Thanks for sharing that! Greens are great. In the past I ate almost none but now I always have a big container of spinach in my fridge. Keep enjoying the super foods!
Don't eat sugar, don't eat cake, don't eat pudding .. You will regret having eaten a piece of sugary cake few hours after the event. Mind racing at twice the speed, headache etc. I replaced any coca cola and lemonade with water+lemon juice drops, any cake with flavourless yoghurt+ strawberries / xyz-berries. No beer. No white noodles, no white rice, no white bread, no white buns.
This switch was noticable when i started working out and therapy back in 2014. Never really thought about the positive things eating according to what my Personal Trainer said to me. But now.. thinking back.. and looking at my OCD lapse.. I notice how little I eat! The skill to make food is there.. but the avoidance compulsion is here at work.. This will be a good thing to tackle for the upcoming weeks.. :) - Jonas
Mark how did u resolve the food situation? Do you now always cook or buy food? I have just the same situation where I dont want to spend money but i also dont want to cook so i starve and it only worsens my ocd. Im currently on therapy working that but there are days where i get so exhausted about planning and making the meals that i dont have time for anything else.
And green foods are great! I just got this powder called 'super foods' greens. And although not quite as good as raw vegetables, its a really good morning drink to start the day. I too have noticed that my anxiety can spike depending on what I eat, and sometimes a little sugar calms my anxiety lol weird.
I now find that I can read very attentively during nighttime. From midnight to 4 pm I can read and read and read without much interference of my brain. But during daytime my thoughts race and it's very very challenging, to say the least. Do you think that's to do with the sunlight or with nutrition ? Is this a common thing ?
I don't know anything about it. Supplements didn't play a part in my recovery. There's lots of research looking at the benefits of improving the meals you're already eating, like the research highlighted in the book, "Willpower", that I mentioned. Since people need to eat anyway, I always recommend looking at how to make that experience healthy for you first.
Hi Mark, no idea if you are still posting under this thread, but what is your stance on the ketogenic diet? I'm trying to manage my mood/anxiety swings better with food. After all Hippocrates didn't get famous for nothing: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". I wonder if you have any experience on inflammation in the body and the brain due to the stuff we eat? Anyway, thanks again for the great content and i would love to hear your opinion on this topic.
I define a compulsion as anything a person does to cope with, check on, or control uncertainty, anxiety, and other feelings they don't like. So trying to use food to control emotions is something I'd put in the same category as somebody that says they just drink a bottle of whisky whenever they feel anxious and then pow! No more anxiety. Food can be an awesome support for doing the things we care about in life, but we can just as easily turn it into a compulsion and an eating disorder. If somebody has struggled with anxiety, it wouldn't be surprising that taking on a very involved diet that requires them to manage and control things and count and monitor stuff would lead to a reduction in anxiety (temporarily) because they have all of these new uncertainties to manage. But if they keep doing the same patterns of behaviors inside and outside of their heads, I would expect the problems to persist and worsen. So I always encourage people to make changes in how they're interacting with the stuff inside their heads and around them. We don't want to be in a situation where we believe a cookie could push us into relapse.
Thank you for the explaining this to me, it was indeed with the mindset of trying to lessen anxiety, when the focus should be more on accepting feelings, anxiety and uncertainty when they arise. I am currently eating the worse food out there and not moving while doing it, so a healthier look on it would be just to eat more healthy and exercising with the focus of accepting my anxiety and uncertainty in life, without taking it to the extremes in an attempt tot stop or lessen anything that is there. Great knowledge from your part! Thanks again!
Hey Mark, Would you have any tips for guilt of eating meat? I mean I have tried vegetarism/vegan diets but then I try to ruminate about the other animals I may cause suffering in my everyday life. Such as when driving car or even when I walk. I guess some of sort of balance would be best?
It could really help to cut out the compulsions around that. You can see what happens when we base actions around a fear: it just encourages the brain to obsess about more things to control, like you experienced before. That's what happens with anything we do if we've put fear and controling thoughts and feelings in charge of our actions. That doesn't mean you can't make similar choices without doing it as a compulsion. So it could really help to explore how you want to eat in a way that's about building and creating things you value instead of trying to control and avoid stuff.
@@everybodyhasabrain Thanks for the reply! Although I do feel compassion for animals but when I go vegan I tend to be overly worried about animals. So I don't what are my values then😅
@@hockey6403 I don't think we're talking about the same things. You already mentioned worrying about animals when you go vegan. I already know that. I'm saying that's just more of the same compulsions. You can do things in a different way without the compulsions.
I know a girl who was vegetarian and would kinda freak out if I ate beef jerky around her. She'd say I had to wash my hands. This video is shedding some light :)
Hope all of us suffering from OCD can recover well
I find the Omega3 in fish helps mitigate my anxiety levels which in turn stops the obsessive circle..
You have given me so much hope. I never even thought of these factors!!
That's great, Brittany! All the best with the journey up and over these challenges!
So many doctors and therapist fail to mention this. Thanks for all this information.
Thanks for sharing that! Greens are great. In the past I ate almost none but now I always have a big container of spinach in my fridge. Keep enjoying the super foods!
That's great! I also find that what I eat has a huge impact on what's going on in my head.
Hi man,
This is absolutely true. Not eating food with vitamins and the right stuff causes my brain to go loopy.
Don't eat sugar, don't eat cake, don't eat pudding .. You will regret having eaten a piece of sugary cake few hours after the event. Mind racing at twice the speed, headache etc. I replaced any coca cola and lemonade with water+lemon juice drops, any cake with flavourless yoghurt+ strawberries / xyz-berries. No beer. No white noodles, no white rice, no white bread, no white buns.
And NO white pasta either. All whole grain brown wheats and bread instead
This switch was noticable when i started working out and therapy back in 2014. Never really thought about the positive things eating according to what my Personal Trainer said to me. But now.. thinking back.. and looking at my OCD lapse.. I notice how little I eat! The skill to make food is there.. but the avoidance compulsion is here at work.. This will be a good thing to tackle for the upcoming weeks.. :) - Jonas
Great advice for me. I do have a cake problem, which probably isn't helping. Will try to eat better!
Mark how did u resolve the food situation? Do you now always cook or buy food? I have just the same situation where I dont want to spend money but i also dont want to cook so i starve and it only worsens my ocd. Im currently on therapy working that but there are days where i get so exhausted about planning and making the meals that i dont have time for anything else.
And green foods are great! I just got this powder called 'super foods' greens. And although not quite as good as raw vegetables, its a really good morning drink to start the day. I too have noticed that my anxiety can spike depending on what I eat, and sometimes a little sugar calms my anxiety lol weird.
I, myself, have struggled with the knives and raw meat. I wear rubber gloves when handling raw meat.
They are very common compulsions. I found cooking classes were great for learning to throw out those kinds of compulsions.
I now find that I can read very attentively during nighttime. From midnight to 4 pm I can read and read and read without much interference of my brain. But during daytime my thoughts race and it's very very challenging, to say the least. Do you think that's to do with the sunlight or with nutrition ? Is this a common thing ?
Do you want to stay up until 4am reading?
I don't know anything about it. Supplements didn't play a part in my recovery. There's lots of research looking at the benefits of improving the meals you're already eating, like the research highlighted in the book, "Willpower", that I mentioned. Since people need to eat anyway, I always recommend looking at how to make that experience healthy for you first.
Hi Mark, no idea if you are still posting under this thread, but what is your stance on the ketogenic diet? I'm trying to manage my mood/anxiety swings better with food. After all Hippocrates didn't get famous for nothing: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". I wonder if you have any experience on inflammation in the body and the brain due to the stuff we eat? Anyway, thanks again for the great content and i would love to hear your opinion on this topic.
I define a compulsion as anything a person does to cope with, check on, or control uncertainty, anxiety, and other feelings they don't like. So trying to use food to control emotions is something I'd put in the same category as somebody that says they just drink a bottle of whisky whenever they feel anxious and then pow! No more anxiety. Food can be an awesome support for doing the things we care about in life, but we can just as easily turn it into a compulsion and an eating disorder. If somebody has struggled with anxiety, it wouldn't be surprising that taking on a very involved diet that requires them to manage and control things and count and monitor stuff would lead to a reduction in anxiety (temporarily) because they have all of these new uncertainties to manage. But if they keep doing the same patterns of behaviors inside and outside of their heads, I would expect the problems to persist and worsen. So I always encourage people to make changes in how they're interacting with the stuff inside their heads and around them. We don't want to be in a situation where we believe a cookie could push us into relapse.
Thank you for the explaining this to me, it was indeed with the mindset of trying to lessen anxiety, when the focus should be more on accepting feelings, anxiety and uncertainty when they arise. I am currently eating the worse food out there and not moving while doing it, so a healthier look on it would be just to eat more healthy and exercising with the focus of accepting my anxiety and uncertainty in life, without taking it to the extremes in an attempt tot stop or lessen anything that is there. Great knowledge from your part! Thanks again!
Hey Mark,
Would you have any tips for guilt of eating meat? I mean I have tried vegetarism/vegan diets but then I try to ruminate about the other animals I may cause suffering in my everyday life. Such as when driving car or even when I walk. I guess some of sort of balance would be best?
It could really help to cut out the compulsions around that. You can see what happens when we base actions around a fear: it just encourages the brain to obsess about more things to control, like you experienced before. That's what happens with anything we do if we've put fear and controling thoughts and feelings in charge of our actions. That doesn't mean you can't make similar choices without doing it as a compulsion. So it could really help to explore how you want to eat in a way that's about building and creating things you value instead of trying to control and avoid stuff.
@@everybodyhasabrain Thanks for the reply! Although I do feel compassion for animals but when I go vegan I tend to be overly worried about animals. So I don't what are my values then😅
@@hockey6403 I don't think we're talking about the same things. You already mentioned worrying about animals when you go vegan. I already know that. I'm saying that's just more of the same compulsions. You can do things in a different way without the compulsions.
@@everybodyhasabrain Mm yeah got it know! Thank you!👍👍
I get anxious thoughts on dealing with toxic people
That's ok.
@@everybodyhasabrain 💪
I heard St John's wort can help. Any thoughts about it?
Do not take with ssri
I know a girl who was vegetarian and would kinda freak out if I ate beef jerky around her. She'd say I had to wash my hands. This video is shedding some light :)
Yeah...