[throwaway482940]

About five years ago, after experimenting with some diet changes, I started having some pretty terrible digestive issues, like extremely bloating and indigestion. The issues would fluctuate, sometimes being much worse than others. Along with it came personality changes, like apathy, and they would also fluctuate along with the digestive issues. It's actually pretty scary how much it affected my brain. There are times when the apathy is so extreme I feel like a psychopath, and that comes from someone that once upon a time was vegan due to ethical reasons, so I am (or was) an empathic person. It really is mindblowing. The thoughts I have had and sometimes have would put me in a psychiatric hospital, thoughts I would have never imagined I would have.

[Fauntleroy]

Sorry if I'm reading into this too much, but did the symptoms you described above ultimately lead to you abandoning veganism? Also, what were the dietary changes that caused those symptoms?

[throwaway482940]

Yeah, I ended up abandoning veganism, because I no longer felt (and feel) the empathy that I did back in the day (if there's much left). Being able to experience the world through the lenses of someone with low empathy makes you a little sympathetic (heh) to those that are born like that. Basically my decisions are purely rational as of today. I'm lucky to not be impulsive at all; if I were, I would have fewer friends than I do.

I briefly answered the dietary changes in another comment.

[happylion0801]

Exactly have the same experience as you. After I got diagnosed with IBS, I started having pretty huge personality changes lasting to this day.

No idea the path to recovery is

[psychopomp]

I also have struggled for years with IBS-C, SIBO, food sensitivities, chronic inflammation, and mood disorders. It all started with multiple parasites and infections (e. Coli, giardia) from a year in India.

Rifaximin, an antibiotic, helped reset my gut and symptoms would disappear for a while but slowly creep back.

The thing that finally fixed it for me a little over a year ago is a well formulated probiotic called Seed. They have a fancy capsule that helps it survive stomach acid before delivering the goods to the bottom of the small intestine. I had tried many other probiotics and every home fermentation project before that to no avail. Within a week of taking Seed I felt 90% better, and the improvements have stayed with me for over a year and going back to a normal diet.

Good luck <3

[throwaway482940]

Yeah, it's pretty complicated. I have gotten blood, stool, and urine tests and all have come out fine. Food that previously would never cause any issues cause massive problems nowadays. Did your issues come from any dietary changes? How did they appear?

[happylion0801]

It happened over many months. I was a student at that time and had a poor diet. Mostly ate vegan food with lots of fruit.

I have had numerous tests done and everything came back as normal. Following fodmap diet currently but it’s very restrictive. Almost everything triggers my ibs symptoms

[orangutanemoji]

This happened to me too. Vegan in college for 1.5yrs and ever since have had ultra sensitive IBS. Feel lied to by so many people.

[throwaway482940]

> Mostly ate vegan food with lots of fruit.

The exact same case for me.

[kanyethegreat]

did you track causation? like what diet changes led to the behavioral changes?

[throwaway482940]

It's hard to say. The diet was vegan, but it was a poorly implemented vegan diet. I was basically eating a lot of fruit and legumes, far too much fruit I should say. Once I started having the digestive issues, I started reading about it on the Internet, and I came across some sites talking about copper overload, how vegan diets inevitably suffer from an inbalance between zinc and copper, but I'm not sure if it's pseudoscience or not. I do have low ceruloplasmin, which is the molecule that carries copper around the blood, so that is at least interesting, but yeah, could be coincidence. In any case, I haven't managed to fix it unfortunately, even after switching to an ordinary diet.

[zargon]

Your microbiome takes time to adapt to what you're eating and if you drastically increased fiber suddenly, it was likely not prepared for it. It could also have had a weak ability to deal with certain types of fiber. Often it's oligosaccharides (beans). The FODMAP process helps you figure out which fiber your gut may be sensitive to and then you can start low and gradually increase it over time.

[everybodyknows]

The Baliza app was helpful in figuring out my own food intolerances.