Episode 23: My Bipolar Diagnosis and the Gut Brain Connection: How Nutrition Changed My Mood Stability

There is something about me that many people who are new to my work might not know.

At 35, I was diagnosed with bipolar type 2.

For a long time, that diagnosis felt like a life sentence.

I had struggled with depression on and off since I was young. Probably since primary school. There were periods where everything felt heavy, flat and difficult.

Then there were other periods where I felt energised, creative, productive and social. I needed less sleep. I had more ideas than I could keep up with.

I now understand that those periods were hypomania.

But at the time, I believed that was the version of me I needed to maintain.

That was the version of me that felt capable.

When depression returned, it felt like failure.

The Moment Everything Changed

The diagnosis itself was confronting, but what really impacted me was what I was told afterwards.

I was told that I would likely need medication for the rest of my life.

That bipolar disorder would always be something I would have to manage.

That conversation changed something inside me overnight.

It wasn’t just about mood anymore. It affected how I saw myself.

I started questioning whether I was reliable.

Whether I could run a business.

Whether I could build the life I imagined.

Because depression could return at any moment and take everything down with it.

That belief was devastating.

My Early Curiosity About Nutrition and Mood

Long before I received that diagnosis, I had already started noticing something important.

What I ate affected my mood.

If I ate enough protein, I felt more stable.
Too much sugar made me crash.
Refined carbohydrates made me sleepy and then hungry again later.

Alcohol made everything worse.

Eating too little made me anxious.
Eating too much made me feel heavy and low.

I was constantly observing these patterns.

Looking back, I was essentially treating my body like a science experiment.

Some of this curiosity was healthy.

Some of it was also tangled up in diet culture and an obsession with doing everything perfectly.

But even then I could feel that my mood was not separate from my physiology.

When My Gut Health Collapsed

In my early thirties I developed a parasite infection.

That experience sent my gut health into chaos.

Suddenly I was reacting to foods that had never been a problem before.

Dairy would make my throat tighten.
Certain foods made me feel hungover the next day even though I hadn’t been drinking.

My digestion was unpredictable and uncomfortable.

At the same time, I noticed something else.

When my gut was inflamed, my mood was worse.

When my blood sugar was unstable, my mood swung with it.

When I was undernourished, my brain felt under resourced.

These connections were impossible to ignore.

Discovering the Gut Brain Connection

A couple of years after my diagnosis, I came across a book called Madness: A Bipolar Life.

The book explored the role that things like nutrient deficiencies, inflammation, mineral imbalances and mitochondrial health can play in mood regulation.

It didn’t promise a cure.

But it gave me something incredibly important.

Agency.

One metaphor from that book stayed with me.

The brain is like a baby.

If a mother isn’t getting enough nutrients during pregnancy, the baby will still take what it needs from her body.

And when a baby is born, it cries when it needs nourishment.

The brain does something similar.

If it is not receiving the nutrients it needs, it will signal distress.

Supporting My System Differently

After reading that book, I decided to explore these ideas further with professional guidance.

I worked with a naturopath alongside my doctors.

We ran tests.
We looked at mineral levels.
We explored gut health and food intolerances.

We made adjustments slowly and carefully.

Over time, my system began to stabilise.

I continued to monitor my nutrition, blood sugar stability and stress levels.

Today I still do regular testing and pay close attention to what my body needs.

And since January 2020, I have not experienced another bipolar or depressive episode.

Trauma, Stress and Digestion

Something I understand now that I didn’t fully understand back then is this:

The brain is not separate from the body.

Around ninety percent of serotonin is produced in the gut.

The vagus nerve directly connects the gut and the brain.

When the nervous system is under chronic stress, digestion is one of the first systems that gets deprioritised.

If you grew up in an environment where your nervous system was constantly on high alert, your body likely spent years in survival mode.

When the body is in survival mode, digestion slows down.

Digestive enzyme production drops.

The ability to absorb nutrients from food becomes compromised.

Over time this can influence gut health, nutrient status and mood regulation.

Trauma lives in the body, not just the mind.

And the gut is one of the places where that story shows up.

From Control to Self Leadership

For years I tried to control my body.

I tried to optimise it, override it, fix it.

What eventually changed things was learning to support it instead.

That looked like:

Maintaining stable blood sugar
Eating enough protein
Supporting mineral balance
Prioritising sleep
Reducing stress where possible
Healing trauma
Setting boundaries

None of these things are glamorous.

But they are powerful.

A Very Important Disclaimer

This is my personal story.

It is not medical advice.

Mental health conditions like bipolar disorder are complex. They are biological, psychological and environmental.

Medication can be essential and life saving for many people.

What I am sharing here is simply the path I chose to explore under the guidance of qualified professionals.

What This Journey Taught Me

The biggest shift wasn’t just physiological.

It was relational.

I stopped treating my body as an enemy that needed to be controlled.

And I started learning how to support it.

I stopped chasing the highs and trying to avoid the lows.

Instead I focused on resourcing my nervous system.

That shift from control to self leadership changed everything.

Because the brain is not separate from the body.

And stability is not built in one place alone.

It is built in layers.