M
member 2106
Guest
Hi there,
I've been lurking on this wonderful forum for about a year now, and thought it was about time I introduced myself.
I became interested in nutrition a few years ago, and was initially drawn to the Paleo diet and thought of it as gospel. I was very anti-sugar for quite a while and indeed found that abstaining from sugar, except from the occasional fruit, would give me an exceptional mental clarity (which to be honest I've never had since - perhaps my stress hormones were high?). Anyway, in Christmas 2013 I had my first panic attack, triggered by smoking some cannabis, and the attack was so overwhelmingly traumatic that it's shaped my life since, and I still suffer from low-level anxiety most of the time, and rely on Valium to keep me going. (I only take this very rarely, however, because full-blown panic attacks don't happen to me very often).
I became interested in Ray Peat around that time because it somehow just made instinctual sense to me, especially with his anti-stress message, and since then I've incorporated some of his advice. To be honest, though, I haven't been able to fully commit, mainly due to laziness. I eat liver, raw carrot, oysters, OJ, ice cream, all that stuff - but I still haven't totally eliminated the bad foods, and often have sandwhiches for lunch, or occasionally takeaway food which is chock-full of PUFAs and perhaps negates all the good work that oysters and liver and OJ do.
For the last while I've felt particularly unwell, and these are the main symptoms:
1) almost constant sluggishness and fatigue, a feeling of glue in my head - coffee can sometimes relieve this slightly, but also wreaks havoc on my bowels
2) a slow but steady thinning of the hair
3) an almost complete absence of libido (I'm only 27)
4) a recent increase in anxiety, panic-attacks and pretty much perpetually rotten mood
I suspect that the main reason for this is that I've been working full-time for most of this year, and I work in a call centre, which means looking at a screen all day, sitting in a massive office with constant background noise, etc, etc. I know that it's bad for me, but I need the money. But perhaps I'm not taking my diet seriously enough, and should be making more of an effort to avoid toxins (I posted recently about the difficulty of maintaining health when you're working long hours in a sedentary job).
I really want to address these problems, but sometimes I think that while I'm working 40 hours a week (I know, not relatively that bad) in a sedentary, repetitive job, it will not be quite possible to achieve optimal health. Nevertheless, eliminating the bad staff can't hurt.
This is already too long, so I'll stop there.
I've been lurking on this wonderful forum for about a year now, and thought it was about time I introduced myself.
I became interested in nutrition a few years ago, and was initially drawn to the Paleo diet and thought of it as gospel. I was very anti-sugar for quite a while and indeed found that abstaining from sugar, except from the occasional fruit, would give me an exceptional mental clarity (which to be honest I've never had since - perhaps my stress hormones were high?). Anyway, in Christmas 2013 I had my first panic attack, triggered by smoking some cannabis, and the attack was so overwhelmingly traumatic that it's shaped my life since, and I still suffer from low-level anxiety most of the time, and rely on Valium to keep me going. (I only take this very rarely, however, because full-blown panic attacks don't happen to me very often).
I became interested in Ray Peat around that time because it somehow just made instinctual sense to me, especially with his anti-stress message, and since then I've incorporated some of his advice. To be honest, though, I haven't been able to fully commit, mainly due to laziness. I eat liver, raw carrot, oysters, OJ, ice cream, all that stuff - but I still haven't totally eliminated the bad foods, and often have sandwhiches for lunch, or occasionally takeaway food which is chock-full of PUFAs and perhaps negates all the good work that oysters and liver and OJ do.
For the last while I've felt particularly unwell, and these are the main symptoms:
1) almost constant sluggishness and fatigue, a feeling of glue in my head - coffee can sometimes relieve this slightly, but also wreaks havoc on my bowels
2) a slow but steady thinning of the hair
3) an almost complete absence of libido (I'm only 27)
4) a recent increase in anxiety, panic-attacks and pretty much perpetually rotten mood
I suspect that the main reason for this is that I've been working full-time for most of this year, and I work in a call centre, which means looking at a screen all day, sitting in a massive office with constant background noise, etc, etc. I know that it's bad for me, but I need the money. But perhaps I'm not taking my diet seriously enough, and should be making more of an effort to avoid toxins (I posted recently about the difficulty of maintaining health when you're working long hours in a sedentary job).
I really want to address these problems, but sometimes I think that while I'm working 40 hours a week (I know, not relatively that bad) in a sedentary, repetitive job, it will not be quite possible to achieve optimal health. Nevertheless, eliminating the bad staff can't hurt.
This is already too long, so I'll stop there.
