food & mood related? shocking!
Lamictal balances your mood.
Ativan chills you the %#&@ out.
Alcohol depresses you.
Caffeine makes you manic.
They’re drugs. More vaguely, they’re chemicals. They’re chemicals that have reactions with chemicals inside of our bodies, creating different moods and feelings. You may be surprised to know.. food has chemicals that do the same.
Up until a few years ago, I was eating food strictly as means of survival. If food was in me, I would stay alive, and that’s all I needed to happen. I was depressed, occasionally manic, and anxious. Pssht, I had meds for that. Food kept my heart pumping, Ambien put me to sleep. Simple.
After 2 years out of treatment, I’m starting to find that the physical effects that food has on our bodies has a lot to do with our mentality as well. For example, oatmeal helps level our blood sugar, which in turn can calm us when we’re irritable. Likewise, salt can raise our blood pressure, causing us to become more anxious.
I’m always anxious and have been since the day I came out of the womb. (That was a pretty anxiety-provoking day for me. Sorry, Mom.) Caffiene (hot chocolate, coffee, some teas, chocolate) has an enormous effect on this and usually sends me right to just under hyperventilation mode for at least an hour.
My first goal to improve my well-being via diet-change is to cut caffeine from my diet. Decaf only. There’s a reason they don’t allow it in treatment..
Burbs Man said:
Feb 24, 10 at 11:09 pmI take Lamictal for Seizures…sometimes the mood altering chemicals are a necessary evil. Despite that, though, a way to think about this is that eating a particular way can also change your emotions despite the medication. In no way should this be interpreted as a means of starving, over-eating, or altering an otherwise healthy diet. I eat healthier, which balances the medication interestingly enough.
Sarah said:
Feb 25, 10 at 6:04 pmI <3 lamictal. and topamax. and ativan. only I don't get ativan anymore since I took the whole bottle once and had to go to Walden and drink charchol. well technically I drank the charchol in the ER and then took Cataldo to Walden… but yes I like frozen oranges. And I like your website as well.