Stories of Recovery
Real people who found hope through metabolic interventions after years of treatment-resistant symptoms.
📖These stories come directly from “Brain Energy” by Dr. Christopher Palmer, MD — a Harvard psychiatrist who witnessed these recoveries firsthand.
Tom's Story
The patient who started it all
😔 Before
- • 33 years old with schizoaffective disorder
- • Suffered from hallucinations, delusions, and mental anguish every day for 13 years
- • Tried 17 different medications — none worked
- • Medications only sedated him but didn't stop his symptoms
- • Had gained over 100 pounds from medications
- • Low self-esteem, nearly a hermit
- • Weekly therapy sessions were his only social outings
💬He had suffered from hallucinations, delusions, and mental anguish every day of his life over the last thirteen years. He was tormented by his illness.
🥑 The Change
Dr. Palmer agreed to help Tom lose weight. After trying several approaches without success, they decided to try the ketogenic diet — a diet low in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and high in fat.
💬Within weeks, not only had Tom lost weight, but I began to notice remarkable and dramatic changes in his psychiatric symptoms. He was less depressed and less sedated. He began making more eye contact, and when he did, I saw a presence and spark there that I had never seen before.
✨ After
- • After two months: hallucinations started to recede
- • Began rethinking his paranoid conspiracy theories
- • Realized they “weren't true and probably never had been”
- • Lost 150 pounds
- • Moved out of his father's home
- • Completed a certificate program
- • Performed improv comedy in front of a live audience
💬I was flabbergasted. I had never seen anything like this in my entire career. While it's possible that losing weight might reduce anxiety or depression in some people, this man had a psychotic disorder that had resisted more than a decade of treatment.
💡 What This Started
Tom's recovery led Dr. Palmer to research why the ketogenic diet would affect psychosis. He discovered the connection to epilepsy treatments, mitochondria, and metabolism — eventually developing the Brain Energy theory that could explain all mental disorders.
Mildred's Story
It's Never Too Late
😔 Before
- • Had a “horrible, abusive childhood”
- • Diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 17
- • Daily hallucinations and delusions
- • Chronically paranoid
- • Tried different antipsychotic and mood-stabilizing medications for 53 years
- • Could no longer care for herself
- • Had a court-appointed guardian
- • Tried to kill herself multiple times (once drank cleaning fluid)
- • Weighed 330 pounds
🥑 The Change
At age 70, after 53 years of being tormented by schizophrenia, Mildred's doctor encouraged her to go to a weight-loss clinic at Duke University. They were using the ketogenic diet as a weight-loss method. She decided to give it a try.
💬Within two weeks, not only did she begin to lose weight, she noticed significant improvement in her psychotic symptoms. She said that for the first time in years, she was able to hear the birds singing outside. The voices in her head were no longer drowning them out.
✨ After
- • Within two weeks: significant improvement in psychotic symptoms
- • Mood improved and she “began to have hope”
- • Was able to taper off ALL psychiatric medications
- • Symptoms went into full remission
- • Lost 150 pounds and kept it off
- • Learned to take care of herself
- • Got rid of her guardian
13 Years Later (at age 83)
She remains symptom-free, off medication, and doesn't see any mental health professionals.
💬When I last spoke with Mildred, she said she was happy and excited to be alive. She asked me to share her story with anyone and everyone willing to listen. She hopes that her story might help others escape the living hell that she had to endure for decades.
“Stories like Mildred's . . . just don't happen in psychiatry. Even with the best traditional treatments that we have to offer, this is unheard of.”
Beth's Story
Overmedicated and Still Sick
😔 Before
- • Started psychiatric treatment at age 9 with ADHD diagnosis
- • By high school: chronic depression, frequently suicidal, self-harm
- • Tried antidepressants, stimulants, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications, antipsychotics
- • Symptoms only worsened
- • Hospitalized many times by college
- • Diagnosed with chronic depression, panic disorder, borderline personality disorder, PMDD, and ADHD
- • On 5 medications that clearly weren't helping
- • Often lethargic and “out of it” — had several car accidents
💊➡️🥑 The Change
Beth and Dr. Palmer agreed that medications had not helped and may have contributed to her problems. They slowly tapered her off ALL medications (extremely difficult and took several years) while using DBT therapy skills. Then she started exercise — bicycle riding, working up to a charity ride. Then Weight Watchers to lose weight.
✨ After
- • Psychiatric symptoms “all but gone”
- • No longer needed therapy or psychiatric treatment
- • Became an accomplished athlete — triathlons and ultramarathons
- • Got married
- • Got a full-time job
10 Years Later
Beth continues to feel great and has no psychiatric symptoms.
💬You know that you saved her life. You really did. I can't imagine that she would still be here today if it wasn't for you.
Kaleb's Story
A 12-Year-Old Boy Struggling in School
😔 Before
- • Strong family history of mental illness (depression, suicide attempts, bipolar, schizophrenia)
- • Difficulties starting in preschool
- • Met criteria for ADHD — “ran wild” and was often distractible
- • Got frustrated with schoolwork and threw tantrums
- • Stimulant helped for ~1 week, then couldn't sleep
- • Put in special education track for social/emotional problems
- • Chronic depression, self-harm with pencils, suicide threats
- • School and therapist recommended mood stabilizer for presumed bipolar
🍬❌ + ☀️ The Change
Parents refused the mood stabilizer and wanted to try a “metabolic” treatment plan based on the brain energy theory. Two interventions:
- 1. Cut out all sweets during school week — to address insulin resistance (he'd been gaining weight around his waist)
- 2. Bright-light therapy every morning for 30+ minutes — to regulate circadian rhythms and sleep (he played video games during the light therapy)
✨ After
- • Within one month: tantrums stopped, depression improved, focus improved
- • 8th grade: straight As — best grades ever
- • During COVID (while peers struggled): thrived, got straight As again
- • Taken off his IEP — the new school couldn't believe he was ever on one
4 Years Later
Kaleb continues to do well on the same simple metabolic treatment plan — no medications needed.
💭 What These Stories Mean
Recovery is Possible
Even after decades of treatment-resistant symptoms and multiple failed medications, dramatic improvement can happen through metabolic interventions.
It's Never Too Late
Mildred was 70 years old when she found what worked. Age and duration of illness don't determine whether recovery is possible.
The Brain Can Heal
These stories show that even severe, longstanding brain dysfunction can improve when the underlying metabolic problems are addressed.
Beyond Medication
When medications don't work — or even make things worse — there are other approaches that address root causes.
Children Can Be Helped
Kaleb's story shows that even children with genetic risk factors can improve dramatically with simple metabolic interventions like reducing sugar and morning light therapy.
Multiple Approaches Work
Ketogenic diet, exercise, sleep optimization, light therapy, reducing sugar — these interventions are all beneficial and can be combined. Start with what's most accessible to you, then add more over time.
💬Mildred's story and the theory of brain energy say it is possible. It is a new day in the mental health field, one filled with hope for more stories like Mildred's.