I have low carbed for 2 months with minimal weightloss success. That is fine. The problem is my mental state. I am depressed and cannot get back to my cheerful self unless I have some carbos. I read Potatoes Not Prozac and see myself described there in detail.

Is there a Potatoes Not Prozac - Sugar Sensitive board or forum on this site??

Thanks

the science in PnP is not 100% dead on, but if it works for you anyway, congratulations on finding something helpful!

Hi. I too have trouble with depression. I crave carbs when unhappy, but they don't really make me feel any better.

I've had success with LC, and that's helped the depression a great deal. If you'll post your diet in a journal, you might find that someone kind and knowledgeable will notice something that's preventing weight loss for you.

I hope you can find some answers. Best wishes to you.

I suffer from depression and take Celexa ( same dosage for 2+ years, now). I have found that since I starte lc-ing 3 months ago, my outlook on things is better. The positive feelings that I have about myself are greatly improved. I get a real boost from being in charge of at least one part of my life. I feel accomplished.
Have a terrific Tuesday,
Nancy

Im sorry smithtl U arent feeling well. I have fibromyalgia and have had problems with depression for yrs. It has been my experience tho that low-carbing has been beneficial to me because I am off my meds now. What about trying melatonin?

I will be honest, I got depressed as well after a month of LCing. With a counsillor I found how carbs have changed my emotions and how I became depended on them. So I did a few things. One I talk to my doctor and upped my meds. Second thing was I added 5 carbs, saw what happened and added 5 more. I still lose but I feel these two things have brightened my day. Who wants to let emotion or depression control you? Let alone Carbs!
Oh... the carbs I eat are in veggies or dairy only.
I wonder if carbs act in a medicinal way like prozac. Maybe that's why I didn't need meds that much before. Just a thought.

Lessara, carbs DO work in a medicinal way. It's likely some of us have a shortage of either serotonin or serotonin receptors, and maybe a shortage of beta-endorphins, as well. Any carb will temporarily help that condition, which is exactly why we turn to sweets and snacks when we feel sad or stressed. (If you turn to food when you're happy and excited, the serotonin problem is probably not yours!) The problem is, after the "help" of carbs, there is short-term (the "crash") and long-term costs, as well. There's some evidence, for instance, that long-term sugar abusers have great wastelands of non-functioning serotonin receptors, just as cocaine addicts do. After one or two years of LCing, will the brain repair itself? They don't know, and as far as I'm aware, there is no research going on for sugar/carb addicts, but for cocaine addicts it appears that no, the brain does not repair itself. Thus the probability of recidivism into addiction is very high.

Maybe PnP will help people, but what I fear is that it's the addiction calling to us: "oh a plan where I can eat lots of carbs--great!" For me, and I suspect for many of us, trying to abstain from sugar and processed grains forever is the better way to treat the mood part of carb addiction. At least our brains and our habits have a chance to find other paths to happiness, ideally natural ones that carry less risk to our health.

Smith,
I did PnP and SARP (the new book) for awhile. I found that I could not eat what was recommended and still lose weight. I also found that eating so many carbs fed my addiction, even when it was the "good" carbs. However, many people have had success with that program. I doubt it is here because it is not a "low carb diet." If you're interested in more about it, the website for PnP is www.radiantrecovery.com. It has a lot of forums and other support.

Most times, low carb will actually help to lift depression, because, as PnP states, depression is not just caused by blood sugar, or by seratonin, or by beta endorphin; it is caused by an imbalance of all three. I would encourage you to begin a journal and show people what you are eating. Many times, it's just a matter of shifting things around a bit.

Also, are there particular times of the day when you feel more depressed? Knowing that could help, too, as different foods affect us in different ways.

I found PNP to be very interesting, but as I said, not helpful for me with weight loss, which just fed my depression. However, much of the information I learned from it was helpful in how I now do low-carb dieting.

Shalom,
Sh'ra

One thing is for sure, we're all different. I have responded beautifully to Atkin's and it has totally lifted the fog and slowness. If you are not losing you have several ways to look at it, insulin is not the problem for you something else is, or you might not be following the diet quite correctly--misinterpretation of something, or you may have a medical problem like medications that interfere, thyroid problem etc. I'd go see an endocrinologist who is Atkin's friendly (now there's a task!), it was incredibly revealing for me. Expensive yes. Worth every little penny.

In the book "Your Fat Can Make You Thin" by Calvin Ezrin, he discusses how low-carbing is the Way to Go....he also discusses how lack of serotonin reserves in our brains leads us to eat carbs like crazy trying to replace what we don't have through carbs. The problem with that is that when we eat carbs we only get a small surge of serotonin that makes us feel good for a little while. His solution is to request your doctor for a small dose (25-50mg) per day of an older antidepressant medication called trazadone. Apparently this medication, builds reserves of serotonin in the brain relieving depression. He believes that this can also help alleviate carbohydrate cravings as well. I haven't tried it but it sounds like it could work.

All the best

Deb

Hi,

I take Prozac, Wellbutrin and Buspar. When I first started Prozac the doctor prescribed Trazadone in a very small dose to use as a sleeping aid. I hated it. The Trazadone made me feel hung over all the next day so I stopped taking it.

I've been on Prozac and Buspar for 3 years and just started Wellbutrin a few months ago. I still don't really sleep through the night, but I've developed all kinds of coping mechs so insomnia isn't completely ruining my days.

LC = Low Seratonin = depression

was certainly not the case for me. I rebelled against all the anti-depressants many many years ago - that was my own personal decision. I am not recommending it to anyone who needs to be on medication.

Coping Mechanisms etc helped me a lot over the years but the almost "instantaneous" relief when I started LCing was brilliant. Yes, carbs definitely lift me up but they also bring me down just as sharply and the addiction was just as dangerous as any of the drugs I had spent years avoiding - I didn't know then that there was anything called carb-adiction. I blindly accepted a lot of mis-information propagated by the low-fat lobbyists as healthy eating.

Winter has always been my worst time. This Winter has been my first Winter since beginning LC and although I did get depressed I can honestly say it has been better than previous years.

{darhmabum: I still don't really sleep through the night . .} I don't even try anymore. Some of us were made to take short naps when we need them rather than conform to the accepted norm - rather like a baby does. A sweet picture of a friend's toddler with his head flopped into his dinner plate comes to mind. Babies take a nap when they need it, whereever they are and to hell with the dinner mummy thinks is more essential!! I find half an hour's laydown in the middle of the day is as important as lunch!

{sh'ra: Most times, low carb will actually help to lift depression, because, as PnP states, depression is not just caused by blood sugar, or by seratonin, or by beta endorphin; it is caused by an imbalance of all three.} Yes, that has been my experience. Balance is the key. Learning to be active followed by periods of rest and relaxation in just the right amounts. Keeping those scales from tipping in either direction is a continuous on-going journey.

{legodwin: I have responded beautifully to Atkin's and it has totally lifted the fog and slowness.} Isn't it brilliant? Me too. I only realised I had been in the fog after it lifted. As for the slowness ... I used to believe that I must be stupid, now I understand it was the carbs I was eating slowing me down. I do wish someone had been around me to BULLY me into LCing years ago!!

There is sooooo much more I could say on this subject but time for some exxxxxxxercise. That helps a lot!
Shalom Khavareim
Take care.

Better than PNP is "The Schwarzbein Principle", low-serotonin state is explained there in detail and one DOES NOT have to eat potatoes or any of those high glycemic carbs to be able to produce sufficient serotonin for normal moods. When I first heard about that book I didn't want to bother with it because I wondered what else could possibly be written about LC that I hadn't already read but since I plan to become a nutritionist and hated not knowing what others were talking about I read it, and I was WRONG! Even though I don't intend to follow everything she recommends, for the most part her book made a lot of sense to me and filled in some blanks other books had left.

For those of you who may be interested, there is a section in these forums for people who are following Schwarzbein, just pull down the menu on the Forum Jump bar and you will find it.

I thought low serotonin caused carb cravings and that going on LC diet plan would stabilize the serotonin?

... being around beautiful ladies seems to also have a beneficial aspect to my depression and that *perhaps* there is a boost in many key brain chemicals when we are flirting

Between Atkins, Wellbutrin and flirtation as a young man is prone to do in the spring... things seem to be getting better all around

Jon "The eternal flirt" Almada