I’m posting this as a warning. I suffer from cptsd from abuse i endured in childhood. After seeing improvement while water fasting, mostly due to cutting off carbs I believe, I decided to try a 72 dry fast. I did it mostly as a challenge, I thought surviving 3 days without water and going against the common knowledge that it’s not possible would be interesting. I also was curious about the health benefits although there’s not really any research to back it up.
2 days in, i had a big sudden increase in flashbacks and anxiety. I ended the fast a week ago and it hasn’t gone done, it’s to a point where it’s really debilitating. Not sure if another fast or change in diet would make it better, i’m in the middle of finals and id’rather not risk making it worst right now, but it’s bad.
I’m thinking, maybe i ended the fast too soon, but I didn’t see any other accounts of this happening. Be careful with your mental health guys.
Edit : approximately 10 days after ending the fast, the bad effects have settled down, i’m back to “normal” again.
You broke the fast too quick. According to research, anything that can harm the body is stored in the fat cells. This includes toxins and emotions. As you burn fat they are released into the system for elimination. The body will rid itself of these during fasting, if you stop it midstream there is floating around. It may take several fast to get the body back to the point that it wants to tackle this issue. Just like we can’t tell it to focus on burning belly fat and it follows our instruction. However it will address what is considers the most dangerous in preserving itself. I have experience this same call up of emotions during a water fast after 15 days of fasting. With the dry fast it is more intense healing so it makes sense that it will come up quicker. I stayed with the fast during the process and completed the fast with freedom from any negative emotions whenever I mentally recall the experience. Research mental health and fast ting. You will find a lot of research on this topic going back decades.
Here’s a relatable quote , “unexpressed emotions will never die, they are buried alive and will resurface later in uglier forms” -Sigmund Freud
So the fasting is allowing you to process everything bad that’s been on hold for years. You’re finally feeling your feelings. Here’s what has helped me and countless others
Talk to a professional therapist that you relate to & if you can try to take mdma or Magic mushrooms in a safe and stress free environment. If psychedelics are brand new to you, here’s the real science evidence proving their mental health benefits according to FDA phase 3 clinical trials.Six randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials at five study sites were conducted from April 2004 to February 2017. Active doses of MDMA (75–125 mg, n = 72) or placebo/control doses (0–40 mg, n = 31) were administered to individuals with PTSD during manualized psychotherapy sessions in two or three 8-h sessions spaced a month apart.
the science of Magic mushrooms
As some have said here. You broke the fast in the middle of detox. Broke it too quick. You mobilized the toxicity in your system then broke before it’s completely eliminated. So now you’ve slowed down the elimination and it’s lingering in your system. It happened to me on a waterfast before.
I waterfasted for 9 days and some infection was released from my lymph nodes in my system I had cold in my throat that I would commonly suffer from. I broke the fast in the middle of elimination and this lingered for weeks. This happened during the winter. And it was my second consecutive waterfast after doing a 13 day Waterfast with about a 2 - 3 day break in between.
I also have cptsd. Dry fasting and fasting in general has brought up a lot of painful memories and allowed me to process them. I am much better for it. Jumping in at 72 hours was probably not the best plan. 12 hours is a good length.
Some people would call this a “healing crisis”. For physical injuries, people say the injury site suddenly hurts before it gets better.
I had my first ever panic attack during either dry fasting or transitioning into the carnivore diet (can’t remember). That was a trip, and not a pleasant experience. Luckily I haven’t had one since.
A lot of gut bacteria changes occur during a fast. And gut bacteria can release chemicals similar to human hormones, which is how they seem to affect our moods and cravings.
Yes you ended it too fast. You needed to experience it again, either physical or emotional, and push past it until you healed it.
However, if it is mental… EFT tapping is a much more effective way to solve emotional issues from the past. Many easy tutorials on youtube.
This technique is life changing. Its very strange though. Just do it and you will be blown away
Dry fasting/ water restriction may create a need for osmolytes due to osmotic stress.
Betaine may be one of the most important osmolytes.
Investigation of betaine as a novel psychotherapeutic for schizophrenia
Ok, thanks everyone for the advices. I’m definitely planning other water fasts as i really love the feeling, and i may include another dry fast, this time pushing through and not stopping too early.The process of dry fasting is quite draining though. A water fast makes you more tired than usual, but a dry fast basically leaves you bed ridden, so i don’t know when i’ll do a long one again.I also noticed that carbs have a big negative effect on my mental health and i am quite bad at not consuming them. I’ll try avoiding them in the next few days and see what happens.