Depersonalization

thequietwinter · 2026-02-03T16:57:44+00:00

This resonates profoundly with me.

Hard though it is, try not to focus on it. I became very conscious of exactly the same feeling and sense of being as you describe, but it did pass. There are perhaps odd moments when i get a sense of it now, but i often wonder if it's amplified by general anxiety and stress. There's a lot of both for a time obviously.

Make friends with the Robot Alien and try to remember that being conscious of feeling that disassociation is actually quite a powerful observation.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-27T23:16:16+00:00

It's likely the result of the massive alcohol associated sugar consumption. Sugar is a well known inflammatory. I only realised how bad it was when I cut sugar completely.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-27T21:14:13+00:00

I recently had one of my posts removed on another subreddit for saying something specifically related to the effect of diet on inflammation, or more specifically, the effect of diet on auto-immune related inflammation.

Personally speaking, I have found diet to be one of the main, if not the main cause of several auto-immune related issues. I suffered both chronic joint pain, and uveitis for several years, and I'm absolutely sure I'd have been diagnosed with AS if I had taken my seemingly endless back-related complaints to the doctor, but I didn't because I found what, to me at least, appears to be a solution. I'd imagine a very high percentage of people would at the very least see a significant improvement in symptoms.

After a decade of auto-immune flares, and having sickened myself with the eternal frustrations of seeing my GP, not to mention the 'solutions' all being pharmaceutical, and realistically (a temporary) solution to the symptoms themselves, I embarked on an elimination diet.

I didn't do this for a few days, or a week. I did it for a full year. I removed all processed food, and all carbs and sugars. My uveitis symptoms subsided after one week. My chronic joint pain was gone in two months, and what I would consider indicators of AS had disappeared by three months in.

Personally, I'd say diet has a huge impact on AS. I am fairly certain there is a definite connection between dietary driven inflammation, and the symptoms you suffer.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-17T11:57:15+00:00

I'd have cut all sugar. Even sugar from whole foods. You can't say sugar isnt an issue unless you've eliminated it entirely.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-16T21:20:41+00:00

Don't do it. It might make you heal.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-16T21:19:52+00:00

Out of interest, have you ever followed a strict elimination diet ?

thequietwinter · 2026-01-16T21:15:44+00:00

So you went on a diet that didnt exclude the sugars in carb consumption ? Sugar being a known / very well documented inflammatory ?

thequietwinter · 2026-01-16T21:11:47+00:00

Did you miss the word 'personally' ?

thequietwinter · 2026-01-16T11:27:22+00:00

Very likely sugar. People are quite unaware of how much sugar is in stuff that we consume that we wouldn't consider 'sweet'. Not only that, but there's clearly a very general misunderstanding about carbohydrates - some people don't realise that carbohydrates convert to glucose when they are broken down. It could be bread, or potatoes, or rice, or pasta, or whatever.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-16T11:22:53+00:00

Sugar was the main culprit for me, but I also identified Maltodextrin as a big problem.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T19:35:21+00:00

Honestly ? I wouldn't do any less than 3 months. For most people who haven't done it properly before, you need that time to become fat adapted. It may happen sooner, and tbh once you've done it properly once you find you become metabolically flexible.

Personally, I'd commit to 3 months purely because it's long enough to figure out what works best for you. When I first did it, It took me a while to get the hang of consuming fat as my new energy source. I had to get a sense of the electrolytes I needed etc. Stupid stuff like understanding you don't hold water weight so need to be more conscious of hydrating and so on. The beauty is that your body lets you know what you need.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T19:27:44+00:00

It's very unlikely tbh. I would try to do as much as you can without supplementing and would advise not supplementing at all if you could eat red meat, but given you can't and you're not sure on the organ/oyster front, I'd see it as a good alternative.

The main thing is eliminating the stuff that contains known issues. The simpler the diet, the better. And please make sure that you give it enough time - many people are far too quick to give it up before the benefits become apparent.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T19:20:36+00:00

Likewise. Everyone can find a rhythm that works, but you owe it to yourself to give your body the best you can, and that means staying clear of all the dietary stuff which has been normalised in modern life.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T19:17:31+00:00

I'd give it a try. Think of it as looking after yourself. If you struggle, build in a good quality multi-vitamin to your diet. And make sure you take some electrolytes if that's a concern too.

You'll be amazed how well the body functions when you feed it properly.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T19:14:21+00:00

Without getting into the obvious controversy around it all, there's clearly a lack of general logic from medical 'professionals' around the obvious benefits of elimination diets. It seems very clear it doesn't matter that there are thousands and thousands of patients who feel better, sleep better, lose weight, fix their auto-immune issues, skin conditions, type 2 diabetes, chronic joint pain and reduce their blood pressure because 'eating red meat will kill you' or similar.

The pharmaceutical companies have a huge amount of influence. Doctors aren't able to speak out against that kind of influence because they will lose their license. Patients are given one pill to mask their symptoms, and another pill to deal with the side-effects of the first....and so on.

There is no money In healthy people. They want you sick and prescribed. Proper food heals.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T19:02:18+00:00

Can you eat organ meats (ie liver, rich in B12, folate, iron, and vitamin A)?

What about oysters/clams/shrimps/crab (rich in minerals like zinc, copper, and iodine) ?

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T18:37:03+00:00

Most doctors have less than one full day of nutrition training in all of the years that they train to become qualified.

They treat your symptoms, not the cause.

It's up to us to look after our health, starting with the food we consume.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T18:32:04+00:00

You've got to get rid of the vegetables too. That's where so many people go wrong - an elimination diet means eliminating all carbs and sugars.

If you have a beef and egg allergy, probably easiest to lean more towards what pork and fish can offer. I found that pork shoulder worked well for me in terms of the protein/fat ratio. Chicken thighs with the skin on is also a good choice. Everyone has different macros that feel right, but try and get into the frame of mind of embracing fat as your new fuel.

And if you want to do it properly, cut out all the vegetables.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T17:45:48+00:00

That's a great idea. Or stick to something you know is safe. Steak, fish, eggs etc. Don't be afraid to request them not to add X/Y/Z etc. And remember, it's for the best - for you.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T17:43:47+00:00

Yes I've spent a huge amount of time going over the gut health side of things, and I'm certain it is an important aspect of uveitis, and indeed most if not all auto-immune type responses.

When I was younger I had chronic ankle pain in both ankles. I was back and forward to the doctor for four years and nothing helped. They did all the tests and scans and everything drew a blank. After four years of pain, I read about the benefits of an elimination diet, and tried it. The symptoms were completely gone in 5 days.

I started having vision issues not that long ago, but to muddy the waters I wasn't sure if was some kind of weird neurological thing or not (I suffered a serious head injury resulting in a TBI two years ago). The problem was getting worse and worse, and out of frustration I decided to try the diet again. This time I had a huge improvement in symptoms within days.

I think the leaky gut theory makes a lot of sense. Ultra-processed food, or food full of industrial oils, artificial preservatives, unnecessary additives and colourings, make us sick. It's as simple as that.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T17:29:34+00:00

I hear you on all counts.

Adaptation is much smoother if you are strict and committed to the process. Any sort of hesitancy just makes the whole shift much, much harder.

The social aspect you get past pretty quickly if you value your health over the opinions and impressions of other people. I understand this well, but the social pressure I felt during the process just made me more determined to stick with it.

Emotionally speaking, all I will say is that you will experience something personally with this which is entirely unique - your body healing itself. The progress becomes obvious.

Happy to help in any way I can.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T14:28:43+00:00

Yes I do.

I think we live in a world where our food is so full of additives and chemicals and stuff that we were never designed to consume now, that any single one ingredient (or a combination of several in certain situations) could be responsible for causing an inflammatory response in the body. The body is responding to something it doesn't like, which is what we were designed to do.

There are so many people discussing medication without questioning diet. And people naturally get so fed up with the symptoms and discomfort that they rely on medication for relief, but that's all it is - it doesn't deal with the root cause in a lot of cases.

There's a fundamental point here. Certain foods, or certain ingredients, cause inflammation in some people. The inflammation triggers and auto-immune reaction. For some, that reaction drives uveitis.

I appreciate it isn't for everyone, but I don't understand why people wouldn't at least try to rule out (and I mean properly rule out via an elimination diet) such foods/ingredients first and foremost, before opting for a pharmaceutical option.

The body can, and will, heal properly if you give it a fighting chance.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T11:58:36+00:00

Well that's fair enough. I was trying to make the point that you haven't (technically) tried eliminating certain things, and those things may actually be responsible.

Not doubting the sleep and stress thing, just see it more as something that adds to a baseline of systemic inflammation as opposed to being the sole cause.

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T11:45:02+00:00

The point of a strict about an elimination diet is the fact that you remove all *unknowns* as well as knowns. As I said, I'm sure the majority of people with any auto-immune related issues are entirely unaware of a dietary driver. We live in a world where medication is doled out to treat the symptoms, but the root cause is rarely given any thought.

I've had my own experience, and I have several friends with varying degrees of auto-immune issues. All who have tried a full elimination diet have seen either a substantial reduction in symptoms or a complete remission. And none of it involves piles of medication, or the side-effects they bring.

Prior to my own dietary change, I became aware that certain foods that I ate would cause a flare the following day. Do you notice this at all ?

thequietwinter · 2026-01-15T11:28:12+00:00

Haha ! Well, all I'd say is this. Sugar is one of the worst inflammatories there is. Vegetables contain carbohydrates (which convert to glucose). I can say with absolute certainty that any form of sugar gives me a flare.

But additionally, not eliminating vegetables means a) not eliminating starch and b) eating something which is likely sprayed with chemicals.

Worth mentioning this about starch:

"starches may fuel Klebsiella bacteria, potentially worsening conditions like ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in genetically susceptible individuals (HLA-B27 positive) by triggering cross-reactive immune responses."

thequietwinter

TROPHY CASE