Keto saved my mental health

My name is Michael Furman, I am 21 years old, I live and have lived in South Florida for 20 years of my life. To understand my story we have to go back to my younger childhood. I always struggled with ADHD for as long as I can remember. I was diagnosed at age 5 and began treatment with Vyvanse at age 8. The drug made me feel horrible, with what I can only describe as a caffeine overdose rollercoaster. The treatment didn't help, it had only made me feel worse mentally and physically. Eventually, I became severely underweight and malnourished. My BMI for 4 years was under 18 from ages 9-13; a period in life that is crucial for both brain and physical development. This along with eating the standard American diet significantly deteriorated my mental health. At age 12, I was diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I was then given the SSRI Zoloft as treatment. Of course, this only made me feel worse as I was a drugged-out zombie. OCD is a very stressful condition, with constant unwanted thoughts of impending doom that flooded my head every second of the day, the only relief I could find relief is by performing compulsions. Not only did this make me look insane in school, but It also stressed the living daylights out of me. All I knew was stress growing up. This persisted and worsened throughout my teenage years. It soon became the norm, and my mental health felt hopeless. I participated in various physical activities growing up, sports such as soccer, and my favorite, track, and field. My doctors always chalked up my condition as genetic, only medications will help me they said. Well, they didn't, they only made me feel horrible. I somehow managed to get through high school. My grades were very poor, along with my SAT scores. I then enrolled in a state college at 18 years old. My weight spiraled out of control as the only source of comfort I could find was eating. If I became stressed out I would crave sugar, more and more sugar. I was practically grazing 24/7. This lead to me weighing 240 pounds by 18 years old. I became a full-blown sugar addict. My health deteriorated even more and at 18 I was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder Type 2. So now I was taking antipsychotics, the same medications schizophrenics take, along with SSRIs for OCD. Yet again, my psychiatrist told me that Bipolar is mostly inherited. They told me that Bipolar is a lifelong condition that gets significantly worse as you age if left untreated. I battled crippling depression with waves of mania for a year. It ruined a lot of relationships in my life. I felt hopeless, Doctors could only offer medications that had detrimental side effects. It wasn't until my grandfather, who is now turning 82, sent me an email showcasing Dr. Berg's channel. My grandfather has been doing keto for many years, he is turning 82 in November, and takes zero medications! He is in phenomenal health for his age. That simple email radically changed my life. Without a doubt, my best decision was deciding to listen to the old guy and give the video a shot. I quickly learned about basic human physiology. Learning about the functions of insulin, and ketosis was the foundation to understanding health. I quickly realized how I had insulin resistance and was plagued with inflammation. I connected this with my mental health conditions. In 2019, I began my keto and intermittent fasting journey. Within a year I lost 70 pounds, and for the first time in my life, I had a healthy six-pack. My mental health greatly improved, within 6 months I got off all my medications. In which I still am and have no need to go back. Despite this great success I would still have incidences of anxiety, and some moments of depression. Knowing that diet and lifestyle had greatly improved my well-being, I tried to solve the final piece to the puzzle. I then ran into two channels that also radically changed my life. Paul Saladino, and Shawn Baker. I became introduced to a diet known as Carnivore. At first, I thought it was crazy, to only eat meat, but I saw an overwhelming amount of anecdotal evidence showing that this diet significantly improved people's mental health and autoimmune disorders. So, in 2020, I decided to give this a try. That was when I had hit what I would call the goldilocks zone of health. All of my anxiety and depression had disappeared and every aspect of my health greatly improved. I also began weight training, and within 6 months I was able to add 20 pounds of lean muscle to my frame. Going from 170 pounds to 190 pounds which I'm still currently at. It's currently been a year of a carnivore, which has transitioned more into an animal-based keto diet. I will eat fruit occasionally, things like blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, mainly low glycemic fruits. I'll also include goat's milk from time to time as I can tolerate it. All other nightshade vegetables I have completely discarded from my diet. What a typical day looks like for me I currently work as a kayak tour guide in South Florida. I'm full time so I work roughly 50 hours or so a week. I'm very physically active and spend a lot of time in the sun. I'll have two meals in a day, one in the morning when I first wake up at 6 am. This is more of a fat bomb meal, I'll have 4 hard-boiled eggs with bullet coffee that is loaded with butter and cream. This holds me over the whole day as I work outside and go to the gym after my shift. I don't eat till I get home around 8 pm, this is 14 hours of fasting during the daylight hours. For dinner, I have a feast, usually consisting of 2-3 pounds of meat, whether its steak, or pork. I'll also add beef tallow and always have 2-3 ounces of beef liver. This seems to work best for me as I've never felt stronger or more mentally sound in my life. I'm 2 years into keto and will never look back. I would like to thank Dr Berg, his simple yet practical lectures on YouTube has taught me so much about human physiology and alternative medicine. It also sparked my fascination about nutrition and lifestyle science. I can't believe how much of a change it has made in my life. If you are reading this for inspiration you can do it! My main advice for people on keto is to avoid seed oils. These are highly toxic and inflammatory to our bodies. These are new oils as well and are not ancestrally consistent. Replace seed oils for animal fats like ghee and tallow. I would also say add some organ meats to your diet, they're a super food and are not toxic.