Depersonalization is a form of anxiety that makes you feel:
- disconnected
- foggy headed
- unclear
- unmindful
- unaware
- like a robot
And I had all of these for around two years. It took me ages to realize what I actually had. I thought I had a headache. I thought I needed glasses. I thought I was tired. But then I realized that some stress I had gone through had taken my low level social anxiety to sky high levels. It was really a defense mechanism of my brain. “I’ll protect you from stress! Let me disconnect you. You’re welcome!” Well, for someone who has meditated for years, practiced yoga and actually hug trees in fits of total present awareness, this was H O R R I B L E. I was not myself at all. I still have it to this day, but it’s much milder and I’ve learned a few things that really helped and I can use them now to keep it at bay. So here’s what I did to manage my depersonalization anxiety:
Some of these products contain affiliate links of the products I have used and loved and happy to share with you
I went Keto (For a while)
Whaaat what what I hear you saying. An anti-dieting coach following a diet!
Actually, I believe you can follow any eating plan you want – as long as you do it with the right mindset.
Although, let me say – that even with all my skills and tools, I still found structuring my eating kinda triggering! So let that be a warning to you that even with a totally happy relationship with food, just by being way more careful about some foods can cause that balance to tip.
However, I knew I needed to balance my blood sugar and that’s why I did it.
I had followed YouTuber’s who had talked about their experience with depersonalization and a big part of keeping it under control is to balance your blood sugar.
So simply I followed these rough guidelines:
* No refined sugar
* No highly processed carbs
* Keeping total carbs to under 50-25g a day (but I found 100g or around there also effective in terms of feeling stable, but not low enough to get into ketosis).
It also meant for me:
* Eating grass fed and high quality organic meat
* Drinking bone broth for breakfast!
* No coffee!
* Low fruit
* Loads of greens
I am no longer Keto just to inform you. Although I did feel it helped a lot.
One thing that I discovered was that because I started eating meat again for the first time in 25 years (!!) I really felt it helped with my IBS and gut health is really important!
So the first thing that really helped was:
I found
BONE BROTH to be super awesome in this process. And I really found it healing. I tried to make my own as much as possible, but otherwise I went for
THIS one because it was organic and grassfed.
I Supported my Gut
Loads of happy brain chemicals are actually produced in the gut. There’s also a ton of significant research out there about the importance of a strong, resilient, diverse colony of healthy gut microbes colonizing our colon. 
So I upped my microflora and gut support supplements! I favoured Bioglan as my main gut support and I still take it to this day because I feel it makes a huge difference to me. No bloating, no gas, no distended tummy.
I Took MUshrooms!
The mushrooms I am talking about are super duper brain supporting ones. Lion’s mane, chaga and cordyceps are pretty awesome. I listened to The Mushroom Guy – Paul Stamets, talking to Joe Rogan on his podcast and although it is massively in-depth, his experiences of brain cells reconnecting was amazing to me. After feeling so disconnected, anything that could support my brain in reconnecting what felt like broken tendrils floating about in space would be so helpful. I did find they helped and I love them to this day.
Ashwagandha
This is also known as Indian Ginseng and it is supposed to have calming and balancing properties. It was hard to know at this point if it was making a huge difference as I was taking lots of other steps to help myself, like good sleep and not so much phone use! But I did feel better and seeing as this was one of the supplements I took, and I have heard many good reports of it – I am putting it in here as I think it helped in my overall effort!
There are lots of different types of
CBD oil out there, so look around. But the best kind are FULL SPECTRUM. I have learned loads about CBD since looking into it last year. I think CBD is really a super player and no matter what ails you, CBD is upto the job!
So this does NOT get you high! The hemp plant is incredible, and you’ve probably eaten loads of hemp seeds in smoothies or salads without even knowing it. They are different varieties of plant, some have more THC the active compound that can get you high, or it can have more CBD the non psychoactive compounds that can help the brain and the body in many different ways as we have
cannabinoid receptors all over our body.
Iron Tablets
As feeling foggy felt totally draining, I made sure I had enough iron in my system. I’ve always gone for
Floradix here, but there’s lots of other brand and varieties.
I think it’s really important that us women have plenty of iron!
What I’ve learned from all of this is that health can be radically supported by gut health and brain health, but we also need to look after ourselves outside of the kitchen as well.
Plenty of walks, talks, hugs and sunshine all help too!
Have you experienced depersonalisation?
How do you manage it?
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