It's not always in your head

Recently I have had a few clients who have come to me after feeling that they haven’t made much progress in long term therapy.

They come to me to try a different approach.

They have worked through a lot of their psychological issues and may have made some progress - but still feel there is something holding them back.

I’ve heard on a number of occasions of people who have had months or years of psychological input who - once they try a different approach - find their mood finally lifts. For example, a young male who had over 12 months of psychological therapy added some omega 3 into his regime and within a couple of weeks noticed that he felt less irritable, less aggressive and calmer. (Research on omega-three versus omega 6 ratio’s would agree - omega-three supplement reduces aggression, high processed (trans fatty acid) intake is associated with increased aggression).

Another client had struggled for years with mood - trialled a number of antidepressants, had therapy, ate ‘well’ - only to find that when she eliminated dairy from her diet - her mood improved, irritability went down completely and she felt much calmer.

Other clients have noticed that a good quality multi-vitamin improved their ability to cope with stress, helped them to feel less anxious, improved resilience and improved their overall mood.

I’ve had colleagues who have struggled for years with mood issues - only to find when they changed their diet, bought in high-quality multivitamins and fish oil - their many years struggling with mood/anxiety just slowly dissipated.

The latest research from the UOC (University of Canterbury) showed that women who suffered from significant PMS “rated their quality of life as better at the end of three months of treatment” - the ‘treatment’ being multi-vitamins or simply vitamin B6.

Not all psychological distress is in your head. It’s not all caused by psychological trauma, bullying or something that happened to you as a child (every one of those things can contribute to later-life mental illness however and is definitely worth exploring). And although your distress may be contributed to ‘hormones’ in the case of PMS - this doesn’t mean it’s untreatable or needs medication to deal with it.

Some of it comes from other areas and is caused by what you eat, what you don’t eat, nutrient deficiencies or other lifestyle factors which may be increasing inflammation in your body and therefore in your brain - causing you to feel anxious, irritable, depressed or moody.

So if you feel you have tried ‘everything’ - you might need to keep peeking around the corner to see what you might be missing.