Can intermittent fasting improve my anxiety disorder?

Not really. I mean, it is up to you to choose if you want to give a try or not, but it might be worth of trying because it seems like it really helped some people. However, those who it didn't help said that it only worsened their condition so if you notice that you are not getting better, you need to stop with it immediately.

It might be smart to talk to someone who was already trying intermittent fasting because of their anxiety, you will find these people here as well, with a bit of luck, you'll get a first hand experience here.

Hey Annyka,

I tried with intermittent fasting but I didn't really feel any better. I didn't feel any worse, that is true as well, but what matters is that I didn't feel better. I was meeting with these people suffering from anxiety once or twice a month, a lot of them there have tried intermittent fasting and I think that there was just one lady who said that this actually helped her to feel better. If you want the numbers, well, there were like 15 of us there, and maybe 11 of us tried intermittent fasting, with only one lady saying that this helped her.

It seems like people have different opinions regarding this matter, Annyka. It would be best that you just try this out for yourself and see what happens.

Regarding what Guest wrote there, the odds of you getting better because of intermittent fasting are really, really small, but I see no reason for you not to try it. Just be sure to take the advice that Gaia gave you, in case you try this and you see that it is not working or that it is making your anxiety even worse, be sure to stop with intermittent fasting and get back to your normal diet.

Hi there,

Well, I tried this myself and it didn't work out. I am not saying that it won't work out for you, just like others said, you can give it a try, I am just sharing a piece of my experience.

I tried both fasting and intermittent fasting. I thought that I was getting better in the first two weeks but as the time went by, I saw that I wasn't really any better, I was actually getting more anxious and my symptoms were getting worse, so I eventually decided to stop doing it. I hope that you get to benefit from this.

Hey Guest,

I try to avoid fasting myself. It makes me feel nervous, jittery, gives me insomnia, and it kills my appetite (I have a very low appetite and more than enough energy as it is). I never purposely fast, but if I eat dinner around 18, and then skip breakfast and don't eat anything until noon, the next day it ends up pretty much like fasting and I get to feel a little crazy. So I always make sure to eat a little something in the morning, usually 200-500 calories with mostly fat and protein.

I don't think I'm alone in this reaction to fasting.

I can tell you something about this from my own experience.There will be intermittent fasting who experience improved mood and energy, and this can definitely improve your anxiety disorder. I recently found a research were it says that 40% of such patients will report symptom reduction simply from taking dummy pills in clinical studies. That is what I have found on the internet. Because of it would be impossible to do a placebo-controlled study of the effects of fasting on mood. So to cut long story short, it didn't helped me and trust me, I was trying. But without any success.

Hey guys.

Now I am reading all your comments and I don't know what to think anymore. I do remember, I mean - I am very sure that I found information that intermittent fasting can improve it, and I remember that I was telling about this to my friend who had problems with it. I don't know did she tried it, but if she did and she didn't have any success, I would be really sad. Tell me, have you tried it? Based on your experience you can tell that it didn't work for you or? I didn't understand your post that well..Sorry. 

Yes, based on my own experience. It was not that good for my mental health even if I was reading a lot about it and I found a lot of information where it says that it can help me. For those who don't know anything about this, IF is also known as alternate day fasting, this is the practice of abstaining from food every other day for a period of time. You are consuming up to 500 calories per day. I didn't felt good at all during this and it was not helpful to me. I am not saying that it was not helpful to anyone...I am just telling you my experience.

Old post, But for What its worth it noticably helps my mental health! My depression is 90% gone, anxiety reduced etc. I read somewhere that regularly fasting could increase dopamine and endorphines. That could explain some of it. And, stable blood-sugar-levels are always good. Low bloodsugar after bingeing on carbs always causes jitters for me.