Yes, I used paleo to wean myself off of Wellbutrin. I have had to use WB a few times in my life, and I am grateful it is there if I need it. But I don't like to stay on it for long periods of time. The last time I was on it, I decided after about 6 months that I wanted to wean off, so I became very committed to paleo and dropped the Wellbutrin with no problem. Now I am in a bad place with paleo and am not following it as closely as I should, and it's no surprise that I feel some depression settling in. I know now that the first course of action is treating myself better through proper eating and finding more time for exercise rather than medicating. I also use Natural Calm, which if used every day does make a difference to my mood and takes the edge off my reactions to things in a good way. And even when bad with paleo, I am 100% gluten free, which I believe helps a lot. For me, depression begins with situational stuff and turns into something that needs to be unwound through medication and/or serious lifestyle hygeine (diet and exercise, finding inspiration in my work again, taking on a new challenge, etc).

First, great question. I'm like Ashley Roze with BPII - rapid cycle. I've battled with it for 20 years and had a horrid experience on meds when I was in my early 20s so I took myself off them. But I still battled hard-core depression with bouts of hypomania. In fact, last year the hypomania was pretty intense.

Now, I've been depression-free for about 3 months but I'm not totally healed. In fact, I'm still a bit on edge wondering when it will come back and in amazement about how I feel. Taking out the gluten was the factor. I'm convinced of it. I always knew there had to be a correlation between nutrition and my mental states. Like someone stated above, I got really bad when I went low fat borderline vegetarian.

As most of the posters, I'm still tweaking my diet to get dialed in properly. The exercise is also necessary and when I don't get at least 10 minutes in per day I feel a bit low but nowhere near what I used to feel.

Someone mentioned taking 5HTP for depression and I haven't tried it yet. I take Magnesium and Taurine and that seems to stabilize my mood even further. Paleo has absolutely empowered me in managing my BP. In fact, I can get to a hypmanic phase on my own without negative consequences or falling into other pole of depression. My life right now is in such a state that I would normally be horribly depressed and now, I'm totally able to deal with life outside the depression realm. I'm still amazed by this new found mental freedom.

Ok, I'm going to give some background before I get to the point, which is that I think Paleo has helped, but not completely relieved, my symptoms of depression:

I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian for about 7 years when I started getting really depressed in college. I gained weight and started isolating myself socially. My parents were pretty worried and wanted me to start medication, but I kept telling them I didn't need it.

Then, after my freshman year of college, my father died. I was devastated, and I had a hard time doing anything except having angry thoughts. I went on medication, and - after trying several different anti-depressants over the next few years - settled on Wellbutrin for the next 8 years. It raised my heart rate into the range of tachycardia and I had years of insomnia, but it made me feel like a human being again. I could function, I didn't spend too much time crying, and I still had a sex drive (unlike on all those other medications). I lost weight, started exercising, was successful at work, and fell in love.

When I got married three years ago, I had to quit my job, and it took a long time to find another one. In the meantime, I gained all my weight back and became totally miserable again - like a person my husband didn't even know. I started a clinical trial on a new anti-depressant, and it was a bonafide disaster. My weight soared 15 pounds in two months, and I hated myself at a level I never thought possible. I seriously contemplated suicide…so I went back to the Wellbutrin.

Six months later, I was still miserable, although I was able to function again. Without telling my husband, I decided I was going to quit the medication, because I didn't feel like it was helping. I was doing CrossFit 4-5 days a week, but I still didn't have a job, and I just couldn't lose weight. Finally, I got a job, and my self esteem started to improve. I was doing ok without the antidepressants, and I started counting calories and tracking my food and exercise on mynetdiary.com. At the same time, I decided I needed to start eating some fish, as I just wasn't getting enough protein to support muscle growth.

Say what you want about calorie counting: if you're diligent, it works. I lost 35 pounds in five months, and I started feeling human again. While I was losing weight, I started researching the Paleo lifestyle, and I realized that it made sense to me. I waited until I reached my goal weight to start adding meat into my diet (because I didn’t want to halt my really successful weight loss). I cut out all grains except my morning cereal and cut way back on sugar, and then I went strict Paleo after I got to my goal weight.

That was about three months ago, and I’m feeling ok. I’m totally functional, but even at a size 4, I still don’t like myself. My heart rate and blood pressure are much better, and my cholesterol is even lower than it was as a vegetarian (128 vs. 152). I don’t cry much anymore, but I still wouldn’t consider myself happy. I’m staying off the drugs, and I don’t feel like I’ll need them again. But I do miss the feelings of actual happiness that I used to have from time to time on Wellbutrin.

Has Paleo caused or maintained my ability to stay off drugs? I’m not sure. It could be having a job, or losing the weight, or maybe my chemical imbalances from college just aren’t around 10 years later. Either way, I’m going to continue experimenting with optimizing the diet, and see where I go from there. Intellectually, I believe the diet will help me. Emotionally, it’s hard to have faith that I can really find a way to be truly happy again. I hope I can maintain a standard of emotional living that I want without having to resort to potentially dangerous drugs.

And now you know what there is to know about me!

My depressive moods, which have affected me all my adult life (I'm 38), and in recent years were re-diagnosed as bipolar II, were always improved when I consumed less carbohydrate. But it was never really cured until I went to a meat-only diet. The difference between VLC and ZC for me was way out of proportion to the actual carbs consumed, and has been nothing short of miraculous. It happened within about 2 weeks, and was as obvious to my husband as it was to me. I've been off all meds for years now, and happier and more stable than ever as an adult. So for me this is something beyond merely the paleo aspect.

No. I've been on them for the better part of 25 years. They are, in large part, the reason I ended up at over 300 lbs. But they also saved my life. I have major depression which is a progressive brain disease and my diet has not cured me of this one. I have tried over the years to go without but to no avail. My last attempt was this past year when I went 6 months without. At this point in my journey my diet is as close to perfect as it has ever been or probably ever will be yet I crashed big time. I'm fairly well resigned to being on them until the day I die and I'm o.k. with that. No I'm more than o.k. I am grateful beyond measure that I have a drug that will sustain me as the drug I take does. Taking pharmaceutical drugs is not a personal failing. I think a good diet can go a long way curing a lot of ills but it does not cure all disease for all people. That is not the fault of the diet nor of the person. Some things just are what they are and there is no one or nothing to blame.

Paleo/low carb didn't get me off of meds for clinical depression - Vitamin D3 supplementation did. I can't believe that after years of therapy and Prozac and Buspar, and even 5-HTP for the past 10 years (which worked better than the prescription drugs ever did w/ no side effects) none of my doctors thought to try Vitamin D to see if that would do something. Yet that's exactly what fixed it for me (plus the low carb diet, but I'd been doing that off and on for the past 10+ years). My severe depression is now completely gone, it's incredible.

I was on depression meds for about 8 years, had crippling depression. When I look back to when it started, it was when I went low-fat vegan. I believe my brain was starving. Now that I eat plenty of fat, all symptoms of depression have disappeared.

I was on all sorts of stuff for bipolar type 2, then ADHD. Then just depression and ADHD. I got off the meds 2 years ago but I still had seasonal depressive episodes and still had trouble with ADHD. I just sort of dealt with them as a normal day to day feeling.

I can say the depression is gone; I haven't had a bout in 6 months which is when I went gluten free WAPF and then 2 months later paleo. I still have issues with my Concentration but I don't get goofy and hyper like I used to. It might be age an having a kid but I think it's the diet. I keep waiting for my summer depression cycle to come Back and it doesn't. (usually I get depressed in the summer and late winter.)

I'm hoping another 6 months and my ADD issues will go away. Though, I think those symptoms will be helped when I'm a low enough weight to really excercise hard again.

(writing this on a phone so here is my preemptive apology for any typos above.)

No, because I wasn't on them. But I could have been and have been in the past, so I'll answer the spirit of the question.

The cleaner I eat, the less prone I am to depression. While I'd been doing better for a while (since reducing, though not eliminating, gluten over the past several years), going paleo has cleared it up pretty much entirely, despite life stress and hormonal circumstances that have been a trigger in the past. Now when I get depressed it's always clearly linked to dietary transgressions, and paleo lets me sort the specific problems out from the background noise of my previous diet.

(To be clear: I haven't tested enough to be sure that gluten is actually a problem. Grains in general do seem to be, and so is sugar/HFCS.)

I tried an anti-depressent for chronic pain (Cymbalta) and a not-quite-antidepressent for pain (Lyrica) after being paleo.

Neither worked, but the main takeaway for me was that being fairly low-carb paleo made me have more side effects, such as dizziness. Being more moderate carb seemed to make it better. There were a lot of confounding factors though.

I was on Zoloft for a few years (with a break for pregnancy/breastfeeding) before starting Paleo. After a year of eating about 75% paleo, I started weaning off anti-depressants and am happier than ever without them.

I've noticed that when I start to feel off again, I also start craving really fatty pork. I eat some fat and feel better.

I had always wondered why I did ok without anti-depressants when I was pregnant/breastfeeding, but got really depressed again after weaning. I am just now realizing that when I was pregnant/breastfeeding, I ate whatever I wanted. And what my body wanted then was whole milk yogurt, mayonnaise, lots of steak, hot dogs, etc. Not clean paleo, certainly, but a lot more fat than I allowed myself otherwise.

I like to think I wasn't suffering from depression as much as I was suffering from a fat deficiency.

Hi, recently I have changed my diet around fully - totally Paleo and Raw food only, plus have upped multivitamin supplements, in particular zinc, 5HTP and EFAs. Have come fully off antidepressants (been on a range for years, most recently Lexapro), have come off anti-histamines, and most awesomely, have managed to reduce my insulin in put by 25% (am a type 1 diabetic). Managed to lose a couple kg so am at a very healthy 79kg with only 15% body fat. Best change Ive made in my life to date

I actually felt better just by starting a fish oil, vitd3, and multivitamin regimen.

I never took anti-depressants. I've tried lots of other drugs, but never those. I probably could've had a prescription, I was just very quiet about my inner self, and always put on a brave face.

I've suffered from pretty serious self-loathing and depression most of my life, that got really serious in my college years, with bouts of mania and ridiculous money spending/drug and alcohol binges and self-destructive behavior. I've always been pretty smart, and could've probably been anything I wanted to be, but squandered it all because I hated myself.

If I had known about Paleo then, I would've tried it. The reason I never tried any drugs for my problems was A) Denial, I suppose, and B) fear of losing my "real self." And as bad as I ever got, I always felt like if I medicated I wouldn't be me. Guess that's pretty typical, yeah?

Anyway, through years of self-hypnosis, affirmations, positive choices and better lifestyle I've been able to really come out on top and round out my life. Going Paleo and cutting back on my drinking I think have really rounded out that change for me. I'm sure that my diet had alot to do with my mood and mental state.

One caveat though: As an artist I would never want to disown the positive creative outcome of my despair and self-destruction, negative thoughts and feelings. I thank the universe that through it all I had music to guide me.

I used to be on zoloft several years ago for depression and anxiety. I only recently found out about paleo, but when I started eating a higher fat diet a few years ago I felt a lot happier and I went off my meds myself.

PS. my anxiety went away the first time I smoked marijuana, and it never came back. I haven't smoked in months, I still smoke a few times a year. I wish it was legal, it would help so many people with anxiety.

I'm currently on Lamictal (lamotrigine, a mood stabilizer) after being diagnosed with Bipolar II in 2007 when an antidepressant sent me into hypomania. I already feel strongly that by eliminating all grain and carbs I have improved my mood significantly and by following Paleo I know things will get even better. I want to go off the drug soon but BPII is the kind of thing where there is stigma for "going off your meds" when you think you don't need them, so it's tricky. I am trying to lose that last 10 lbs of fat and I'm concerned that the Lamictal will get in the way of my body/hormones fully responding to the Paleo principles the way it/they are meant to. If anyone has insights into Lamictal, they're appreciated. Lamictal is primarily for epilepsy and there is some indication that a ketogenic diet is helpful for both epilepsy and mood disorders.

No not yet. I tried going off them with bad results. Paleo has done a lot to help my body, but my mind seems the same. Of course I don't think mine is completely diet related anyway, and I have been having major depressive episodes for nearly 20 years. Glad to see that others are improving though.

Yes for first time since early 90's. It takes weaning off slowly and eating good fats and really watching it when PMS comes.