I have only been paleo for a few months, but I can definitely tell you that it has helped me immensely. I do fear sometimes that I am a little manic, as I get very contemplative about life in general when I am (and I have been more so now that I am paleo), but my husband has said that I have seemed very stable since going paleo. I have to admit, when I started this, I was on four(!) meds. With the help of my dr, I am now in the process of weaning down to one (lamictal). I am hopeful that with a little more time, I can get off them completely, but I am not pushing my luck.

The reason I am confident that paleo has helped me, and not just the meds is that I have been on the same combo of meds before and never felt this great since being diagnosed. I am more patient with my kids, and well....people in general. I am more conscious of my snap judgements that I used to make and have been more compassionate with people than I was in the past. I do VLC paleo for the most part, and I have seem a little research that being using ketones for fueling the brain is better than glucose for the bipolar brain. I haven't had any warning signs thus far (except for the usual irritability due to pms). I feel great. Hope that helps:)

I am BP and Hypothyroid. So I will share my experiences. Paleo had little or no effect on my bipolar. Of course, YMMV. Supplements like choline don't come close to helping in any way my depression or my mania. My thyroid is regulated by a thyroid supplement and it has no effect on my bipolar as long as I get regular blood tests to make sure my levels are correct. I must take prescription medications for my bipolar disorder. I have tried every natural treatment in the world. I mean, everything! Nothing has helped. I spent many years of misery until I finally went back to prescription medications for bipolar. I still follow a Paleo plan. But for me personally, it has no effect whatsoever on bipolar.

I was diagnosed with Bipolar unspecified when I was younger but I was also high carb vegetarian back then except for occasional sushi cheats. Anyway, the major hypomania stopped occurring when I reintroduced meat regularly in to my diet (I didn't make the connection at the time, though) but I still struggled with depression and anxiety in a big way. I have found since going relatively low carb, my mood has stabilized, though if I don't pay big attention to getting AT LEAST regular walks, a good night's sleep, and sunshine in, it falters. The tradeoff is, that I sometimes feel sort of flat on low carb, but for my family's sake, I think it's better for me to be a bit phlegmatic than a cyclically wet gloomy blanket. I don't necessarily think low carb vulcan is ideal, by the way, but in the case of mental instability it can be a major blessing. The BIG things you really should cut out are caffiene and sugar... maybe dairy too.

Anyway When I was still tackling a lot of this stuff I found this article really helpful. I am not advocating that you go off your meds but you may find that it's possible to titrate down a bit after a year of clean eating. Good luck!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2011/07/18/how-i-overcame-bipolar-ii/

Interesting stuff guys. I have been diagnosed as bi-polar in the past. I am pretty convinced now that my fast swings from depression to mania were diet/ nutrient related and not actually bi-polar. Since eating a very high fat paleo diet for the last 3+ years, I have not really had a touch of "bi-polar" at all. I am convinced all the dietry changes have made a huge difference, but particularly getting off gluten, alcohol and soy (I was a crazy, fat, soy/grain based vegetarian before paleo.) I know this is a bit off topic and not the case for everyone, but i just wanted to share how i "cured" my bi-polar. :-) Now i feel good all the time, and it's not because I'm manic!

the only thing that has really helped to control my moods and actually give me an idea of what it is like to be a stable person emotionally and mentally is doing a keto diet and focusing on quality, local, grass fed, and mostly raw meats and animal foods.

I suffered from manias, extreme anxiety and depression and eating disorders for 25 years. I am 30 now but my life has seriously been a vicious cycle of mania, weight loss, binging, alcoholism, weight gain, super depression, mania, car accidents, suicide attempts moving, being crazy, thinking I could fly, crashing, being a pot head, binge eating suicide attempts, and drinking, absolute misery......

all the while I was trying to eat healthfully, haha imagine that, because i knew that there was no way my misery was a product of the reality of my life(even though parts of my life have been shit, i can deal with a lot!) so i kept on with organic foods, then at 25 I stopped eating wheats, sugar, soy, beans, nuts, eggs and dairy... pretty much anything I was allergic to, my adrenals were crashed but doing this bolstered them up for 4 more years or insanity, ha! i stuck to pretty much whole foods though, still smoked pot, stopped drinking coffee, started taking some supplements, and AT LEAST felt i had a chance at being happy someday. i also lost my menstrual cycle at this age. slowly i have been weening myself out of these bad habits, with slip ups here an there, but the binge eating was still killer, even on paleo, i would be totally addicted to the ups and downs of my blood sugar, and felt like i was a skinny diabetic with exercise bullemia, when some major stress hit at this stage i was totally stopped in my tracks, full blown adrenal failure, gained 50 pounds and became a fat diabetic! realized i needed to cut the fucking carbs out once and for all, that i could no longer deal with blood sugar swings as much as i could no longer deal with these bouts of mania and depression.

taking carbs out of the equation, having a steady blood sugar and eating extremely nutrient dense foods has really helped. I also supplement with sam-e, coq10, multi, fish oils, b vitamins, iodine, mag and selenium. i got my menstrual cycle back two weeks into keto after its absence for 5 years. i am not totally healthy or where i want to be yet. but its only been 4 months, i feel like some deep seated problems are working their way out, lots of inflammation is gone for good, i don't really get excited over things, i am happy, i am calm, i can deal with life.

i will admit about once a month i get these little feelings, usually before bed, that "if i had a gun i would totally do it" little suicidal thoughts, and i have sat with those for a few days before i figured out my brain was just SUPER low on serotonin. so i have a carb up day if/when that shit hits, and eat a lot of popcorn. the next day i usually do a marathon of bike riding, but i don't go back to eating carbs, i get back on the keto horse and ride the good energy. its enough to bolster my brain for quite a while..

sorry this is a total mess of a wall of text, but there you go.

Jessica, you snuck on in and told my story, or at least bits of it! I'm a 46 year old 14 years sober alcoholic in AA. I also have Bipolar and serious PTSD which also has a little laundry list of anxiety related illnesses under it. While still sober, five years ago I tried to take my life 100% seriously and nearly did die. I've been a food addict all my life, I believe due to genetics, but also as a response to my horrific environment as a child. I was a yo-yo dieter my whole life. But 10 years ago, when I was put on mood stabilisers, all bets were off. I went from 60kg to 126kg, have lost a little but it is simply impossible (so far) for me to lose weight when the meds drive me to eat fat, sugar and salt 24/7 - even unconscious night-eating.

I have severe IBS which curtails all life activities outside the home - and I am on the Disability Pension, live alone, so it's a very bad deal of years of profound isolation since I lost my ability to work due to my MI 6 years ago. Vicious cycle. But I do get out to medical appointments, AA and now Adullt Children of Alcoholics - what fun!! The only thing I've been able to do to even get out and about for years without poo-ing myself in public is to take Immodium or the like which is terrible for the bowel - it stops it's natural functioning and the meds cost money I don't have.

I am going to ask my therapist about trying the Paleo diet. I've nearly died through suicide so I always put things past psychologist and psychiatrist before diving into things. Wish me luck.

It would probably be difficult to properly self-test whether your mood is a result of the diet or your disorder without having a mood diary from before you started the diet to compare it to.

If you have a doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist or therapist who has known you since before you started the diet, you could talk to one of them. They could give you an honest, unbiased answer to your question, as long as there aren't any other factors that could have affected your mood since then such as new therapies, medications or big changes in your life.

If not, you could always ask your friends and family about your how your mood might have improved. Keep in mind though, that some people have difficulty talking about mental health and may feel uncomfortable if you bring it up.

They may not fully understand what you ask them and just go along with what you say, only pretending to understand. They might dodge your question or change the subject and hope you stop asking them. They might give you a dishonest answer and only tell you what they think you want to hear, true or not. Not that there's anything wrong with friends or family doing this, it's a social taboo and a lot of people react this way when talking about it.

If they don't want to talk about your mental health, you should respect it. They most likely respect you for your courage and willingness to talk about it. If they are willing to talk about it, make sure they understand that you need an honest answer and they need to understand what your asking them, since dishonesty is often harmful when talking about mental health.