[kerkeslager]

Due to a video by Dave MacLeod[1], I made some dietary changes that have had a surprising and profound effect on my mental health. The full list of sources for that video are on his blog[2], but the paper I found most helpful was the first on the list[3].

It's hard to come to any conclusions here, but it does seem like for me, the issue was at least partly chemical.

However, I'll say that a lot of why I got to a point where I could even make the dietary changes, was that I had done a lot of emotional and psychological work. The reason I was interested when I saw the vlog, and read the paper, and made the dietary changes, was that I had done a lot of work to learn to even care about myself.

For me, there has been a feedback loop--learning to care about myself has allowed me to discover tools to improve my brain chemistry, which in turn is now allowing me to care about myself better and do more for myself (and others). I don't think that just giving people the right food or medicines to fix their brain chemistry would work if they don't see themselves as worth making the life changes for.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPi41bSrFdI

[2] https://www.davemacleod.com/blog/vlog15

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30254980/