Is it normal to feel extremely depressed after a water fast?

[3afash]

So I've been on a water fast for around 80 hours and then I broke it because my eyes started to burn and I couldn't concentrate anymore. I slightly overate when I broke the fast today (I ate a lot of blackberries, half a cantaloupe and some mangosteen and rambutan) and a couple of hours later I had a lot of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, 3 avocadoes and goji berries. However around 10 hours after I broke the fast I started feeling more and more depressed to the point where it's now unbearable and my body's temperature is high. I would understand if this happened during the fast but it started happening a while after I broke my fast.


I did not get a lot of sleep last night and a few things irritated me today but nothing happened that should make me feel like this. I feel extremely discouraged from doing anything and negative thoughts are just racing through my head. Has this happened to someone before?

[MightySunTzu]

Originally Posted by 3afash

So I've been on a water fast for around 80 hours and then I broke it because my eyes started to burn and I couldn't concentrate anymore. I slightly overate when I broke the fast today (I ate a lot of blackberries, half a cantaloupe and some mangosteen and rambutan) and a couple of hours later I had a lot of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, 3 avocadoes and goji berries. However around 10 hours after I broke the fast I started feeling more and more depressed to the point where it's now unbearable and my body's temperature is high. I would understand if this happened during the fast but it started happening a while after I broke my fast.

Hey there 3afash,

I would attribute this to the way you broke the fast and not to the fast itself. After an 80 hour fast i would likely have had only fresh juice for 24 hours, possibly combined with tiny nibbles of fruit after about 12 hours. The body is quite digestively sensitive after a fast, even after a relatively short one.

What i mention above is optimal, but it's quite possible you would have been fine with only whole fruits for 24 hours. I believe especially that the large amount of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds were the cause of your difficulties, and possibly the 3 avocados to a lesser extent, all causing your body more digestive work than it was ready for at such a delicate stage.

Originally Posted by 3afash

... Has this happened to someone before?

What has happened to me is that after a 10 day fast i felt confident that my body was ready for whole fruits right away. Eating these whole fruits made my body substantially weaker than it was while on water-only, through the over challenging of my digestive system.

The solution was to back up into fresh juices alone with the result of feeling sensational within a couple of hours. I stayed with juices for 2 or 2.5 days then my body was entirely primed and ready for whole fruits... and they then made me feel even more sensational.

In your case with a shorter fast, and taking the digestive over-burden from the seeds into consideration, you would likely be able to enjoy these benefits with a day of juicing, possibly 2 days if necessary.

[Desert]

MightySunTzu

You're completely right in the overview. Sunflower, pumpkin and other seeds have a complex structure with B vitamins, thiamine, niacin; just those three among the other nutrients is enough to jack-up a system that's going into an eliminative mode. In any fast leave out nuts and other items with B vitamins, niacin, etc. that overwork digestion until a regular mode is re-established. Juices are the best bet after a fast - and by that I mean natural juices from the fruit or vegetable itself, not processed in a bottle or can.

[tru]

Just curious, why did you decide to go on a water fast ?

[Nameless One]

It is normal to need water fasting. It is also normal to experience "not fun" stuff when water fasting and when terminating a water fast prematurely. We spent our lives damaging our body to satisfy our taste buds and stimulate ourselves instead of catch up on rest. We're going to have to pay the piper in some form or fashion. Some do so with degeneration, illness, pain and death. Others pay off this debt quickly and decidedly by doing one or more extended water fasts.

What is easier? Making a mess or cleaning it up? Fasting is cleaning up.

[MightySunTzu]

Originally Posted by Nameless One

It is normal to need water fasting. It is also normal to experience "not fun" stuff when water fasting and when terminating a water fast prematurely. We spent our lives damaging our body to satisfy our taste buds and stimulate ourselves instead of catch up on rest. We're going to have to pay the piper in some form or fashion. Some do so with degeneration, illness, pain and death. Others pay off this debt quickly and decidedly by doing one or more extended water fasts.

What is easier? Making a mess or cleaning it up? Fasting is cleaning up.

I agree with this in its entirety with one small exception. Technically 99 point something % of fasts are terminated prematurely if the "return of genuine hunger" is our gauge. But i believe feeling "extremely depressed" upon breaking the "uncompleted" fast and refeeding gently and cautiously on digestively simple foods is quite uncommon. One exception would be breaking the fast in mid crisis such as a state of nausia which is highly discouraged.

On the other hand, over-challenging the digestive system early in the fast breaking process will create it's own set of problems.

3afash, How are you coming along?

[Nameless One]

I don't see a disagreement with what I wrote. As far as I'm concerned it is true, fasts are always broken prematurely just about. As for being extremely depressed, I like to say, "In this world, who wouldn't be depressed?"