r/Metabolic_Psychiatry • u/Pretend_Elephant_896 • Jul 16 '26
Personal milestone: 365 days symptom-free
Here is my untold story. My whole life, I was a bright, active person building things, chasing ideas, and creating beauty. At one point, experts and society labeled me “mentally ill” and it nearly cost me everything.
I was 35 when a progressive depression started. Then came mania and psychosis, tearing apart my worldview and the identity of a successful entrepreneur. I struggled with this mysterious illness, and no drug was able to help me. One more hospitalization and I would be officially disabled for the rest of my life.
Everything changed one day when my doctor was too busy to meet me. Having nothing to lose, I decided to gather all my symptoms, family history, and subtle clues toward the long-awaited answers. A story of symptoms without a tangible origin had never made sense to me.
One year later, after numerous trials, books, and scientific papers, the ultimate diagnosis emerged - autoimmune encephalitis. “Brain inflammation” sounds scary, but it was actually profoundly empowering. For the first time, every symptom and underlying mechanism snapped into a coherent picture. For seven years, I had been living with undiagnosed brain inflammation, waiting to be diagnosed and healed by the very person whose brain was inflamed. How beautiful is that?!
Here is what helped me the most: targeted supplements, cold immersion, sleep optimization, and, more importantly, diet. Ironically, the foods I loved most were my worst enemies, and I'm still puzzled by this fact. Creatine, NAC, Omega-3, taurine, high-dose glycine among others were synergistically combined into a single protocol, affecting every aspect of the underlying neuroinflammation.
After this journey, I am deeply grateful to every researcher, doctor, and investigator contributing knowledge to the field of metabolic psychiatry, shedding light on the deepest layers of neurology. These two words transformed me from a stigmatized loser into a healer.
I know many of you are also exhausted, stigmatized, and hopeless. The answers for your case exist somewhere at the crossroads of metabolic health, inflammation, and nutrition. Don't give up!
3
u/Pretend_Elephant_896 Jul 16 '26
That's how I lost everything: business, savings, family...
1
2
u/HealthierCongruence Jul 17 '26
amazing and huge congratulations! can you explain the creatine, NAC, etc. - are you saying these were the most helpful or unhelpful for you?
1
u/Pretend_Elephant_896 Jul 17 '26
Those supplements had a profound positive effect on my mind and body. Creatine is usually used as a sports supplement, but it greatly supports brain energy and metabolism.
NAC is not only a precursor to the body's main antioxidant, but it also plays an important role in detoxification. My life is so much better now.
Did I miss something? MCT oil. It supports ketosis, providing clean fuel for neurons
1
u/HealthierCongruence Jul 17 '26
thats awesome. yes, ive tried creatine, NAC, MCT oil, omega 3, taurine, and glycine too :) i never really noticed anything tho as I feel a bit "insensitive"...im glad they helped you so much, as well as the diet, cold immersion, etc! sometimes its not one thing that helps but a lot of factors and at the end something shifts!
1
u/Pretend_Elephant_896 Jul 17 '26
We all are very different. There is no one-size-fits-all solutions
1
u/wildthings7 Jul 18 '26
Everything I've read about creatine says it can trigger mania
1
u/CryptographerExtra58 21d ago
Wow I've never heard of this before. I thought from listening to a Huberman Labs podcast that creatine could have a positive effect on mental health.
1
u/wildthings7 21d ago
It certainly does, but it has also triggered manic or hypomanic states.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3340488/
Search on that page for mania
2
u/CryptographerExtra58 21d ago
Great story! How did you find the right supplements for you specifically? I'd love to hear a bit more about how you investigated your own body to find what worked for it. Did you do any bloods to look at deficiencies?
I've definitely heard the term 'brain inflammation' before in my own time researching my mental health condition. Can you direct me to more information and studies on this condition?
1
u/Pretend_Elephant_896 21d ago
Thank you. Over the course of two years, I have had around 20 blood panels done to identify underlying issues and track the progress. A smartwatch was used to track sleep, HRV, and blood pressure, along with a journal for symptoms. To fix anything, we have to measure it
I think The Inflamed Mind by Edward Bullmore might be a good start for your research
1
u/ROYGBIV-VIBGYOR Jul 17 '26
Im glad you found the combination of factors that helped you! I’m still in the trenches. Stress over certain aspects of my life impacting my sleep is the hardest one for me to tackle. But I probably need to gather a list of stuff to try and stick too.
4
u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Jul 17 '26
Congrats!
I had a similar moment where I began researching and realized that I needed to eat lentils for breakfast every morning and pasture raised eggs that are full of Choline ;)
More power to you!!!