Normally, I’m insanely obsessive about keeping everything tidy, orderly, in its place, 24/7 – to the point where it interferes with my life in some ways. I’m on day 7 and just took a beat to look around my apartment, and… well… it’s interesting. Things cluttering my kitchen countertop, things on the floor, things on my dining table, things in the middle of my main room right in the way of me walking to the kitchen. I mean…
Granted, it has been a busy day at work and I haven’t had a chance to clean up from the morning, but… i’m not even bothered. I’d be out of my wits right now if I weren’t fasting.
… what-…??? How-…???
Not OCD, but I was on antidepressants for two years, and went off them late last year because I was eating for England while on them. I reverted back to depression, anxiety, irritation, rage within a few weeks. I’ve been doing different kinds of IF and EF since the last week of December and my mood has become a lot more stable. I almost feel like I’m back on the antidepressants. Not sure if it’s because of fasting or because of consuming minimal sugar. But I’ll take it.
I’m not an expert, and basically parroting someone else’s words from the fasting discord and assuming that it comes into play here. So take everything I’m about to say with a massive grain of salt. I don’t know what I’m talking about:
While fasting, your brain function slows down, which some people interpret as feeling more focused due to being less distracted. Your brain won’t be as keen to bounce around or race ahead of you since it’s working on limited fuel. This was a study that they linked: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34595721/
I imagine that OCD-related tendencies might fall into the same bucket. It might be hard to be as obsessively compulsive when your brain is reserving energy for priority tasks and thoughts.
I have used noopept which enhances mood, reduces anxiety, and it is a fantastic sleeping aid when your mind is restless. That product works incredibly well for that; the effects are quite obvious when you are using it vs. not using it. I can say with a high degree of confidence that at least on me fasting is also a mood enhancer; by the second day I experience an overall feeling of good mood.
Everybody’s brain chemistry is different so I wouldn’t expect everybody to feel the same thing.