This is a different kind of post than much of what I usually share here. I have been working on a project that I want to introduce to you, and I am interested in your feedback. Read on…
I’m writing an essay series exploring the ketogenic diet and the metabolic psychiatry movement through the lens of this question:
Are we applying the same level of scrutiny and critical inquiry to therapeutic keto and metabolic psychiatry that we wish had been applied to psychiatric drugs and the biological models used to justify them from the beginning?
The question is not whether keto is “like a drug,” and the point is not to discredit ketogenic diets or metabolic therapies as potentially valuable tools.
The question is whether some of the same patterns we have seen before could emerge, or perhaps already are emerging, here too: relatively short-term evidence from small sample sizes supporting widespread long-term use before long-term outcomes, discontinuation, adverse experiences, and downstream effects are well understood.
The series will also ask whether metabolic psychiatry risks reproducing another familiar pattern: allowing plausible biological mechanisms and compelling explanatory stories to become accepted as settled truths before the evidence supports that level of certainty.
I have been pouring myself into this project behind the scenes, and I am genuinely excited about it. My goal is to begin a thoughtful and nuanced conversation that I feel is currently missing. I also want to ask what we can learn from the failures of conventional psychiatry, and what it might look like to approach a promising intervention with greater humility, transparency, and long-term responsibility from the beginning.
I’m not quite sure when I will begin publishing the series yet—hopefully by early fall—but I am rapidly moving from planning into writing. The series is still taking shape as I draft it, and I expect there will be around six parts, though that may change. My current plan is to have the full series written before I begin sharing it, so that I can publish each part consistently once it starts.
I’m sharing this today because I would love your feedback while the series is still taking shape. What questions do you think this exploration needs to address? Are there particular concerns, experiences, assumptions, or aspects of long-term therapeutic keto use as well as the metabolic psychiatry framework that you would like to see examined?
Your answers may help shape the series as I continue writing.
The comments are open.
About My Work
You followed the path you were told would lead to a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life—and it didn’t. You’re done with what you’ve been doing and aren’t sure what comes next. In our work together, you begin to find yourself again, feel steadier amid uncertainty and change, and discover how to move forward in ways that actually fit. This work supports anyone navigating profound life shifts, including psychiatric drug injury or withdrawal as a process, and provides a grounded, resourced space to show up fully and see what’s possible.
I offer individual sessions and longer-term containers, all personalized for you.
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