A big part of my depression story was lack of food nutrients. The memoir portion of the book (which is coming very, very soon) make that fairly clear. As I move past those very bad years and have friends and family conduct their own professional and amateur analyses of my psyche fairly regularly, I start to realize that the long game for me is about a lot more than the right foods. I have had moments in the last six months where I have wondered if I had some major degenerative disease and then when I take a break, I go through a miracle cure.
I have been seeing a chiropractor and my adjustment needs are directly related to the stress in my life. I wonder how many really bad mental health episodes I need in my life to learn my lesson at last and take it easy now and then. The crazy thing about it all is that much of the stress comes from “extra-curricular” activities such as food politics work. Leave it to a crazy person to discover the importance of food by having nutrient deficiencies and then to go bananas over food advocacy work. Just for the record, I am not going bananas, not just yet. I do realize, however, that many of the circumstances that led to depression and psychotic episodes back in the day are things I did to myself. I need to make changes for the long game.
We got in this discussion Easter Sunday as we were discussing inflammation and depression. Inflammation may be an underlying cause of depression. Nutrients such as fish oil and B vitamins reduce inflammation, but so does yoga and sleep.
Someone asked over Easter dinner, “Which one is more effective at fighting depression, fish oil or yoga?”
“Are you in more desperate need of Omega-3 fatty acids or relaxation?” I responded.
At this point in my life, relaxation would be much more effective since that is apparently what I am now deficient in.
Most of us know what our biggest problem is. Fixing it just is not always all that easy.
