet. In normal cases, things like depression and anxiety are caused by life circumstances rather than diet. I mean, diet has an effect, certainly, on your mood, but it by no means provides the content of your emotional life. It sounds like you have some deep work to do, therapeutically, whatever that means to you.

Also, what's your diet like? I'm battling severe rheumatoid arthritis as well and have been on the paleo diet for 6 months. I'd like to compare our diets. Do you eat red meat? nuts and seeds? fruit? How low carb are you?

Answer by emily for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T05:40:25Z

What about your thyroid? Hashimoto's hypothyroid can cause those symptoms...along with unexplained weight-gain, I had every one of the symptoms you described. Have you checked this?

Answer by VB for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T05:40:33Z

I don't have an answer to your question.
I am not a doctor (disclaimer)
I have a feeling that it could be not diet related but L-carnitine related. My herbal doctor advised me against it - he told me that it had severe side effects in some people. Here is something I found:

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-834-ACETYL-L-CARNITINE.aspx?activeIngredientId=834&activeIngredientName=ACETYL-L-CARNITINE

If it was triggered by hypothyroidism, you might want to follow Ray Peat's dietary guidelines.

Answer by Jamie for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T06:02:52Z

To really comment on this, id need two things:

A) Some emotional background. Do you have freinds, a happy life. Have you been through anything scary etc. Stuff that might relate to depression or anxiety.

b) What do you eat. You might be missing something, but hard to know what, without a pretty detailled account of your food. Have you tried putting your diet through cronometer to see what you are missing or low on?

Answer by George Brodie for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T06:06:21Z

Do you drink tap water, wash veggies in tap water or shower in tap water?

Answer by Eugenia for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T07:00:26Z

I'd speculate that it's the thyroid. Tell them to test for TSH, T4, T3, and Reverse T3 (they usually only test for 1 or 2 of these -- the Reverse T3 would be very telling here). My suspicion is that because you were so long in the AI version of Paleo, very low carb, you might have run out of energy and your body has freaked out. I'd suggest you add some carbs back to your diet, by the means of fruits, tubers, some raw & unfiltered local honey, and if you can handle it, goat kefir. I had something similar happening to me a few months ago. I had to eat 200 gr of carbs daily for a week to get better. After that, I stabilized at around 100-130 gr of net carbs daily. Also, don't forget shellfish, organ meat, bone broth, and sea vegetables.

Answer by cbucker for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T13:22:58Z

I doubt it has anything at all to do with your diet. 2 years of steady lifestyle without much change and then boom panic and anxiety? I'd see a regular doc and a psych. Get some blood tests done that may shed light on any hormonal/other abnormalities, please don't try to do this alone, the general distrust and contempt for western medicine that can float around this site is alarming. there are great doctors out there and great psychologists or psychiatrists that can save you a ton of unnecessary suffering.

Best of luck.

Answer by Dan G for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T14:04:52Z

Sometimes a freak reaction/event happens due to a multitude of possible factors - a virus, too little sleep, a stray thought etc and everything that happens after is merely because of it.

Whether diet is affecting this or not, there are starving people who are far more ill than you who are relatively happy. There are kids with cancer who still laugh when the clown comes in to the hospital ward. If anyone was going to be depressed, it'd be them.

After a traumatic event a health conscious person scare themselves into a state of lasting worry. "Oh my god, perhaps it was that carrot I ate...or this.... or that... but I don't want to get my arthritis back....I thought everything was perfect and I had it all figured out but now the future is so uncertain!"

Rather than forget about it -the health conscious, solve everything through diet person- will search for the reason "why do I feel anxious" and cause further anxiety- you get into a viscous cycle.

The trick here is to instead focus on solutions rather than the problem. Ask yourself the following questions:

What things make me feel good and how can I do them more?

I recommend you watch some "Antony Robbins" on depression. Just search and you'll find a couple videos.

Answer by Jo tB for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T16:20:31Z

You say you take vitamin D. How much do you take? I woukld recommend reading "Sunlight Robbery" to see what you have to do to up levels of vitamin D in your body. There is also a very good thread on the subject on a low carb forum called The Great Vitamin D experiment. It was there that I found my ideal dose to take to recover from severe low vitamin D levels. You have to increase your levels until you "feel happy" - for me that was in the beginning 8000 iU per day. These days I take 5000 iU in winter and 2000 in summer if it rains a lot. I have been taking it for 6 years now and have not had a cold once. Believe me if you feel happy you have tons more energy and no depression.

Answer by Aisling for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T17:36:37Z

If you are a woman my guess would be too much estrogen. It causes all of your symptoms and it may have nothing at all to do with being Paleo and more to do with age. Estrogen and progesterone get out of balance in your late 30's to early 40's. Run your symptoms through this test and see what you come up with: http://www.johnleemd.com/store/resource_hormonetest.html

Answer by sage_ for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T20:04:39Z

if you were seeing a therapist prior to the attack, i would ask him/her to review what you were working on just prior to the attack. perhaps you hit on something that you don't even realize is important.

Answer by jammies for Severe depression and anxiety after 2 years eating paleo

2012-09-29T22:22:29Z

I have been following the Mood Cure suggestions with some success, as I mentioned. But still have a long way to go.

I am really considering spending the $4000 to go to her clinic. It will take me forever to pay that amount off, so I am hesitant. Anyone here ever try her clinic?