A Young Man Describes A Lifetime Of Depression, Anxiety, OCD and Panic Attacks Until He Changed What He Ate

He Never Believed Food Could Move The Needle, Until He Tried It

If you are a vegetarian or vegan, I respect you for your beliefs.

I always say this:

When I write about elimination of carbs, (aka Carnivore, or Lion diet) it is strictly, at this forum, for people who are fighting real illness, especially “mental illness” (which is not “mental,” but bio-physical.)

That’s who I am speaking to. And I do so out of a wish that somebody had hit ME over the head with it, when I was fighting for my life for so many years, even hospitalized, with no relief. I tried every diet out there, from vegetarian to paleo, I tried every de-tox protocol, every energy healing, trauma healing, homeopathy, IV ketamine, and short bouts, always disastrous, with medications.

I even tried “nutritional balancing” which is a belief system, pushing nine cups of vegetables per day, plus massive amounts of supplements, and they tell you it can take up to five years to begin to feel better. I remember borrowing money from my stepmother, so I could buy all their supplements. And of course, failing. And feeling worse, and not wanting to admit it. Wanting so urgently to succeed and belong. But it was all so complicated! I couldn’t understand it, and I couldn’t locate a “coach” who heard me when I said my brain fog made it impossible to follow complex protocols.

[Frustration/Sadness Emoji]

I tried everything. I think it was fifteen years, but it may have been more.

The only thing that ever helped me with depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, OCD, numbness, panic attacks, etc, was radical elimination diet/carnivore. One week into it, the first time I tried it, I felt joy and excitement for the first time in many years, like “circulating dopamine.” I could not believe it. It felt like I was 16 and on my way to meet my friends. Like a light switch was turned on.

And I STILL went off it, because people around me were chanting about vegetables and I wanted them to love me so I obeyed. Also, because self-sabotage is a real thing, for people who had a lot of trauma in childhood, which I believe to be most of us.

Why not smash my head with a hammer, and do what will make me feel lousy again?

We follow “diets” the way we follow people— we want people to accept us. Not good. Listen to your body.

Go to Church, for Church. (If you want to.)

In my case, I actually fell off the wagon, at Church, yesterday, by eating a piece of lemon cake somebody had baked, just because everybody was raving about it. (It was indeed delicious)

Then, as if I had lost my mind, I just ate whatever I wanted yesterday: Hommus, Prosecco, salad, and something I can tell I am blocking from memory. What did I eat? I can say that the inflammation/histamine attack was pretty severe, and immediate.

Oh! I remember.

I actually ate an ice cream cone with sprinkles! I was trying to have a good time on Mother’s Day. My son, daughter in law, and grand dogs sent me such a wonderful Mother’s Day video and I decided I should “celebrate.”

I’m writing this, in part, to place it in full public view how disastrous this can be. How all gains are lost in a finger snap. How it does not apply to some of us, this notion that we should just relax a little and live a little. I would love to but it does not work. (For me, for many of us.)

Today: sinus infection, headache, exhaustion, depression, anxiety, etc etc.

So now I am cleaning up my act: Quitting even coffee with whole cream—my central morning crutch. I intend now to think like a Monk.

Just Lion Diet, ice baths, and intermittent fasting. I’m not asking you to live like this, I’m just agreeing to document my own journey with all this.

I want to help people because it helps me console the part of me that got no help all those years, when I was surrounded by people who knew nothing except how to take your money and abandon you when you don’t get better. I may want to be a health coach some day but not until I have cracked the code and know for sure what I am talking about.

IT IS 2024.

Any psychiatrist/therapist unaware of (not using) metabolic cures for all afflictions currently labeled “mental health” is, sorry to be harsh, kind of committing malpractice. You have to change what you eat or there will be no change.

This young man tells a very honest carnivore story, and I relate to his details a lot. That he couldn’t really connect, that he felt numb, that he had anxiety, didn’t want to go on trips, didn’t care about his life, couldn’t relate to romance—all that.

He winds up, as I did, finding that being a cheating carnivore doesn’t work, backfires. The “moderation” does not work for all of us. I must now signal strongly that I can’t eat anything except beef, salt, water and possibly butter. But having said all that, if this is new to you, please don’t just jump in fast and furious. Gradually eliminate junk food, carb foods, etc, get your electrolytes, listen to videos how to get started (I suggest Dr. Ken Berry) and listen to your body. When your body converts to running on fat, yes, there will be a digestion story involving either diarrhea or constipation.

Salt is always your friend. Fat is always your friend. I wish I could be well without eating meat at all, but I can’t. If you can, ie you are a successful vegetarian or vegan, I salute you, and maybe we are “all different.”

I don’t want to abandon the depressed, as I was abandoned, for lack of accurate knowledge.

It’s 2024.

Illness is caused by what we call “food.” Healing is caused by what really is food.