Depression and Anxiety - How I cured myself

Someone commented on another blog about have RLS in the 70's and "back then" they didn't know what it was. Looking back, I suffered from pretty severe depression in high school in the early 80's. Depression was not a mainstream "disease" and there were no Rx ads on TV and Prozac and awareness were not around. I suffered with uncontrollable crying spells and other emotional issues my parents (and myself) didn't understand.

In my late 20s, early 30s, I found a psychiatrist and prozac when I nearly had a nervous breakdown at work. It relieved the symptoms and allowed me to function at work. I took the pills for several years and just couldn't face a lifetime of pill popping (I was on a cocktail of 3 for depression/anxiety). I went off and back on the meds without much stability.

About 3-4 years ago I started changing my diet, eliminating sugar at first primarily, and adding fish oil, probiotics, and went off ALL MEDS. I now take zero medication. I also had to find a way to help deal with and process stress in my life because environmental factors do affect us.

I have not had a true depressive episode in over 3 years. I am convinced that my diet in my teens (80% simple carbs and highly processed food, no veggies) was responsible for my depression and ADD symptoms I was experiencing. While technically I did have these "diseases" and the drugs did alleviate symptoms, it did not answer the question of WHY initially. I found those answers much later in life.

There are probably some people out there who have had serious trauma in their life, and have environmental depression/anxiety or have damaged their bodies in somes ways that a nutrutional prescription would not cure them, but I am totally convinced that mere diet changes could alleviate significant symptoms in most people.

My best friend is a bi-polar/manic depressive and she lives on coffee and cigarettes and the worst processed food. She doesn't eat salads or fresh fruit or anything ever. Her daughter is 12 and has the worst acne I have seen. She eats the same diet. I have tried over and over to convince her to try some simple diet changes to no avail. She just keeps getting in line at the MDs office for her scripts which, by the way, she can't really afford because she has no insurance. She tells me she can't afford to "eat that organic stuff" like me but how much would she save if she quit smoking and didn't have to take $400 worth of meds each month?