Low carb causing depression

[trisharau]

Has anyone ever experienced depression through doing low carb eating? Also has anyone found that doing low carb has helped them manage their moods?

Kathleen DeMaisons (of 'Potatoes not Prozac' fame) has indicated that it could do just that.

[mollymom]

I think that LCing has helped my mood a great deal, perhaps it is that I actually have some hope that I can lose weight and get in control of my body. It could be coincidental that LCing and the final kickin of antidepressants coincided, but..I do know I sleep better, my IBS is totally under control and I have hope again . I eat without guilt, and enjoy food again..that alone helps my mood. I am wondering..why do you ask?

[katwoman]

My moods are much more stable since LCing. Can you give more info on what you're actually trying to determine?

[lissa uk]

Must admit, have to agree with the others, my mood has definately stabilised whilst following this WOL and I also came off Ciprimil during the first couple of months of following Atkins .

Im not in any way suggesting that by following Atkins you dont need AD's its just that I was ready to come off them anyway, and It was a relief to see that being on Atkins didnt have any negative effect, and if anything I have never felt so incontrol of my eating and my moods

Lisa x

[trisharau]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Why I asked is that I have just been diagnosed by my homeopath as having chronic fatigue. My doctor does not believe in this syndrome and he reckons I have severe depression. Although I rate in that category with online checklists I am also not convinced that I am depressed. My moods tend to fluctuate from being really stressed and down to just feeling flat. Sometimes I feel ok but life is not a real high when I feel tired all the time. I actually function really well even though I have lost interest in a lot of things around me.

I know that caffeine and sugar products will make me feel as high as a kite but in the end I feel much worse. Generally doing low carb has been the best for my health (I have heaps of allergies and I get super fatigued when on high carb for more than a few weeks.)

[cs_carver]

Could be that the HC high was masking depression that was there all along, and now without the stimulus of all the sugar, you're left with a somewhat flat experience. I prefer the stability, now that I'm used to it.

[trisharau]

I was feeling really good there for a while. Then the middle of last year (at the end of first Uni semester for the year) I was really tired. Coffee (organic ground for plunger) got me through second semester. By Nov of 2003 I was really tired. Then I had several weeks of full on house cleaning/spring cleaning until cherry picking started. Our community suffered a serious fire just before christmas. My husband then spent two weeks of HIS holiday (I was still picking, sorting and packing cherries) organising a fire safety workshop for women. I also helped him with this. He was and still is very cranky and needed a lot of emotional as well as physical support through this. I pulled out of picking two weeks before the end of season to help him as well as take our daughter to vacation swimming lessons. School is finally back but so is my last semester of Uni with a huge workload. DH is also putting pressure on me to find a full time job as soon as I graduate so that he can be a full time parent. I am exhausted. I feel like I need a long holiday!

[Agnes]

Sounds like the last year is responsible for the way you feel (whether tired or depressed - but it is true the two often go hand in hand) rather than any diet, unless you have been unconsciously depleting your system from those essential vitamins and minerals that help mood stability. Some bloodwork might help - I know magnesium depletion can cause unstable mood and apparently over 70% of the western population needs to supplement it.


Loss of interest, the radical effect of caffeine (my drug of choice when I get depressed) are also indicators of depression, especially if it crashes soon after. Loss of interest in sex is also a strong indiction that you are depressed. It seems to me that your year has been exhausting physically and emotionally as you had to support somebody else and take care of a child at the same time.

If I were you I would tell my doctor about my suspicions and try and find out with her/him the course to follow to act on this as soon as possible.

If you can take some time off, do not hesitate.

Depression is a very serious illness and is too often left untreated because of stygma and often overlooked.

Please keep us posted.

[Monika4]

Well said, Agnes!

I had posted a poll in general low carb about why people think they had spurts of gaining weight, and a fully 20% answered depression. Weight gain due to depression is a biggie! Many comments to the poll indicate that low carb seems to help and often got them off their meds. Whether it is because certainly all of us feel elated when we have made another milestone or someone comments how good we now look, or whether it really changes the depressed brain chemistry I don't know.

But I agree with Agnes, depression is serious enough, with mortality!, that if you feel really bad, go for meds first. If you feel great on the diet, you can still work with a physician how to reduce them.

[Agnes]

Monika,

I am glad you brought up the mortality consequences of depression, as I abstained from doing so for fear of sounding sanctimonious and realized it was the thing to say FIRST when you evoke depression. A friend of ours recently lost his brother - only 48 years-old - to it.

It sent chills to my bones and the thing our friend told us was that he had been depressive for a while and wasn't properly treated.

I have been taking a pharmacopia of meds to treat my depression and some related problems and it WORKS. Besides, if I have been losing slowly, I have been losing steadily at a rate of a little less than a pound a month which is just GREAT.

Getting off my soap box,

[trisharau]

Hi Agnès and Monika,

Thank you both for your comments.

I realised I made a typo about my children I have two daughters not one daughter. Both are now back at school but do a lot of after school activies and are both very socialable (which means a lot of running around - dropping children off and picking them up). My older daughter is also very bright and we need to take her to a gifted childrens workshop each week in our biggest town which is an hour's drive away.

Yes I am busy and particulary so as I am finishing my masters degree. I am pretty much working everyday including weekends at present and will probably be doing so until the end of June.

I am now taking magnesium and a super B - my energy levels have improved somewhat. I have an hour's counselling session with the doctor next week. You are right my sex drive is kaput!

[frog33]

Actually, depression is a real physiological consequence of a strict low-carb diet...people who have a pre-disposition to depression are much more likely to experience it...but the premise of the low-carb diet is that you are taking in very few carbs...your body needs glucose and burns fat to get it...(ketosis). This diet affects the ability of the body to regulate/produce serotonin (neurotransmitter with key role in mood)....so there can be a biological reason for feelings of depression doing a low-carb diet.

Anyway...there are several studies about this out...MIT did a big one.


This is one of the reasons I'm shying away from a serious low-carb approach right now...that and the fact that I'm nursing. I'm trying to figure out how I can lower the carbs that I eat and maintain my mood....

kris

[Leenie]

This is the first winter in YEARS that I haven't had to go to the Doctor for medication for my SAD. So Yes YES YES YES, Eating the atkins way has most definitly helped me.

[trisharau]

Hi Kris,

Yes my diet tends to be quite strict on a low carb level. It is not much more than induction and probably less in some ways. I eat very little dairy products and generally keep to being low fat. I am only eating apples fruit wise as everything else tends to bloat me and give me lots of wind.

The homeopath reckons that I will eventually be able to have more foods back into my diet. I am currently taking a number of homeopathic remedies.

I am very suss about the coffee I am taking but have a full on workload at present and don't want to go cold turkey just yet.

I saw the Doc last week and he has given me a number of a good clinical psych. I made an appointment with her today. It is in 4 and a half weeks as she is a good hour's drive away and she couldn't see me next week when I was going to town (it was her day off!).

I feel pretty awful at present and feel lousy as I felt I opened up too much to my Doc. I am really not sure why I told him so much about my very colourful past. I actually feel quite embarressed about it and I am sure it put him on the spot and he did not know how to take me. :(

[frog33]

Hey Trisharau,

Like most things in life, diets are not a one-size fits all issue. What works for one person may not be as good for another. My husband and I had a long talk again last night about trying Atkins again and he was firmly against it...even though I experienced successful weight loss, my mood changed enough that he says he'd rather me stay fat :rolleyes:

The best that I ever did in terms of mood and diet was when I did weight watchers...but I feel frustrated with that because the weight loss was much slower (I'm wanting to have it all now :yay: ). At the end of the day, I've decided to remove the refined sugars from my diet and to replace any mid-day or evening snacking with fruits or vegetables. I'll also have to work on portion size.

But mental health and depression are not things to be messed around with...especially if you have a history of depression. Maybe a good suggestion for both of us would be to go and talk to a nutritionist about a diet that will work for us.

It's great that you have an appointment to talk to someone....it sounds like a long wait, but hopefully it will be worth it. In the meantime, don't be so down on yourself about revealing 'too much' to the homoepath. I'm sure that he/she has heard a lot in their careers...and at the end of the day, you were reaching out for help and he was able to provide you with a good resource.

Have you also seen an allopathic (MD) physician to rule out any physical problems?

kris

[kyrie]

A while back, I tried a balanced carb diet (weight watchers points system), which was a significant reduction from the HC way I had been eating. I was not on any depression meds at the time, and I had terrible reactions. I went back on my HC, and seemed to feel relief.

Now that I'm in atkins induction, I'm on zoloft. I think it's helping to keep up my seratonin production, because except for the first day, my mood has been steady.

Carbs definitely do affect your production of seratonin, but it seems to me that eating LC, while making seratonin production a little wonky now, is going to stabilize my blood sugar and help me keep a steady production going. That is, HC was very very bad for my depression. LC is a stress, but will help me heal from the imbalances associated with HC.

[trisharau]

Hi Kris and Kyrie,

My GP was the person who I opened up to. He was the one who referred me to the psych. I told him I didn't want to take meds. Part of me however is having second thoughts as opening up to him has made me worse. I feel like I am being haunted by my past.

I have been reading up on AD's but feel quite fearful about side effects. I really need full brain functioning at present because of my huge study workload.

[armywife3]

Any diet caused depression for me before. Low carb especially but only because I was using the high off of sweets to feel better. I traded that in for prozac and I have to tell you it has improved my life by 100 percent.

[notgivnup]

Ihave been on Atkins for a few weeks now and Ihave definitely noticed a change in my moods too. (so has my husband)

[notgivnup]

I just keep thinking that things are going to smooth out. Its just so hard!!!

[kyrie]

notgivnup-
Are you getting a lot of omega 3s? It seems to me (and maybe I'm just making it up in my head) that the increase in omega 3s is helping to balance out the decrease in carbs. I'm eating a lot of fish.

In any case, losing weight is a strain on your body, and therefore also your mind, no matter how you do it. Activity helps my mood a *lot*.

[Sea Saw]

Trisharau, I picked up on the "serious fire".
On top of everything else you were managing - here came a life threatening event. Maybe not directly to you , but perhaps to your way of life or to people you care about. Did you see the fire?

You may want to look into this, because post-traumatic stress disorder can hit a few months after a traumatic event. Some symptons are difficulty focusing and task completion because of anxiety, depression, that flat feeling you described, and lack of interest in things you used to enjoy.

The 2nd statement, I read, was that you are trying to low carb and low-fat. You need fat - your brain needs fat. Choose some fats you like and put them in your diet. You may not be getting enough total calories or perhaps too many from protein.

I wish you well and hope good things for you.

[trisharau]

Hi See Saw,

I am trying to sup the good fats in my diet. I can't stomach the saturated ones ala Atkins. I am also looking to up my carbs as I really don't want to lose anymore weight.

The stress in our house really hit at the time of the fire. Although the fire turned and did not get really close to us in the end it was nerve racking to say the least. We are elevated and could see the fire move so fast. The girls were terrified and we ended up evacuating soon after my husband left to fight the fire. I had no contact with him until very late that night when he returned home.

My husband is very exhausted and I am sure he is suffering from depression and possibly chronic fatigue. He was supposed to be having a well earned holiday but then he spent two weeks of three cleaning up after the fire and organising a fire safety workshop. Even after he went back to work he was still organising the workshop which proved to be a great success but also a very stressful process.

I also helped with the organisation along with my other commitments. We knew so many friends that lost so much. We heard so many traumatic stories it was quite an exhausting time.

My husband is so hard to live with as he seems to live on a roller coaster ride with his moods. He gets quite angry and aggressive at times. Other times he just shuts me out in a very black mood and won't talk.

He is so manic at having to be so busy all the time. His work went really quiet soon after the fire workshop and I thought great he will have a break now. Instead he filled it with projects around our small farm as well as a whole lot more community projects. He has just gone back to work still so tired and stressed.

His mother really frustrates me as when I express my concerns she says "but his father was like that." To me that excuses his behaviour. If I say I am so tired she tells me how she never had a break. Well poohey when she was my age her children had long left home and were certainly not still young. She also was not managing a depressed husband, setting up a home and farm from scratch, and juggling a Masters degree at the same time.

She walks around with this silly up her self smile all the time as though she is perfect and so together. I often think she is not quite on this planet!

[Sea Saw]

I think uping your carbs is a good idea and checking your fats.

You really have a lot on your plate ( an expression here in the US for a heavy load).

I guess your husband sees nothing unusual about his WOL. Does he talk to anyone about feelings? How the fires affect him? Or does he just see it as his duty?

All of what you described about the fire was truly life threatening. I would think that the girls might have bad dreams about life threatening events...how about your dreams?

Are you able to sleep well and rest?
Concerned.

By the way if you can predict your mum's responses and they will be negative, don't go there. If she is always there, then simply tell her in a kind voice, "I don't think your responses are helping me." Give her something to think about. If she carries on...just say I do not have the energy to discuss it.

Stay in touch.

[trisharau]

Thanks for you advice and concern Seesaw. :)

We use the same term in Australia too.

One of my daugthers sometimes has a hard time going to sleep but that started about six months ago. It is usually related to how social her day has been or if she sees a video or reads an exciting book before going to bed (I have the same issue :().

I generally sleep well except in the above situations it is harder to fall asleep. I however have had some early morning awakenings for no real reason and that has increased the last few months.

DH and I spoke about the fire alot and I encouraged him to outpour his emotional stuff. It feels like it is a lot worse than just the fire though. I reckon he needs to see a therapist to get to the real root of what is going on inside his head/body.

The fire itself was full on for him (he was surrounded by it at one stage when he was in the fire struck). The clean up after was also very emotional (the place looks like a war zone and thousands and thousands of stock had to be destroyed). The fire safety workshop for women was very stressful and a lot of hard work to organise and run. Several women shared their stories and their was not a dry eye in the hall. Two women died in the fire and several people were burnt. The block we almost brought was burnt.

Life is less stressful this week with DH away. I am realising how his control freak nature suffocates me and causes so much tension in the house. I am really concerned that he not only has depression but also a personality disorder.