mood swings

[meharju]

Hi,

I've been having nasty mood swings. My therapist has suggested psych meds to alleviate them. I get really depressed and angry once a week for up to 8 hours and then I'm back to normal. Sometimes I go up to a month without feeling this way. I also have a lot of anxiety which a usually manage.

I've been following a mostly macro diet for three years. I've also been off meds for three years and I'm actually more stable now than I was on the meds. In the past I was in and out of the hospital even though I was trying different drug cocktails.

What can I try before going and getting prozac? I have to do something. The mood swings are destroying my relationship with my partner and making me temporarily suicidal. I want to try a natural cure because I know from experience what a rollercoaster psychiatric medications can be.

Sincerely,

Mary H.

[nevrenson]

I wish you all the best, coming from the same situation (I am the other partner ) my husband always checks with his doctor and the answer is always the same you need your meds!!!! Your diet and your lifestyle is also very important if you have been off meds like you said and feeling great than why are you in such a mood and why is your marriage introuble? It's a whole package my friend ...

[meharju]

Thanks for your post. I wish you health and healing. I stopped taking the meds because my diagnosis, borderline personality disorder, is largely behavioral and my doctor at the time advocated less meds and more therapy. I felt a great sense of satisfaction when I could start detoxing from these drugs. My relationship is in trouble because I'm shutting my boyfriend out of my life when I get depressed and then running back to him and asking his forgiveness when I'm better. I'm not doing so well with controlling my impulses when I'm really sad. We've been in couples' therapy for a year and it hasn't helped us much.

Maybe taking some meds will help me with symptoms. I just don't want to become dependent on them and not heal my underlying problems. Perhaps I should outlaw some of the more extreme foods from my diet. My boyfriend is a lover of extreme foods and I sometimes indulge with him. Maybe I just need to be easier on myself.

[Manymoons]

Meharju

Bingo! I think you have a sence of what the problem may be.

Without question, elliminate the extreme foods that you confess to indulging. Big swings in mood can be directly linked to to big swings in extremes of (yin/yang) foods. This is especially true the longer you have been with the food and your system is more sensitized. A typical western meat and potatoes diet will not focus the dynamics of foods as readily because those foods can over power your system in a numbing sort of way. A tighter balance of foods will allow the body to feel more inherently what is going on.

I can feel emotionally within 12 to 36 hours if I have extended my balance too far. There is always a price to be paid. Observe and learn what connection can be made between what is eaten and what feelings surface. It can be very interesting if not exciting to become conscious of what feelings can be created simply by eating specific foods and/or quanities. Being in a relationship makes this even more imparative. It can be "make or break" by unconscious eating.

Watch, see and enjoy a new discover of control that you may be comming to.

Manymoons

[carlos.jango71]

Well friend, If you are not sure that you are that much in control of yourself, then I would strongly suggest you sign yourself into a mental health facility (generally a ward in the general hospital, not a whole separate hospital), and get some help learning how to control your temper enough that you can trust yourself not to end up busted for assault or worse. It is important to be in a protected environment to protect YOU, too, not just any potential victim. Because you might lose your temper with someone who knows how to fight back, and is tougher than they look.

[Klara]

Carlos,

Forgive me for being judgmental, but I felt your post was rather harsh - tho it may have come from good intentions.

Mary,

Being macrobiotics is challenging in all circumstances, even more so when in a difficult situation as you describe. If you've been macro for three years, then I'm assuming you have also been reading other people's stories and see, yes, there is hope at the end of the tunnel. Question is who's in the tunnel with you. In an ideal world, your boyfriend would support you by not tempting you with the extreme foods. I'm not sure how many of us are lucky enough to be living in an ideal world.

So the next step is to get live support wherever you can - best if you can find a good local mb teacher/counselor who can help guide you with your search for healing with medications - next would be a counselor you can at least connect to by phone - or travel to once in a while. Next would be friends who also practice mb and can understand more readily your struggle and can encourage you. Next would be friends/family who love and care for you and though they might not truly understand mb, they would respect your decisions and try to support you. (well, order can be reversed there - family/friends have great impact on a person - would be so wonderful if they understood)

Guessing last would be the computer world - where you would get wonderful advice from people like manymoons, but then again, other advice which, well,... just ignore the negative wherever you can, and trust your intuitions (they get better with more practice).

If all the above is not doable (right now) then make the intention to take mb as seriously as you can - not just doing mostly macro, but study however you can (on line, books, practice, practice, practice) - sort of like an athlete who's about to run a marathon and takes his practicing very seriously!!!

Give up extra time consuming distractions and put as much as you can into the kitchen, chewing very very well, and being conscious of every morsel you put into your body!!! And ENJOY - it's not healing if it's miserable.

Klara

[Klara]

oops, was too quick to send this - meant to say, healing withOUT medications.

Klara