Hey! I just wanted to ask how “deep” can dry fasting get to experience healing from physical and psychological trauma? What have you experienced or what anecdotals have you heard?
I have had several issue during my life. I have had tinnitus for about 15 years. Could it help to heal my ears and maybe induce brain plasticity to get rid of it? Also, I have history of joint pain but mainly it only in my knee at the moment. I used to have IBS but not anymore after going keto/carnivore two years ago. And what about anxiety and stress?
Well there it is, I would like to hear what are your thoughts and experiences. So far this year I have done weekly about 36-48 h fasting and occasional longer fast. But I have barely experineced any changes in my well being.
Cheers!
I’ve done DF once for a couple of days. I have more experience with water fasting although I know dry fasting is supposed to be much better. I am once again trying it but I’m struggling w/ lack of energy today..: I’m gonna have to do a rolling 18 hr. Until I can get used to it.
I have knee and ankle injuries that used to result in chronic pain and inflammation. A 4 day dry fast about a year ago fixed the inflammation permanently. I only swell now if I eat really poorly and lay in bed only for several days in a row (depressive episodes) and even then it only takes one day of gettin back on track with moderate healthy eating and moving around regularly (not even exercise, just the usual showering and functioning) for the swelling to go down. The pain never came back.
I have mild tinnitus and haven’t noticed any differences there yet.
Anxiety and stress decrease significantly on and after dry fasts. Each dry fast brings up emotional/psychological upset and memory of an event from the past on day three usually. It’s always a different memory that I work through so I would say that’s evidence that I’m “clearing” through past trauma. The weird thing is that the things that come up aren’t the things that I would readily bring up in a therapists chair. It’s random things that I almost even forgot about but that were actually really painful.
I’ve had prolonged (7+ day) dry fasts “fix,” many chronic issues, but I find the mental stuff is best treated with cold exposure. My career anxiety was getting the better of me at one point and fasting wasn’t doing much more than making me feel better during the fast and a short while after. Eventually I decided to join a local cold water group that swims year round in water cold enough to deter much of any other people (or animals). The effect of this was totally extraordinary. 100% improvement in my handling of stress in general. 100% improvement in how I dealt with acute emotional traumas, memories, etc. Night and day.
Most people hear this and assume I was taken in to the Wim Hoff club, but this happened to me a long time before he was internet famous and while I do like some of his cold tricks and such, I don’t care for a lot of it and am not at all endorsing the subculture there. The thing I fully endorse is swimming in cold water or just enjoying a splash in the cold with some friends. It’s infinitely more therapeutic than it sounds. For everything else, there is dry fasting!