Overcoming Depression With Raw - Any Experiences?


Hi Everyone

I searched the site on this and didn't find much.

A brief story:

I can't say I really have depression running in my family, and I'm of the persuasion that most such conditions are a product of a modern, abherrated society.

Early in the 1990s, I started getting really ill with three main symptoms - always these three -- muscle aches, fever & weakness. As the '90s progressed, it would happen once every 2 weeks or so, then weekly, then twice a week, then daily! There were days when the weakness was so severe I couldn't go to work, so it was really scary. And doctors really didn't have a clue.

I'll never forget one doctor I saw. I had been researching a lot on candida (yeast overgrowth), autointoxication, fibromyalgia, Bar Epstein virus and the whole gamut of vaguely identified diseases that all masquerade as one another, when in reality it may be none of them at all. I shared my findings with the doctor. Ha! I may have as well shared them with Ronald MacDonold. He said they were all myths. My heart sunk, and I knew right there that I'd not be dealing with this professional, irresponsible joker. (Not all doctors are bad. They just have a very different and inadequate orientation that treats symptoms rather than dealing with causes. This suits the Pharmaceutical Mafia just fine).

Long story short, I went to a natural therapist - a little, old, German lady who was a biochemist and did contact reflex analysis. She was wonderful, and genuinely sympathetic to my suffering, unlike the cadre of cold professionals I was used to seeing. And she was not at all greedy in her rates and even seemed to undercharge her patients. She said I had a "triad" of issues with my immune system -- liver, thyroid and pancreas. She gave me 3-4 vials of extracts such as black cohosh and animal (yikes!) extracts. Before long, the symptoms went away. This lasted for about 2 months. Then the symptoms came back. She did more tests and determined I had an infected gall bladder. She may have well been right, as I had some mild, dull pain there since the 80s, on & off, mostly off. But, at this point, there was little she could do for me. But she sure made heroic progress toward solving my illness.

Finally, I went to see an acquaintance of mine who was a Jewish cardiologist named Harry. I loved Harry and he was also a general practitioner. He took a good look at me from his desk and said I looked depressed. I didn't believe it. And I am very slow and cautious about applying labels. I was incredulous! But he insisted. I said, "I find life to be too stimulating and full of purpose to be depressed. How could that be?" But he said it was possible. Also, I had heard of psychosomatic illness and believed in it, but I *never* thought that depression could cause *physical illness*!

AFTER 2 WEEKS ON PROZAC ALL THE SYMPTOMS VANISHED!

As an aspiring Raw Foodist, I hardly want chemicals in my body. I don't want to be the Prozac Prince. It runs against my principles of resisting artificial living, and lining the pharmaceutical Mafia's pockets with gold. (But, I do recognize that sometimes conditions are so genuinely severe that medications have become necessary. I just believe that in the vast majority of cases it is not, and that society is so brainwashed and media-mesmerized into believing they need all these drugs. All along there are the natural cures that they don't want us to know about.)

If I go off Prozac for a week or so, the difference is so subtle I usually don't notice it. If I start feeling too unstable, the Prozac seems to help.

I have often suspected that years of caffeine and alcohol abuse helped bring the depression on.

Maybe even the Magical Mystery Tours & Magic Carpet Rides of the '60s, lol, who knows?

The depression persists, even though I still take the prozac and have relinquished the wine.

Effexor makes me hypertensive and I am scheduled to go to a specialist next month to be a guinea pig for yet another drug? You can tell I'm not thrilled at the whole prospect.

These people really don't know what they're doing. Doctors are really just guessing. It's like Light. No one knows what it is.. Whether it be waves, particles, packets...? We just have ideas how to manipulate it. Like electricity, we observe the laws that seem to govern it, externally, but we really don't understand it well. The human body is the same way - very complex. The liver alone has over 500 functions. We are "fearfully and wonderfully made." When doctors do a diagnosis, they're really just guessing. Occasionally they even admit it, in spite of their 8 plus years education in biochemistry, surgery & applying expensive Band-Aids. If I sound like I have an attitude here, it's because I do. I am ever against the irresponsible, wildly profiteering, willful ignorance on the part of our professionals and gov't agencies that is CONTRARY TO THE PUBLIC GOOD.

But, I am also thankful for a few dedicated professionals and the expertise of the medical establishment to put together broken bones and deal with crisis situations in general. And I am also thankful that we live in a land of plenty, enjoy great freedom, resource and abundance, available food selection and so forth.

I still am a caffeine addict. Because I always was such a low energy person, after a cup or three of coffee, people like me begin to feel halfway normal. lol. Getting off isn't all too hard. It's *staying* off. I quit countless times, complete with fasting and every trick I knew. It is such a profound addicton, it's as though it's become a part of my very being. Anyone alse ever feel that way?

But, as a purist in my highest convictions, this is simply not acceptable. And I have always felt that one day I will finally overcome and enjoy great freedom. When I go completely raw and give it time, my hope is that the superior nutritive value of the raw diet will replace missing elements in my body that synthetics can never do, and will lift energy levels beyond the thresholds of depressive experience. Who knows?

Any thoughts? Thank you in advance.

:-{) - a smile with a mustache

__________________
"In our obsession with original sin, we sometimes forget Original Innocence."

In the OTHER HEALTH RELATED FORUM there is a thread going on about depression/bipolar. I think this is the link.

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]

In my late 20s and early 30s, I started to experience a loss of energy, a sluggishness. Lots of brain fog. If I look at myself and how I was during that time, I could say I was depressed. Or just plain unhealthy and sick. For me, coffee became the equalizer. I started my coffee addiction when I turned 30. It undid all the sluggishness. It undid the brain fog. My mind was clear as a crystal. It made my digestion flow so smoothly.

All these substances, whether it be caffeine, Prozac, herbs, supplements, whatever, they are just bandaids, as you described. We are not sick because we are deficient in any of those substances. Taking those substances, while they might removed my symptoms for a while, ultimately the symptoms return and I am faced with the same problem all over again. My caffeine solution only lasted a little more than 10 years.

What was necessary for me was to remove the causes of my illness. I had tons of unhealthy habits and practices that I needed to stop and replace with health building habits. My SAD diet was one of those habits. But also I needed to change how I viewed the world. I had to let go of and release my anger. I had to reconnect to feeling in my body. I had to look at how my mind had talked me into living in such a small box, and to dismantle those self imposed walls. I had to look at where I wasn't loving myself in every moment, and to let of of those practices. And as I did this, my energy started to grow. I was experiencing bliss more of the time rather than pain. I could feel so much more, including more pain, but to have no preference over the pain. I have been in an exploration over the last 6 years of not judging myself, and feeling the pain of my self judgment disappear.

I wrote an article a few years ago called Success on the Raw Food Diet where I shared some of my experience and process around this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2007 07:27PM by Bryan.

I know how you feel.

I was without RAW food: depressed (or "not so happy"
I was on 100% RAW food: Happy
I went back to cooked food: depressed
I started to eat 100% RAW again: Happy

I didn't even understand what I was depressed about. Maybe it was the contrast of feeling "normal", for a change on RAW, and then going back on cooked to feel how I always have felt under my early stage of life.

Today I educate how to go 100% RAW from a SAD-state or to just improve health and wellbeing. I know what you going through! Do what your heart say (sounds corny but so well proven)

glhf

The responses to this thread are an inspiration to me. For a few months, I was at least 75% raw and, despite the hell that was going on in my life, I was upbeat, energetic, positive, and relatively happy. Back to mostly cooked food right now... and I feel like killing myself. Hence my upcoming Raw Food Challenge. Would you like to join me??

Hi there,

Going 100% raw cured my depression (and anxiety and panic attacks). I think that toxicity in the body and bloodstream keeps our brains from operating the way they should, just as other organs are affected. Stay raw and I bet you will notice a world of difference! I read many, many stories of people's depression going away on raw.

All the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com

I was massively depressed on an almost daily basis and now I'm no longer manic, as in up and down, and am steadily a lot happier. I experience no less joy than before but I'm just happier. It's because of raw food.

eat lots of raw! try food combining, particularly separating fats and sugars. have you tried st. john's wort? you can buy herbs from a herbal supplier, ( which i believe are usually raw as they are often sun dried in hot climates) grind them in a coffee grinder and mix them with water or something pallatable. you will need to take 2 teaspoons of the loose herb, 3 times a day. If you are not 100% raw, you could make a tea, or take a capsule.

boy!some good experiences shared here.thanks!i have a son who is 35 and schizophrenic with bi-polar and i have depression.it is always there and then i go into a deeper depression and then when out of it-back to my normal depression.i am on zoloft.i did a complete turn.i think i had so many issues of bad health and my kids and all there problems on top of everything.the one son mentioned above needs constant help and attention.my daughter married into domestic violence and i have been on call for her and the kids every second.then the other 2 grown kids.it is all normal but mix it with working and babysitting in my off time and going to school.i was soon run down and eating everything bad in sight and i feel i had no "hunger gauge".now on zoloft-i can cope and i have a guage after all.i had bad health cause i was so busy being overwheled by everyones problems that seemed endless.then the 7 grand kids we care so very much about.so on top of that i had a bevy of serious health issues.simple answers i did not want to admit.being too heavy(i have now lost 50 pounds since oct 18th).i was in pain and could barely walk.i thought i had alot of different diseases.so now i walk 5 miles a day and am on the raw food diet-determined to be better and dispose of the little fat granny knitting and rocking all the grandbabies and baking.now it is skinny granny and we are running with the grandkids and playing dodgeball-we are doing instead of sitting.i have no pain.the most amazing thing is...i went with my sis to the acupuntuer(wr.sp?) and they got me in and they had me hold this metal connected to a machine and they used metal connected to the same machine and they ran there piece of metal over my inner ear...they told me everything about my health by the sounds on the machine.things they could not know cause they did not examine me.so i believe in that and naturepaths and everything more natural...not always meds. from a dr. but i sure am grateful for zoloft.and my friend wants us to take our son off his meds. i would never. i would be so scared.he has been in the mental hospital for like a yr.and he has had several re-hospitalizations cause he did not have meds yet/or did not take them.it is a very sad and scarey thing.my friend wants us to get his hair tested to see what his body lacks.i would be very scared.taylor

I have /had a problem with anxiety and panic attacks since I was 21, the trigger was becoming pregnant with my first child. I have since then been over sensitive to caffeine etc. so I stay away from that, that as such already helped LOTS.
During bad phases, I also had body weakness and my brain was clouded.
Now that I am older (29) the problem resolved over time (I am more self confident, not easily overwhelmed anymore and have things under control). Eating raw has always helped me, when 100% raw, I can be sure there will be no panic.

However, I have "emotional detox" experiences, too. The first half of 2006 I was 100% raw and within the first weeks I had the symptoms of anxiety, extreme sadness that had built up because of an event in 2005 and so on. So that is something to expect for some people. But it doesn't happen for everyone, either.

In short, raw foods DO help body and soul, there is no doubt about it.

Thank you all for all the great replies! Love ya all!

Firstgarden