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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: New York
Posts: 53
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: New York
Posts: 53
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"So the diet isn't the cause but rather the symptom," he said. "If you think of people that are committed to being a vegetarian it's a fairly significant commitment and it picks up people at the fringe of the obsessive-compulsive spectrum."
(taken from the SBS survey)
I tend to think this is a major factor in establishing a correlation between vegetarian diet and mental health disorders. I for one wouldn't have considered significantly changing my diet if I weren't already anxious and miserable as a result of the head injury. And they do concede in the article that there is no established causal relationship between giving up meat and developing mood disorders after the fact.
Also worth noting is that meat is tasty and thereby addictive, so like it says in the Women's Health Mag article, one respondent felt "weepy" just 3 weeks after giving up meat? That's hardly enough time to develop any serious nutritional deficiencies, isn't it? Sounds like withdrawals from caffeine or nicotine or any other source of habitual comfort. I'd also imagine most vegetarians/vegans are more acutely aware of issues such as carbon footprint, fish extinction, industrial livestock abuses, and pesticide overabundance— which if you start to read into any one of em' can come as a huge shock and lead to some serious despair as well as food anxiety.
I think especially the lack of B12 in vegetarian diet is something to consider. I think I felt much better after reintroducing 1-2 servings of fish/week into my diet, and B12 would be a contributing factor there.
Actually I think if I had to advocate for anything, it would most likely be a "flexitarian" or mostly-vegetarian diet. I find the absolutism and the almost dogmatic attitudes I've found in some vegetarians and vegans to be off-putting, albeit seductive. You really don't have to be in one or the other extreme in order to make significant changes to diet and health.
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-First TBI in 2011. Iron cellar door closed on my head. Undiagnosed PCS, and was unaware of anything regarding TBI at the time.
-2nd TBI in August, 2014. Fell skateboarding and hit head on pavement.
-3rd TBI in November, 2014. Hit in the head at work with a dish rack with full strength by a large employee. CT scan normal. Diagnosed mTBI, PCS, PTSD, migraine with aura, and chronic depression. Symptoms have included: quite severe visual disorders, hearing loss in left ear, lethargy, brain fog, dizziness, disordered sleep, hallucinations and "exploding head syndrome", neck and shoulder pain, migraines, headaches, loss of emotions, all forms of cognitive deficiency, loss of reading/verbal ability, sound/light sensitivity, anxiety, panic attacks. Most notably are a general loss of identity and the disillusionment with the world accompanying trauma. But on the other hand, a new and heightened awareness of the nature of self, others, and of suffering itself.
-As of December, 2015, am still experiencing visual disturbances, memory and speech problems, balance, sensitivity and overstimulation issues, along with the trickier to pinpoint cognitive changes, but feel that I am no longer clawing my way through a waking hell, so feel much better about being alive. Hallucinations and panic attacks are gone (thank God!), getting much better at reading and writing, and remembering/planning my daily tasks. Hopeful for further recovery, but thankful to be at least at 50%.
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