What does everyone eat?

[Rock]

I'm just asking out of curiosity. I know my increasing depression and anxiety has changed my eating habits quite a bit over the years and I feel I don't care as much about food anymore and am quite lazy about it. I was just wondering what others who share these conditions eat. My day in food looks something like this:

Breakfast: A piece of toast with promite or just butter, and black coffee.
Lunch: Tinned soup or plain beans, or pasta with salt and butter.
Dinner: A tiny portion of what my family eats, or nothing. Or an entire block of chocolate. And more coffee.

What about you guys?

[KaraArtist]

High Rock,

I suffer from severe depression and mild anxiety. In answer to your question:

I love food, it is my comfort, joy and social activity. So I actually eat very well, although I don't usually do breakfast because it makes me feel ill. I have spent a lot of time learning to cook and now I am good enough that when I cook for people I care about it gives me an emotional boost because they are so happy and enjoying my meal. I also go out for coffee or lunch/cake whatever as often as possible because good food brings me so much joy. And Coffee, I am a huge fan of coffee. I also try to not eat the same thing too often because I get bored and that makes me feel down.

Unfortunately I have no advice to offer for eating in a 'healthy' way because my secret is that I freaking adore good food. Even in my darkest hours a beautifully presented, flavorsome meal/cake/beverage will bring me joy even if just for the duration of the consumption. I am also mindful of quantity, because if I wasn't I would put on too much weight and this would only make me feel worse.

Maybe my advice could be, find foods that bring you joy and find ways to bring them into your eating habits?

Happy reading, I also look forward to seeing the replies you get here

Cheers

KaraArtist

[PatT]

Hi Rock,

Personally I tend to eat a lot of lean meat or salmon, lots of beans, grains and legumes, high fibre cereal and a fair bit of yoghurt and cottage cheese. I eat a lot of green veg like spinach, kale and Asian greens and for fruit generally berries and occasionally a banana. Ideally what I try to get in is a mix of things high in fibre and probiotics because having a healthy stomach correlates really strongly with a healthy mind.

The majority of serotonin used by your brain is actually produced in your gut and recently lots of studies have been showing that eating well can actually drastically reduce rates of anxiety and depression. Having a healthy gut comes through having healthy gut flora which thrive on foods with lots of probiotics like yoghurts, berries, beans, wholegrains and legumes. Have a think about incorporating more diverse foods into your diet, it can really help.

[james1]

Hey Jenny,

I know what you mean by not feeling like eating.

My saving grace is that I'm still at home for now and I don't want my parents to know the extent of my struggling (for various reasons), so I actually have to eat.

I actually really like cooking and I cook a bit of everything from stir frys, different pastas, roasts, stews, curries...so on a good day, I'll cook up heaps and hopefully eat that.

But otherwise, I flip between skipping meals and binge eating when I get too hungry (usually fast food...). Not particularly healthy 🙂

James

[Rock]

Haha I do the binge-starve thing too. Those sound pretty good though, I love a good stir-fry. Pretty quick to cook too, maybe I'll start making some.

[Rock]

Ah I know somewhere deep down in my guts that I love good food too. I'm an absolute sucker for some velvety milk chocolate, almond-flavoured desserts and good sushi. I just wish it satisfied my soul as much as my hunger. I hate knowing that I'm eating something delicious and feeling so numb that it tastes like salted cabbage. Maybe I should try a couple of new ingredients/dishes and see if I can fire up a little more passion for food.

[Rock]

Well, your diet certainly sounds a lot healthier than mine. I do know that healthy eating contributes to a healthy mind, but depression is just so good at defying logic and that classic snowball effect of feeling bad so you do nothing so you feel worse and so do less has got me rolled up pretty good. I actually really love cottage cheese though. I forgot it existed! Surprisingly, I am actually craving that now. I'm going to ask to get some today! I'm sure it's healthier than that tinned soup I ate cold out of the can today.

[Emma77]

An unhealthy diet might be bad for the mind, but beating yourself up over it would be even worse!

I too go through binge / starve periods.

Typical day - coffee when I wake up. Couple of hours later is breakfast which is a piece of toast or two, sometimes butter, sometimes Vegemite (the real stuff, not that Promite imposter lol). Lunch might be a salad roll, or if I have to buy lunch then it's greasy salt, or salted grease. Dinner can vary, but it's often a meat / two veg kind of thing, always with wine.

I've just bought a slow cooker which has to be the laziest cooking option ever. Stick it in, turn it on. I LOVE it

[james1]

Slow cookers are awesome. I wish I had one...slow cooked meat is so annoying to make without one.

[Emma77]

I can't even contemplate what slow cooking without a slow cooker would entail! But then I'm someone who used to be able to burn water. I have gotten a little more confident in the kitchen over the years.

$20 at K-Mart. Can't recommend it enough 🙂