Depression and Raw

[Dimond]

I 100% agree with this. Depression is a symptom caused by emotionally responding to people and stress and/or thoughts incorrectly.

For most of my life I thought there was something mentally wrong with me and wasted a lot of years being miserable or trying to get "fixed" through counseling, self-help books, antidepressant supplements, meds, etc. Even when I had figured out it was related to my physical health, I still thought it was a mental issue. Then I finally started seeing real results with being raw (and later a specific amount of exercise when before exercise alone didn't do anything noticeable.) and really could experience being my true self for the first time in my life. That's when I realized it positively was just a symptom of my physical health and had very little to do with mental health. When I'm healthy, I can handle stressful situations much better, I can talk & respond to everything much better, my brain itself functions more normally, etc. It's really about 3 issues: getting rid of toxins, absorbing nutrients fully (through diet & often supplements) & moving your body. To improve your life even further (or anyone's life regardless), being on some type of spiritual path doing things like meditation, prayer, yoga, etc. is a great help. People often will naturally gravitate to doing that anyhow because it complements a healthy lifestyle.

[fastfreedom]

Depression is spiritually and emotionally based not physical so foods won't cure it......... I just personally don't agree with the notion that depression can be addressed from the outer such as with something like food or eating.

That's only your opinion. Eat 100% raw plants for the next year, clean the kidneys, clean the colon, detox the liver, get the lymph moving, detox as much as possible..............then I am eager to hear of your new opinion/experience. ;-)

The foods one eats in not something that is outer....... It is in fact the very thing that is supplies the building blocks for how the body is assembled. You can only change your body by first realizing that it is a product of what you have consumed throughout the years. Keep feeding it garbage and in return you will feel like garbage. Feed it the optimimum foods it was specifically designed to run on and feel absolutely amazing physically, emotionally, spiritually....day in and day out. Don't just take anyone's word for it either.....it must be experienced for one's self, and then it will be known what the truth is.

[blissrunner]

That's only your opinion. Eat 100% raw plants for the next year, clean the kidneys, clean the colon, detox the liver, get the lymph moving, detox as much as possible..............then I am eager to hear of your new opinion/experience. ;-)

The foods one eats in not something that is outer....... It is in fact the very thing that is supplies the building blocks for how the body is assembled. You can only change your body by first realizing that it is a product of what you have consumed throughout the years. Keep feeding it garbage and in return you will feel like garbage. Feed it the optimimum foods it was specifically designed to run on and feel absolutely amazing physically, emotionally, spiritually....day in and day out. Don't just take anyone's word for it either.....it must be experienced for one's self, and then it will be known what the truth is.

By outer I mean the physical. Our body is only the physical part of ourselves, we are more then that and depression is not physical attribute, it's spiritual and the only way it can be cured is by addressing it's cause which is emotional and spiritual in nature. I just wanted to clarify that I do not agree that the building blocks for what builds the physical body is "not" outer. That being said this is what I believe and what I have found works in life. I take care of my "outer" self because I do need it, but I realize I also have an "inner" self and it's MUCH more important to take care of for happiness, well being, peace and SO MUCH MORE.

[Dimond]

All you have to do is google diet and any mental illness and you'll find countless testimonials of people who've healed with an extremely healthy diet, most which is whole foods or raw and sometimes supplements. Even the very difficult illnesses like schizophrenia (which currently has 6,800,000 results about healing with diet) . The few that are arguing against it, likely just haven't experienced it (either mental illness or being healed) as myself and others have stated on this forum. One can spend years getting counseling and it doesn't necessarily mean much is really accomplished. The same goes true for medication. One's mental state is being affected all the time by your physical health, hormones, weight, fitness level and environmental toxins being just some examples.

Also, I really don't even like to call it mental illness since it's not exactly that, but people only seem to associate with it that way. In reality there is no real mental illness. There's either temporary states of being usually associated with stress or an unhealthy body where mental disfunction is just one of the symptoms.

Counseling, self-help methods and spiritual practices may help in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle, especially the latter. But that's true for even a healthy person since it's rare that we don't need various tools for support or just to improve our lives.

[thomas.d]

wonderful and amazing for me who raw can give the relief from the depression.Those who suffer in depression can not easily get rid of such hidden anxiety,so I disagree with this ideology need help here.

[Hanalei]

It may have helped me a little bit, but it's sure not gone. I don't think it will be completely gone until we move somewhere I actually like and some things in my life sort themselves out. But I guess it's not as bad as it was before raw, it's just not gone. For me, it's a lot better when it's warm and sunny, so living in Michigan.... not exactly helping that, you know? [in the winter we'll sometimes go weeks without any real sunlight. It;s the worst.]

[Dimond]

Hanalei: I completely get you on the weather. I personally can't take cold weather & sometimes get cold even in a warm environment because the a/c has to be on all the time or when it does get a bit colder in the winter. That seems to be improving a bit too, especially since I'm taking iodine which most people are deficient in.

For everyone: It's important to remember that it takes time for you to receive all the positive benefits of changing your diet & that it often needs to be combined with other things. It took years to create toxicity, it can years to undo it (luckily not as long as it took to create). But it's highly worth it when it happens. Instead of just waiting for it to take full affect, you need to find the right support tools & methods to help ease some of the difficulty you're experiencing. For me, spending a lot of time in solitude helped greatly. Even if you can just do a small amount of that a day, it will eventually improve things when you use that time wisely ie: meditation, prayer, journaling, reading spiritual materials, etc. Exercising is also very important, especially if you can do something you enjoy. Any real support you can get, through personal or professional means, can help as well. I personally had little while I've been raw & still managed to change things. Doing brief juice feasts/fasts & cleansing in other ways is what contributed to moving things along more quickly (along with spiritual practices). There's so many people with similar issues on the internet who've managed to turn around their lives greatly after suffering for 20-50+ yrs. The unfortunate part is it took until recently to find enough useful information to make a significant difference. Now there's a lot of resources available.

Anyone's welcome to email me if they want support or advice. My mission is to help as many as possible be able to live a better quality of life.

[MysticTree]

Something as simple as not having a TV makes a huge difference.

[Raw Angel Mom]

If you are low in B12, Vitamin D, during the change of Season when the sun isn't as present as the summer, you may feel more the blues.

I used to be depress all the time, i didn't realize that it was also physical. Things healed when i went back on raw vegan food in 2007.

Take a good care of you, don't give up hope.

All will be well!