How Nutrition Annialated my Life-Long Struggle with Anxiety

I have had anxiety since I was a small child (35 now) and while trying every prescription medication out there to help it, I became addicted/dependent on benzodiazepines.

I discovered eating natural food was the key to healing my body, which in turn healed my mind. Little did I know that by that time I had become addicted to medically prescribed benzodiazepines.

I came off 2MG's of Ativan in 1 month after using on and off for 4 years in 2021. I went through horror and got put back on more benzodiazepines, gabapentin, and Pristiq.

I am slowly trying to come off the Pristiq then the gabapentin then the benzos.

Had I known about the dependence one could have on these things I would have never come off so quickly. Once I do though, I now know what stemmed my anxiety & will be able to live a life without fear or any chemicals that induced that fear/anxiety.

Good for you, Cute. Can you say a  little more abut this. Give us some examples:

eating natural food

I'm very interested in the foods that helped you.

Katz

For certain, whole Natural Foods definitely play a big part. I have been going to Pike Market in Seattle to get all my food, I don't eat it unless it is legit food. I don't eat candy bars, I don't eat cakes, I don't eat pies, I don't eat chips or crackers, I don't drink sodas or juice, I only eat legit food, as in legit.

My entire mind and body has changed for the better, I feel like I can tackle anything just about. For a little while I was going to Whole Foods and eating all organic, only to find out that's no good as well. Nothing compares to the farmers market, other than having your own farm.

Now my body tells me exactly what it wants, like if it wants a plum versus a watermelon, or romaine lettuce versus asparagus, or chicken versus beef. I try to keep a little bit of everything in my fridge, and I eat exactly what I want whenever my body tells me it wants it, and I never skimp out. I've actually lost weight since I've been eating so much, because now I don't put sugar in my body and I don't eat anything processed or fake.

Sometimes I eat five or six huge meals a day, like Thanksgiving size meals. I just don't gain any weight with real food, it was all the junk food that had me all depressed and lethargic for so many years along with pills.

'Natural food' i.e. organic and grains is unfortunately out of the range of what most normal folk can afford to eat regular 

There is also no scientific evidence that this does anything to aid anxiety. My guess is that you had so much faith in it that it zapped your anxiety. A kinda religiius faith.

If you can afford to eat healthy food, you should. If not, you can at least cut out fat and sugar and junk as much as possible. Healthy food is not same as health food. Healthy food does help your mood.

So yeah, wish a change in diet alone was a cure for anxiety but it ain't 

'Natural food' i.e. organic and grains is unfortunately out of the range of what most normal folk can afford to eat regular 

 

There is also no scientific evidence that this does anything to aid anxiety. My guess is that you had so much faith in it that it zapped your anxiety. A kinda religiius faith.

 

If you can afford to eat healthy food, you should. If not, you can at least cut out fat and sugar and junk as much as possible. Healthy food is not same as health food. Healthy food does help your mood.

 

So yeah, wish a change in diet alone was a cure for anxiety but it ain't

Not really, I'm on disability and still have enough money to cook healthy foods with no preservatives. The government gives people 250 a month for food, and there are fresh bucks programs to make it go further. I admit, it should be at least 500 a month, but as long as you're cooking instead of eating processed, you can eat all organic.

In regards to being "an anxiety cure", I don't know of anyone who supports that statement. I know a ton of people who support eliminating chemicals and sugar, however, as the overwhelming majority of the benzo community agrees. Would you eat nitrates and artificial ingredients or bug spray as medicine? I wouldn't, so why eat it with non organic food when given the option?

Think cereal in a box, or frozen pizza, or barbeque sauce for example. Is it necessary to eat those, rather than making a chicken breast or salad, or cutting a melon and eating nuts? They all equate to the same price when given the fact that carbs don't keep you full, nor do they give you nutrients.

Is it cheaper to eat bagels and cream cheese, as opposed to small salad and portion of ground beef? No, and the bagels and cream cheese ends up being more expensive when given the length of time before needing to consume more nutrient lacking foods.

Take food deserts for example, people in poverty areas spend more on processed foods, as opposed to people cooking every meal from quality foods. Do they have to eat so much processed food in those food deserts? No noy really, I've lived in those food deserts as well, and used to skip the items I needed to put time and effort into cooking. A good majority of people just don't have the motivation to cook

I would like to see any evidence of people who don't have access to meat and vegetables, and don't have the option to cook healthier foods, when they claim it "isn't available".

Also, every single person on this planet k ows that good nutrition and sleep is key to gut health and well-being, yet an overwhelming majority of people simply neglect that info, and reach straight for the chips and soda, then wonder why they are depressed. Or they drink coffee and wonder why their sleep and anxiety is so bad. Or they don't eat enough protein and wonder why they aren't feeling up to exercise, resulting in poor sleep, etc.

I believe a good majority of the human race is doing things wrong, and diet is a major contributor to the "mental conditions", where the diet could be the culprit, and maybe was diagnosed as a brain disorder rather than nutrient deficiency.

Also, if you havr too many preservatives and chemicals in your body from non organic foods, wouldn't that be the same as taking synthetic drugs orally? That would most definitely cause anxiety if you took lots of poison on a daily basis, so maybe organic food is a solution to anxiety, when done right, I'm not sure. Each person needs a different meal plan, but I'm sure it could be used as an anxiety medicine when prescribed properly, but insurance won't cover special diets, I know from going to court with DSS and the judge refusing to honor my reasonable accommodation request for more food money to support my doctor's note for expensive seafood.