My Experience w/ Veganism + Mental Illness
Let me preface this by saying this post is NOT for everyone. I was mainly vegetarian for 8 years and a strict vegan for one and a half years. I know for a fact that I was not ready to see this story and I would have fought it on all accounts.
Also, I do take into account that some people can thrive on a vegan diet with very careful supplementation and good digestion. However, in my opinion with my nutrition background and after reading countless scientific books/ articles/ materials on both sides, my opinion to be an omnivore remains stable. This is my story.
I was vegan for a little over a year. All my life I did not like meat, so I avoided it at all costs. I was a bread and cheese kinda girl. Grilled cheese, Poptarts, quesadillas, butter pasta, fast food, those were my food groups. I looked fairly in-shape, but I was terribly troubled on the inside.
I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder when I was in the 6th grade and was put on a 24/7 heart monitor. I was diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder and ADHD in high school, and was put on Adderall. After college, I began developing OCD and would have nervous breakdowns weekly. I thought maybe it was just how I was as a person; my forever personality and a “stress ball” as my friends called me.
But everything changed when I switched to an omnivore, paleo style diet. My mental health as of recently has never been better… and I was never more unstable than when I went vegan.
Strangely, the first couple months were actually great! I felt amazing, I was going to the bathroom a lot more, and I didn’t feel bloated. I lost a little weight even though I was already thin, my skin cleared up, and I was sleeping better. Now, some people might amount these changes to giving up animal products in general. I know I did! But this is what I also cut out:
all pasteurized dairy (still not a fan)
processed, packaged, and junk foods
fast food and drive-throughs
using the microwave/ ‘tv dinners’
I was cooking at home every day for the first time in my life!
If you go from eating Poptarts and Hotpockets to cooking vegetables every day and drinking green juice every morning, of course you will feel amazing. But nonetheless, I amounted it to not eating the weekly piece of fish or chicken I was used to having.
About 4-5 months into my vegan journey, my OCD flared up HARD. My right shoe had to be SUPER tight at all times and I would end up retying it HUNDREDS of times per day. If I couldn’t find my favorite necklace, I would be HOURS late to work or appointments trying to find it and then consequently having a breakdown. These two seemingly small things ruled (and ruined) my life.
Necklace
Tight Right Shoe
If they were not perfect, I WAS NOT PERFECT. And that would send me spiraling.
While I was vegan, I found myself crying often and small things would set me off. It seemed like I was jumpy, angry, and tense 99% of the time and I didn’t know why. It wasn’t until I changed my diet that the anxiety lifted from my shoulders.
About a year in, I began gaining a lot of weight, about 10 pounds I could not keep off. I wouldn’t wake up until noon and always woke up angry. I had cystic breakouts non-stop and my stomach would bloat every time I ate. I would stress sweat while I was driving because I would get so anxious just being in the car. I would constantly be plagued with racing thoughts and dark feelings of impending doom. My depression had reached a new low and there was a time I couldn’t get out of bed for 4 days.
I knew I needed a change. And weirdly enough, I began craving fish.
I started with fish, then moved to chicken, and heard about the benefits of bone broth so I tried that too. I was vegan in Thailand and very sick, and I got some bone broth not knowing what was in it (only to find out later) and I felt amazing within minutes afterwards so I knew deep down there was something to it.
I promised myself that I would only buy meat that was of the best quality, grass-finished and pasture-raised, knowing that the animal had the best life possible. I began researching how different conventional factory farming was from pastured family farming.
I also began to research about what nutrients I was missing in a vegan diet and how that could have contributed to my unstable mental state. What I found was very alarming and wasn’t shown on any documentary that convinced me to go vegan in the first place.
According to a study on vegetarian diets and mental health, researchers found that vegetarians are 18 percent more likely to suffer from depression, 28 percent more prone to anxiety attacks and disorders, and 15 percent more likely to have depressive moods (1)
A study of over 160k people found eating a plant-based diet doubled the likelihood of people taking prescription drugs for mental illness and just about three times more likely to contemplate suicide (2)
A study at Oxford University in 2008 found that people on a meat-free diet are six times as likely to suffer brain shrinkage. Deficiency of vitamin B12 can cause inflammation of the nervous system (3)
These are all scientific studies I have linked below, however this does not mean if you are vegan or vegetarian that this will all happen to you. I mean no disrespect, I just want to share my own personal story.*
Slowly integrating high-quality animal foods, fast forward a year later, I am now the calmest I have ever been. My skin is insanely clear and I am in the best shape of my life. I do not struggle with anxiety, depression, or OCD anymore whatsoever. I experience a constant easy, good mood so much that people have started asking me why I’m always so happy. I’m not afraid of confrontation, traffic, or my right shoe being looser than my left.
I do want to say however, there is no on-size-fits-all diet. Some people thrive on plant-based diets, some do not. A diet that works for you may not work for others, so please be kind.
Now if you are thinking of switching your diet I always suggest to see a physician or a functional medicine doctor. Since this is not medical advice I can only tell you that this is what worked for me and many of my clients.
Your health is in your own hands, you just have to be willing to try anything and honor your intuition along the way. After all, if you eat in a certain way that feels inherently good for you as an individual, then I say do it. Listen to your body and do what’s intuitively right for you, because no one knows your body better than you.
