The missing piece of Mental Health
The missing piece of Mental Health
At ReallyHealed, we work biopsychosocial–spiritually.
And that word bio?
It isn’t decorative.
It matters.
We treat the brain.
We analyse thoughts.
We reframe beliefs.
We process trauma.
But rarely do we ask:
What is the brain actually built from?
A major review — “Psychiatry and Nutrition: The Role of Diet in Mental Health Disorders” — consolidates decades of research linking diet quality to the risk and severity of:
• Depression
• Anxiety
• ADHD
• Bipolar disorder
• Cognitive decline
Not in a fringe way.
Not in a social-media wellness trend way.
In a cellular, biochemical, measurable way.
The mechanisms are the same ones we talk about every day in trauma and addiction work:
– Chronic inflammation
– Oxidative stress
– Gut microbiome disruption
– Impaired neurotransmitter synthesis
– Mitochondrial dysfunction
– Blood sugar instability
These are not abstract concepts.
They are the operating systems of the nervous system.
Serotonin requires tryptophan.
Dopamine requires tyrosine.
GABA depends on B6, magnesium, and metabolic stability.
If the inputs are compromised, the outputs will be unstable.
We would not treat anemia without iron.
We would not treat hypothyroidism without addressing thyroid hormone.
Yet in mental health and addiction recovery, we often attempt regulation without substrate.
This review does not suggest food replaces therapy or medication.
It makes a more sophisticated point:
Diet shapes the biological terrain on which therapy, medication, and behavioural change operate.
And in recovery, terrain matters.
You cannot ask a dysregulated brain to reflect, pause, or resist if the cellular machinery required for regulation is depleted.
This is not about perfection.
It is not about moralising food.
It is not about green smoothies and guilt.
It is about capacity.
When biological capacity improves:
• Emotional regulation stabilises
• Cognitive clarity sharpens
• Medication becomes more effective
• Therapy penetrates deeper
• Cravings reduce
• Decision-making strengthens
Nutrition is not mystical.
It is structural.
At ReallyHealed, when something feels “stuck,” we don’t just ask what happened to you.
We ask:
What is your nervous system running on?
What are your mitochondria producing?
What is your gut communicating to your brain?
Because healing is not only psychological.
It is biochemical.
It is relational.
It is embodied.
It is spiritual.
And if you are doing everything “right” in therapy or recovery, but something still feels unstable…
The missing layer may not be motivation.
It may be biology.
