Mental Health Tracking: Benefits of Protein and Sleep

SUCCESS achieved!

A personal experiment aimed at improving the clarity of my thought and reduce dissociative tendencies with protein and rest worked! Look above and you will see a big reduction in degree of dissociation and equally large increase in clarity– along with increased healthy meals and rest.

Coincidence, a one time fluke; perhaps, but noteworthy all the same.

Of course with a sample size of one (me) and an untested rating system (mine) nothing can be concluded or generalized. Regardless, there is value in becoming self-aware and taking control of what may or may not help us and this is what I did.  There are so many variables impacting on us, and at varying levels, each and every day that we need to take extra steps to monitor ourselves and try to solve all we can!

The effect of stress on people’s health and in turn, the impact of nutrition in health recovery is widely accepted. So it follows that people suffering with trauma based struggles (PTSD, DID, Acute Distress, Anxiety etc) will also benefit from nutritional interventions for their health and well-being. Yet,  there is still no central guiding directive leaving us uncertain as to what to do. This area of research remains highly fragmented despite many great studies from different fields of study.

This is what we know:

• when a major stress, especially a trauma occurs, the brain takes a major hit: physically, emotionally, physiologically, biochemically
• nutrition has a role to play in helping people recover from trauma
• Probiotics and antioxidants are important
• Omega-3 fats are anti-inflammatory, help the immune system and keeps health in balance
• traumas increase inflammation and more radical neuron activity
• we are in control of what we eat and how we get nutrition
• “megadoses of certain vitamins” does help symptoms of trauma
• the brain needs glucose for optimal functioning
• stress on the brain (Cortisol) shuts down systems and uses up a lot of energy: critically important for PTSD and DID!
• Higher brain systems (decision making, reflection) shut down first creating a feeling of chaos and slow, inefficient processing which needs to be rebalanced

This is what we don’t know:

• how to best support regulation of the biochemicals to improve brain functioning- especially the battle with fugue
• what role does protein have (my own experience is that it helps a lot)
• which food provides the nutrition needed to restore fragmented or confused thinking
• is nutrition part of the solution for DID as it seems to be for PTSD

There is no doubt that living with Dissociative Identity Disorder, PTSD or even acute stress is depleating, debilitating and exhausting. At the very least, this hard work requires good nutrition to maintain enough strength. However, I believe there are more benefits specific, and useful to symptoms.

Maybe, just maybe… when we experience a fugue state and dissociate, getting more protein provides us with energy and even some healing properties which lessen the degree of fugue (or vertigo).

Finally, we know that changes in the brain can help compensate for coping, suffering and pain, especially when there is trauma. We know the brain has a lot of ‘plasticity‘*, so it follows that we we can improve symptoms. Surely, nutrition has a role in restoring and repairing the negative impact of trauma, whether PTSD or DID. If this is the case we will have many more options for recovery!

Based on my knowledge of the science, I know we can create healthier functioning for ourselves. The challenge is to identify what brain processes to target for trauma symptoms, and how to nourish them best.  I will research all I can and keep you posted. If you know of anything, please let me know too.

*brain plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change at ANY AGE. I believe this is really key for DID because the trauma occurred  in childhood, long before the brain development is complete.