How I Started Managing Symptoms Through Diet

[Lady of Longbourn]

Again, how can I edit the title?

You report your first post or ask in the help desk.

 

[annexthecelt]

@Ayesha Okay thanks !

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Please try not to take too much offense to the "cure" bit as I know you are a new poster here. The "cure" aspect of PTSD is a real hot button around here to say the least. I was a bit reactionary at first as I thought "whoa, 24 days and you claim to be nearly cured?!? No way!" but I then realized that you're trying to tell others what has helped you personally and I think that overall that is a good thing. I think that so many of us focus on the two biggies-----medication and therapy----while letting other aspects of self care fall by the wayside. I do think that exercise and food choice should be a huge part of the healing journey as well as we can only be as good as we treat our bodies, correct? (Meds and therapy primarily act on the mind, and by focusing on only these two things we are pretty much ignoring the fact that PTSD is a mind/body condition.)

So thank you for making this post! It is nice to hear how others are learning to control their symptoms through diet modification.

 

[mephoto]

I don't think this post was meant to be offensive. A lot of food contains preservatives, hormones, and chemicals now days. Those things enter your body, then can enter your blood stream and effect your entire any system in your body, including your nervous system. If you look up any website on a Paleo lifestyle (I like paleoleap.com myself) there will be post and articles on studies about why clean, or all natural, eating is good for mental health. Then never claim be be a cure though, so yes, bad choice of wording here, but if diet improves some of the things that come along with PTSD like anxiety and depression that's great. For me personally, if I'm calm, im less likely to trigger, this site helps me with that a lot now by being able to get online and read or chat.

Despite that info, I have never found a diet that stops me from having flashbacks or isolating. I will add a personal story for you. Two years ago I was triggered really bad, for weeks, when a guy I had been dating told me he had to walk away because I had an abortion befor he even knew I exsited. I actually stopped eating all together and used the gym as a place to hide as part of that. It took everything I had to go to work for eight hours and then I would leave and shut down, completely blank.

So again, bad choice of words. A cure? For a true sufferer? no, but you may have found yourself a good distraction.

 

[annexthecelt]

@Solara Thanks for understanding where I was going with this. :) There's definitely a mind - body connection. I once heard a doc say that your stomach is your "second brain."

And yeah, 24 [well now, more like 26] days doesn't seem like a long time but after two years of suffering DAILY, I definitely notice the difference. And 20+ years of depression seems to be fading away too... something to it.

 

[annexthecelt]

@mephoto Sorry to hear about that trigger. : [ Hope you're finding new methods to help cope these days.

I didn't mean to imply that my symptoms are completely gone -- they're just not taking over my life anymore. Title is changed :)

 

[mephoto]

Encouraging words @Solara! :hug:

 

[annexthecelt]

I'm not sure how diet change would affect survivors of different types of traumas. My trauma was completely psychotic / psychological so the food changes have greatly helped my mental processes. I do hope it would positively influence any PTSD sufferer, though. That's why I wanted to share!

 

[mephoto]

@annexthecelt I am much better now! It was a long time ago, him and I are actually great friends now. He is also a sufferer and I recently got to share my story with him.

Like I said, I see where your coming from. I have had great results with diet myself. I actually reccomend paleo diet to everyone! It is kind of strict, so make adjustment where needed, but it's a good resource for recipes and food alternatives. I was able to make any desert immaginable using no dairy, no gluten, and no refined sugar, and soooo tasty!

Diet and exercise have really improved my quality of life. It is part of why I got into my profession, a lot of people looking to get healthy have a bigger struggle that "I think I am fat" or "my doctor told me to". Like @Solara said, we have to treat our bodies good! We get one body and one life, we suffered, we survived, treat it right :)

 

[moonbeam]

Yay title changed.

I did take some offense to the word cured, but it wasn't against you and I can clearly see you are trying to help. Which is why I just said please don't use that word. I really hope you don't get hung up on that now. It was more thinking of all the people who minimise PTSD or people like Tom Cruise who say it can be cured with vitamins and exercise, which really annoys me.

Eating better is a great way to practice self care and having a healthier body (with less fatigue) can help with combating symptoms. I think its great that its helping you and others, and I am glad you wanted to share that with us.

It doesn't stop flashbacks. Or cure the actual issue so should be used in conjunction with other therapy (like talking therapy). But the benefits of a good diet program should not be discreted. I know my T recommends all her patients also see a nutritionist to help learn about better eating to improve our body health to help fight for our mental health.

 

[annexthecelt]

@mephoto Glad to hear that! ^_^ And yes the paleo diet is definitely strict but so tasty.. and when you eat in such a way for long enough, the body seems to start craving healthier things and can't tolerate the junk as well. And are you a nutritionist?

 

[annexthecelt]

@moonbeam Yeah I could see how actions like Tom Cruise's would be obnoxious! PTSD is awful, and if there's any chance my story might help someone else, then it's worth the time to write it :) Diet seems to be making such a dramatic difference.

I don't have a T although that probably would've been a good idea a long time ago > . <