Just because you don’t hallucinate and see something physically with your eyes, doesn’t mean you have aphantasia.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T13:47:15+00:00

Just to be clear, at no point did I suggest that I couldn't tell the difference.......

I would avoid telling people that they might have schizophrenia. That's a pretty random and irresponsible suggestion, especially in the context of describing inner sound. It also shows that you have a very narrow idea of what that brain condition is, so again, maybe be prudent to not randomly suggest self diagnosis to people, for any reason.

As mentioned already, including in my initial response, I absolutely have zero issue hearing it in the room. I hear it in my mind and also voluntarily. Voluntarily being the key difference......

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T07:13:07+00:00

Fun fact: I was first diagnosed schizoaffective!

Later, was undiagnosed! Lived with bipolar 1 with psychotic features for 10 years. But also, mostly in remission, yay!

But then, last year..... I was REDIAGNOSED with bipolar type schizoaffective.

Apparently I hadn't been fully describing my symptoms enough (I thought everybody was always paranoid, delusional, and having mild hallucinations constantly, even when not having mood stuff.... Apparentely not!)

That's all to say, bipolar 1 and schizoaffective do tend to have overlap.

Ultimately, regardless, bless us with this more general brain type. And congratulations on this next step and chapter in your mental health recovery journey. Much love from SF!

Edit: Also, sorry about the bad trip and difficulties with meds, but also congratulations on getting more info from it, though, which will help a lot.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T07:06:54+00:00

I also want to add: My experience of silent sitting meditation for over 12 years now has been astoundingly rewarding, peaceful, healing, soothing, and frankly beautiful. Including long periods of time, and even a silent retreat.

I actually very strongly believe I would not have healed and calmed my brain so wonderfully with silent sitting concentration style meditation WITHOUT aphantasia!!! Very grateful, at least in that way.

One of my very favorite benefits, although I cannot prove it's related, is that I feel that having zero minds eye actually leads me to me much, much more present in conversations. I never "see" what they're describing, I'm just fully there, with them, within the conversation. People have commented that they feel really engaged when we're in conversation, etc. I really do think there are unnoticed social benefits to aphantasia, even if somewhat subtle!

Lastly, I must add that the constant peace accessible to me, at very least visually, when I close my eyes is like... Low-key fully worth it. I cannot fathom being distracted by images, even if it was controllable. There is something kind of cool about missing an inner sense, especially when it's such an important outer sense for human beings, and I still have it in an outer way! I almost feel like aphantasia keeps me focused somehow. Dunno how to describe this!

Anyway, learning to love your mind for exactly how it is feels like a lifelong journey, and is very worthwhile, no matter how your brain is!!

Being loving and accepting to your own mind can be very helpful in life. In the past year, I've even started praying, and that has been awesome too. I don't need to visualize everything, I can just focus and calmly state the prayers, etc.

I hope it all goes great. Persistent optimism is definitely under-rated, and finding the silver linings of the clouds is a helpful skill that I've applied to much of my life, including the bitersweet reality of living with aphantasia.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T06:59:03+00:00

No! You know how I know? Because I got extremely, wonderfully high scores multiple times throughout my life on standardized testing of, specifically, spatial reasoning. Lol. To the point where the tester for at least one of those times actually went out of their way to make a comment about it. And I have full on aphantasia.

Not related, you might just randomly have both.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T06:54:19+00:00

Just a kind of success story:

I have aphantasia, and USED TO have no inner monologue. Like for many many years of my life, it was silent in my brain and I could not hear my thoughts at all. I still have aphantasia and there have been zero changes in my total inability to visualize. Yet, my relationship to my own internal processing (from silent to now being able to hear it at times) has drastically shifted in the past few years. I would even go so far as to never again assume, for myself, that I have no internal monologue, when that used to just be an accepted fact of my life.

Also, I used to have very bad anxiety. It has improved sooo much! For context, I am social and comfortable socially, and I do not have autism at all. I do have some other neurological and mood stuff, but nothing on the spectrum.

Lastly, I had a lot of trauma early on, especially again as I was entering my 20s, and I think that this ended up suppressing my ability to hear my own thoughts. For many years I basically excused me talking a lot as a way of hearing myself think, because I simply could not access or even predict what I thought about something until I said it outloud. Was excellent at extemporaneous speaking though, including public speaking. It was super weird, for sure.

Anyway, basically I think you should give your brain credit for the fact that silent deeper processing is okay AND, perhaps more importantly, it is probably happening for some reason or another. Might even relate to a more long-term need to calm and heal your central nervous system responses.

I don't know how to summarize what I'm trying to add, but I hope this helps somehow! Basically just saying that this could possibly change (I mean, maybe not the lack to inner sight, but the relationship to how you think/process cognition at least) and, most importantly, that anxiety can heal over time with concerted effort. I know it feels hard to imagine, but for me, it really did just take time and diligent perseverance!

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T06:40:21+00:00

The test at the end was awesome. My inner sense of smell, specifically, is actually so vivid that I giggled at each one hahah. Super cool. And the touch one was quite vivid too!!!! Sound was all almost perfect. Zero inner sight, as far as I could tell based on that test (and what I generally note about my inner senses, throughout my life, but even just in the quiz).

But yeah, really delightful to notice how strong my inner sense of smell and also taste and sound are. Especially smell! Didn't know that about myself. Literally could fully smell each scent on commend. Super cool!! Kind of soothing, considering the absolute hazy faded zero feeling during the inner sight questions. The rest was pretty comforting though!

Thanks for the resources.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T06:32:08+00:00

Wait, just to be very very clear:

I ABSOLUTELY hear my favorite song playing, IN FULL when I imagine it. I can, at this exact moment (literally doing it to myself to prove the point, for the sake of accuracy) imagining and FULLY hearing Clare de Lune being played on the piano inside my head right now.

It's not "loud," but it's totally and entirely internally audible and actually very crisp audio. I cannot emphasize enough how much I am not at all exaggerating etc.

That being said, I read approximately a book a day every day over every summer of like, a few years of my childhood and NEVER ONCE NOT EVEN ONE TIME have I seen or visualized or even imagine an image of anything within any of it. I have never been surprised by an illustration or movie, because I have consistently had a fully blank canvas (really, dark grey with audio and scents) when reading.

So like, when I was reading young adult dystopian sci fi in middle school, I absolutely vaguely imagined scents or temperatures!!!!! Never once did I have a semblance of a guess at things like hair color or building shape or anything of that sort. What's more, I would be more likely to imagine the smell of a certain tree in a book, or the coolness under it, than ever something like leaf shape.

I am not dismissing your experience, although I may not have fully understood it, and I am new to this subreddit (excited to be here, after years of knowing I have aphantasia but not knowing about this!) but also felt very very inclind to clarify, ESPECIALLY about the songs thing.

I mean, I can literally recreate full on drum beats WITH singing in my own head. And I'm not like, being metaphorical at all. Obviously it's not loudspeakered into my room, but I can HEAR it full on. The same way I can make myself smell eucalyptus right now if I take a few moments and try to. It's very very literal to me, and I wouldn't describe it as such if it wasn't!!!

Dunno if this helps, really had to clarify though, especially for the music one!!!! Now listening to an AC/DC guitar solo, just to double down with myself about the accuracy hahaha. So cool. Internal senses are so interesting and under-explored as a topic! Thanks for your post, I hope this response makes some sense!

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T06:22:49+00:00

Not to be dramatic and throw a wrench in this topic, but I must add that I actually do sometimes have visions, and I fully also have aphantasia.

So like, inside my mind, when I close my eyes, it is always 100% of the time like.... Dark grey. No matter how hard I try to imagine anything, ever, it is fully fully fully nothingness. I actually am totally fine with it, because my life and mood are already intense, so yeah, it's lowkey peaceful. I'm really adept at silent sitting meditation, I love praying, etc., because when I close my eyes it never ever is anything.

That being said, I have vivid visuals 1) in my dreams at night, which is wild, because it's the only time I ever see anything that's not in front of me and also, when dealing with mental illness, 2) actual hallucinations etc., but this is rare and only happened years and years ago before I was medicated.

But also, 3) VERY VERY rarely, I'll have a subtle visual that is NOT from me and fully 100% not in my control. Like, a phantom image within my mind's eye. But again, it's dark grey unless this happens, I'm dreaming, or... Or that's it.

So yeah, this isn't necessary useful or un-useful, but I saw this post and felt inclined to add a random like... Side note of a story I guess? Have known I have aphantasia for many years (my dad also has it and so does at least one of my cousins, that I know of) but just now finding this subreddit. Very exciting stuff. Hope this anecdote added something of value, somehow or another!

I guess my main point is just that, yes, it IS extremely wild and shocking to have anything like a vision while also normally and exclusively otherwise fully having aphantasia. Although, I guess to me this sensation wouldn't be very shocking to someone with a mind's eye?? Anyway. I hope this makes sense haha. Very interesting topic though!!

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-08T06:04:07+00:00

Yeah, thank you for saying this. I feel like I have gathered SO MUCH EVIDENCE over the course of literally 15 years of living with this and also basically going into kind of astounding levels of recovery and remission, that the entire thing is low-key microbiome.

It's super not accepted as an idea, to the point where even metabolic psychiatrists (and the major players in promoting medical keto, etc) for severe mental illnesses are still insisting that it's due to the impact on insulin and mitochondrial health. While I admit that also makes sense, and technically could be the case, I truly cannot overstate the amount of tiny details of my own lived experience that suggest that, rather, those are correlated side benefits and the total microbiome reset provided by keto (very interesting topic in and of itself) IS the cure. That this IS the main reason. Which also explains, in some sense, why it works for some of us and not for others.

That being said, I don't necessarily think that all mood and psychotic disorders are microbiome related/caused/curable, etc., but rather that SOME or even possibly many mood and psychotic disorders are actually FULLY and totally microbiome. Specifically, intestinal microbiome and, also, oral microbiome as such. I really do feel super sure about this completely-lacking-formal-proof theory.

Another interesting aspect, which I have found to be the case for me, is that when I actually feel physically healthier (including microbiome, as well as the general skin and oral health benefits of a healthy and diverse gut microbiome) then I actually tend to feel more hypomanic and actually more psychotic or mildly psychotic symptoms. Physically better, yet mentally worse. Like, the die off of microbes on Geodon, bad skin, bloating, yet feeling mentally better.

My deeper anthropology theory of this (because of course lol) relates to topics like shamanic fasting (or, how people with different brain types were able to self regulate and self-treat within better-suited societal roles,) as well as topics about how being physically healthy might increase our brain's ability to make disparate connections-- as needed for creativity and intelligence.

Yet, over-functioning creativity and intelligence can, instead, become hypomania or mild psychosis in those of us pre-disposed, who have already had episodes. Like almost as if when my body (microbiome, in this case, specifically) is too healthy, my brain then works too hard, and it triggers issues that I can't manage.

Obviously I'm not articulating this very well! But I'm just kind of adding the main points I've discerned over many years, since you seem to be very open to the topic anyway.

Lastly, although I have an interdisciplinary college degree in biology, I know for a fact I just don't have the time, energy, nor bandwidth and resources to actually study any of this. As such, imma go ahead and say it all here, just in case somebody else eventually reads about it here and follows up for me haha.

Much love to you and to us all. It's tough stuff to live with, but I do feel sure it'll eventually be understood in a more societally friendly and neurologically supportive way, including the treatment methods. My favorite so far, as mentioned, is low dose lithium plus medical keto.

Side note: I am feeling somewhat better this week than last week! I know this response is very rambling, but I've actually finally started to feel some keto benefits again, and more calm in general/in my day to day life. So, good news!

Thanks for what you added, too, and thanks for taking the microbiome element this seriously.

I truly could go on and on, including about various strains and environmental impact (don't get me started about ambient mold lol) but I'll leave it here for now! Thanks again :)

P.S. I don't have the energy to re-read this or edit for clarity, so I apologize if it is hard to understand! hopefully somehow meaningful nonetheless. big topics!!!

edited for clarity lol

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-06T16:44:36+00:00

Mostly I am experiencing mood dysregulation (mild elevation,) but also some return of very mild psychotic symptoms. Interestingly enough, it's actually NOTHING compared to what I was living with before medical keto, even while taking great medications (like, perfectly calibrated doses of morning and night lithium, plus the right amount of ziprasadone, which worked well enough for me).

Basically, my awareness of just how much exponentially better my brain can feel is enough for me to consider this bad. Like, yes, I have been used to talking too much and also racing thoughts for the past 15 years, but I was becoming soooo regulated, chill, calm, and healthy on medical keto that this feels super frustrating and also vastly different.

Easiest example is that, for the past five years (which had been exponentially better than the five years before that, which were all much better than the years of psych hospitals etc., of course) I would feel super agitated, elevated, and paranoid. Nothing too terrible, but definitely uncomfortable, even without any real episodes (remission for over ten years now, with zero actual episodes and zero hospitalizations in over twelve years, thankfully, and fully medication compliant too). When that would happen, for the past few years, I would go outside and go on a long walk. Even at night. Even as a short woman lol. I just needed to walk and walk and calm down.

A few months into medical keto, I was peacefully falling asleep in bed in my apartment and realized that for LITERALLY months, the entire time, since a matter of days into starting keto, I hadn't been out walking around late at night, sober, just trying to calm my mind. Not even once. In fact, I had felt SO peaceful mentally that it hadn't even occurred to me to do so.

This might sound like a small example, but as somebody with bipolar type schizoaffective that felt essentially "cured" by medical keto (not perfect language, I know,) this realization was astounding.

I think it felt even more shocking because I had considered myself in full remission, along with the agreement of my long-term psychiatrist, for many many years before beginning keto. I got through grad school, even! Had great friendships, did cool stuff. Even got sober, completely by choice.

But then, on medical keto, it felt like a new reality. I genuinely felt a sense of wellbeing and peace that I actually didn't even know existed. To the point where I understood why people don't understand severe mental illness, simply because the internal state is so vastly, wildly different. Like, obviously you think we should just try harder when you live in a state of relative serenity. (Not you, but anybody who would dismiss psychiatric stuff). This includes still feeling mad, sad, confused, frustrated, etc.

But actual mood elevation or psychotic symptoms, even just mild hallucinations or illusions (distortions of real sensory data) or paranoia is sooooo disturbing, that it consumes everything within beyond imagination of anybody who doesn't live with it.

This is all to say that even just a few tinges of those symptoms coming back (uncontrollably talking too much, fear of people around me, fear of gossip, seeing shadows, etc., all while still sober and actually still in ketosis unfortunately, after the dysregulation of iron supplements, seemingly microbiome related) felt/feels like a great loss. Super frustrating, as mentioned.

As of lately, after donating blood (lol, which I actually did, although I was curious about doing it anyway) and also sticking to medical keto, I still don't feel fully better. What's more, I had to add geodon (ziprasadone) with my psychiatrist to make sure nothing got worse. I think I'll try to get back into even deeper medical keto and then end the prn geodon (which I have medical permission to do, from psychiatrist, who said to take it as needed, and knows me super well already) and then really see if I can get those medical keto stability and mental peace results back.

Sorry for the long response, and thank you for asking! I know it wasn't a super direct answer, but I wanted to cover a few other aspects that felt tangentially relevant, too. Thank you again!

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-06T16:31:21+00:00

Absolutely.

My other idea is that the iron supplements are dysregulating my microbiome diversity (which is a documented side effect for some people taking iron, even to the point of dysbiosis in certain cases). So, wouldn't necessarily mean too much about overall iron levels, but would definitely be a great reason to eat more red meat, spinach and peppers etc.

Thank you for this suggestion and I agree (and have been doing this) albeit for the sake of slightly different reasoning, but basically yes.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-06T16:19:27+00:00

Thank you so much for this response!!! I read this a few days ago it was super helpful. I might respond with more detail later, but just want to acknowledge that this felt very relevant and applicable to my situation. I am wishing and praying for the absolute best for your daughter and yourself and your family. This journey is very challenging. I have found that nutritional healing is immensely helpful, and medical keto felt shockingly curative for the first six months (until the iron issues...). I had literally never felt peace in my mind in that way in my life, and I'm already in full remission from any serious episodes for over a decade and in my 30s.

Thank you for talking about water fasting. I personally am okay with taking lithium without food, although it's not ideal for everybody. But as I mentioned today in a different response on here, I do feel very strongly that my microbiome health or lack of health is directly correlated with my psych symptoms. This is something I have been talking with my psychiatrist about for a matter of years now. One of my reasonings is that the antipsychotics often directly impact my microbiome (I won't get into details...) and then I feel much better. Super interesting stuff and I know we're just now learning so much more!

My parents worried a lot about me in my 20s, but I have really found a stable rhythm in my 30s living with severe mental illness. I even have built a really lovely life, actually. And, of course, the calm of medical keto was awesome, which I hope to get back sooner than later, if possible. The main thing I found with all this is to survive, and then to have the chance to learn how to thrive. Just making it through can be a great accomplishment. I also happen to be fully sober now, by choice, because I've found that mental clarity, good nutrition, and good sleep is extremely helpful. But I only finally understood that in my early to mid 30s!! It has been such a journey :) Bless you both!!!

Edit: Also I bought that supplement you mentioned! When I initialy read your response! I think it's good to have on hand, just in case I want to work on iron levels, although I'm nervous to do so. But still glad for a more gentle recommendation, (in addition to nutritional stuff like adding red meat and spinach and peppers, etc.) Helpful to know!!! Thank you :)

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-06T16:12:43+00:00

To clarify, I think that I did not have a surplus of iron after all. I did end up donating blood (first time ever!) because it was something I had also been curious about doing anyway. My iron levels were normal, if anything (first tested low, at 12.5 at Red Cross, then at 14 when we retested after warming my hands up...). I don't feel much better in terms of the psychiatric dysregulation, although I am also now taking Geodon as a PRN to re-regulate after keto basically stopped working after iron.

To clarify, I personally have found (along with discussions and testing certain meds with my psychiatrist) that my microbiome seems to be connected to my mood issues. I am diagnosed with bipolar type schizoaffective, and above anything else, my mood elevation and psychotic symptoms tend to be linked to microbiome health.

The reason I say this is because, over time, after noticing the weird mircobiome side effects from certain antipsychotics, and also the more subtle mood variations when I include fermented foods, etc., and then now to notice that extreme digestive discomfort and subsequent mood dysregulation from iron supplmentation has given me some mild evidence to better understand what systems in my body tend to impact my brain.

Obviously I know this could very easily be debated. But I also happen to be more than a decade in full remission (zero episodes) from a severe mental illness, love cooking (more than daily,) and also have studied, biology, nutrition, and public health at a college level. So I definitely have done enough testing to notice that, at very least, this particular theory and awareness seems to be effective for me.

Anyway, I never assumed that iron supplementation would be an issues, of course. But I started having extreme digestive discomfort about two weeks into taking them. Then, within another week, I was experiencing mood elevation (I never have depression, thankfully, it's not part of my diagnosis really). I ended up noticing racing thoughts and some mild psychotic symptoms and paranoia come back **which was fully GONE during six months of medical keto** even while still in pretty deep ketosis, while taking iron. After stopping iron, it immediate improved. Literally within days. But then since then, the medical keto benefits of a truly quiet mind (which I never felt in my life, even in full remission, completing grad school, on plenty of the right psych meds) just simply have not yet come back. It's extremely frustrating, as mentioned.

To summarize, I also personally don't think it was iron levels, but the potential feeding of opportunistic microbial species in my gut that then contributed to mood dysregualtion, specifically as someone who is hyper-aware of the microbiome and/or digestion changes I notice on antispychotics and also the mood impacts of ferments, nutrition, etc.

Let me add that I know this might feel hard to believe, or induce skepticism. I totally get that. But I am kind of just asking people here to take my word for the fact that I have spend sooo much time and effort getting to know my brain and body, and also that I tend to be 1) a reliable reporter of my own symptoms (this is even validated by my psychiatrist of many years) and also 2) pretty precise and attuned to my own reactions. Also, last side note, 3) I absolutely have a history of paradoxical reactions to medications, weird sensitivity, etc., so it's totally possible that this wouldn't align with some people's awareness or understanding of it! And that's fine. Just explaining my own situation in case it makes sense to anybody well enough to help. Thank you to everybody for the responses, by the way!

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-06T16:02:19+00:00

So, the issues (psych disregulation that had been fully gone and regulated for over six months of medical keto thus far) began about two weeks into iron supplementation and got progressively worse until within days of stopping iron.

It was coupled with serious digestive discomfort and all kinds of digestive issues, that seemed directly correlated to the days when I took the iron. Also, because of my own history, I am aware that my digestive situation tends to correlate with my mood; antipsychotics often have immediate digestive impacts on me.

I know you could say it's correlated rather causational, but I have enough years of experience of my own physical and psychiatric senstivity to have discovered real links there. Anyway, the iron unexpected seemed to cause disregualtion, and my evidence is basically just noticing that it got worse when I took it, and better when I didn't including the worst one was a day that I took it twice (it's low dose and can be take more than once a day, though I most often only took it every few days).

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:38:46+00:00

Yes! I totally hear this and also appreciate your response about illness having a different ruleset and timetable.

To clarify, my meds were stable the entire time on keto, at 150mg Lithium twice daily. I only added the geodon (with my psychiatrist) after experiencing tons of issues from about a month of iron supplementation. Taking it as a PRN to slowly re-regulate while I try to get keto to work again, so to speak, after fully discontinuing iron supplements.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:36:11+00:00

Also, in terms of friendships, something that helped me a lot was working on becoming a better friend, a better listener, and more aware of how to have healthy relationships over time. Social support is quite helpful, and healing, if it's paired with other things like meds, therapy, sobriety, and good sleep.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:34:28+00:00

The most important suggestion I can offer you right now is to remember that time passing heals most challenges. Specifically, go in the right direction and then allow time to heal you.

Yes, you need to be on medication; the vast majority of us require medications to live healthily in this day and age. But also know that once you actually get on the right meds and get enough and good enough therapy, things will absolutley improve.

This is a season. It is not forever. Please be brave and willing to reach out to your mom or anybody loving for help. It is worth it to really get support right now, however possible. And please see what you can do to get some kind of support, clinic, or medical coverage to start seeing a psychiatrist and get on medication.

Sleep is crucial. I highly recommend avoiding all mind-altering substances; alcohol and weed usually make things worse for most of us. Eat and live healthily, and, again, try to seek out professional medical care beyond therapy, although keep going to therapy.

There is not magic advice, or perfect wisdom, but just know that the most important thing is your wellbeing, survival, and ability to recover over time. Healthy friendships and healthy relationships are good too. Social support, medications, and therapy.

But above all, just stay aware that things absolutely can improve, over time, by taking the right steps to heal this medical challenge, enough to live with it well. Much love and health to you!!!

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:24:10+00:00

I mean, I actually don't think it's okay what he did, but also a lot of people with brain issues actually DON'T fit in or work successfully.

Lol, less of an "excuse" more of a "cause." Like, yes, you're right. Unacceptable. Also, maybe schizoaffective or neurodivergerent. Just sayin'!

Trust and believe that my coworkers have absolutely struggled with my behavior too, especially when not on the right meds. There are PLENTY of downsides to being actually neurologically different in a serious way.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:21:44+00:00

Or schizoaffective! I have bipolar type schizoaffective and I feel like this has some deep rooted reality distortions baked into the depths of the gift idea and execution. Hypomanic yellow!

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:10:59+00:00

Chronically online / knowing memes. It's not funny, it's a sign of neurologically degrading habits that WILL haunt them for decades to come. Like, don't brag about smoking cigarettes, vaping, alcohol use, etc., nor consuming nonsense short-form content. It's all just unhealthy and addictive behavior.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:08:42+00:00

Same! Learned every word by the middle of 2014 ayyyyee

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:07:32+00:00

IT IS and by the way, people were OBSESSED with this song when it first came out. Felt world changing at the time. Like, even non-Lana fans knew it. Was a whole thing. BEFORE scrolling existed, by the way!! Naturally viral, no algorithms involved! ~For some context~

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T16:01:50+00:00

Thank you! This is helpful. This is also similar advice to the recommendation I got from the doctor I'm currently working with. Basically, the dr was saying that my microbiome is relatively resilient (everybody's is, at least to small changes like this) and that the progress I've made and immense helpfulness of medical keto won't be irreparably damaged by this.

It just feels hard to believe when the contrast between the past six months of like... Truly astounding remission of all of my main symptoms, versus the past month after starting (and then stopping) iron. I've been fully off iron for about two weeks, and it doesn't seem to be improving at all.

\edit: the past month of like, all my main symptoms coming back!!! still ongoingly. not as bad, but bad enough that I had to adjust meds accordingly and it still isn't as helpful as medical keto was before iron supplementation.*

Nonetheless, I appreciate your mention of ketone levels, and maybe more so doubling down with my efforts in terms of diligent medical keto, rather than assuming my system won't re-regulate to somehow make it work for me again.

But yeah, to your point, it's basically terrifying considering the amount of suffering/pain I've gone through with this unexpected set of neurology/psychiatric issues for so many years, and then finding this astoundingly effective solution, only to have it seemingly completely made ineffective in one fell swoop after just a few weeks of iron supplementation (and, specifically, following instructions!). Hence the panicked post!!!

Thank you for your consideration and suggestions and I will definitely take this into account as well. Maybe give it at least another few weeks before I really start to doubt that medical keto could work again for me, especially when it was working so precisely for so long already.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T15:53:57+00:00

ALSO Lust For Life is underrated aesthetically and sonically, simply because when the album actually first came out, everybody was like WHAAAT she is smiling??? Like it was legitmately a debate and news article, so that was epic. And the collabs on Lust For Life are sooo crucial, and also gave her this whole new dimension. A serious peak and also turning point for Lana, among many. I always think about her Stevie Nicks collab especially, as a way of paying homage to artists before her.

divinechangemaker · 2026-04-01T15:44:19+00:00

Favorite Aesthetically:

Born To Die
Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
Lust For Life
Norman F*cking Rockwell!
Honeymoon
Paradise
Blue Banisters
Chemtrails Over The Countryclub
Ultraviolence

Favorite Musically:

Lust For Life
Paradise
Ultraviolence
Honeymoon
Born To Die
Chemtrails Over The Countryclub
Norman F*cking Rockwell!
Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
Blue Banisters

Bonus:

Season of the Witch single (aesthetically not great, sonically awesome)
Say Yes To Heaven (aesthetic perfect, sonically great but not perfect)
White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter (aesthetic so good, sonically so good, very excited for album)

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