> Emotional and Mental Health > Depression and Anxiety

Free From Demons!
by author Allen Darman

Mental illness really is a misnomer. It’s essentially a condition of chemical imbalance of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential fatty acids and simply means that one has become deficient in essential nutrients. The brain and such other body organs as the thyroid, liver, pancreas and the adrenal glands are lacking the essential chemistry they need to function properly.

This lack of nutrients stems from any one or more of the common malabsorptive causes: hidden food allergy, candida, lack of betaine hydrogen chloride, lack of digestive enzymes and other necessary digestive secretions.

Improper intestinal flora and parasites are contributors to nutritional deficiency. Without enzymes and other digestive secretions, protein cannot be broken down into amino acids which are critical to levels of neurotransmitters, hormones and enzymes.

Mental illness can and often does involve toxic chemical overload, various allergen exposures in one’s physical environment as well as one’s food, and emotional, mental or physical stress–especially chronic stress. Stress is biochemically depleting.

In 1994 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, otherwise known as manic-depression. However, I exhibited serious symptoms as early as 11 years old (1963). Despite mental aptitude and intelligence, these symptoms prevented me from higher education and a stable life. The suffering was immense, not only for myself but also for those around me.

Fortunately, as a result of years of searching for answers, reading everything I could get my hands on, connecting with both orthomolecular doctors and patients alike and in order to better educate myself, I began taking nutritional supplements in 1997. For the first time, I truly had hope. I realized my diagnosis of mental illness did not mean that I could not become well.

The Turning Point

It turned out that my lack of optimal mental and physical health was the end product of years of no one picking up on early warning signs of a sub-clinical malabsorption syndrome caused by hidden food allergies and other factors, like living in a stressful, often isolating world. Multiple nutrient deficiencies were the end result.

In my recovery I started by taking a very wide range of soft gel nutritional supplements (vitamins, minerals and free-form amino acids). The effect of this supplementation was very profound. Within months, for the first time in my life, I began to feel normal.

I was slowly able to get off all medication, including benzodiazepines, and have remained medication and symptom free. However, my complete recovery has taken time. I need to identify and correct all the reasons I was so deficient of essential biochemistry in the first place.

I am very inefficient digestively. I lack the ability to get full value out of the food that I eat. Adding probiotics, betaine hydrogen chloride and digestive enzymes to my nutritional supplements has helped me enormously. Also, in my recovery, I’ve learned how serious food allergies are for those who are mentally ill. If I eat foods containing wheat, gluten, dairy or eggs my intestinal tract becomes inflamed and I’m no longer able to absorb nutrients.

A simple "cave man" diet is the best for me. It includes cold-water fish, meat and organic raw foods.

Raw foods have enzymes which help me digest my other food. Especially helpful is raw vegetable juicing. Hidden food allergies and malabsorption have been linked to a wide range of mental and physical health problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, alcoholism, manic-depression, depression and schizophrenia. An elimination diet is important to one’s recovery, as food allergy testing is not yet an exact science.

I agree with the environmental physician Dr Sherry Rogers, who says: "We have two choices, we can either medicate or educate. I wish to educate."

Allen Darman is an independent researcher and writer living in New York, USA.

Source: alive #223, May 2001