Antidepressants

Aajonus was consistent and emphatic on the biochemical origin of depression. The colon's E. coli population is responsible for releasing 90 percent of B vitamins from food, and for breaking down fat and protein molecules into the smallest particles that feed the brain and nervous system. When that population is low, mutated, or destroyed, the brain does not receive adequate nourishment, and depression follows. He stated that 90 to 95 percent of all depression comes from a low E. coli environment in the colon, and that this can be caused by toxic food, enemas, colonics, antibiotics, and pharmaceutical drugs themselves. In people taking medications on a daily basis, those drugs could account for 90 percent of their reason for being depressed, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which the treatment generates the condition it claims to address.

He also noted that certain drugs and chemicals cause 10 to 12 percent of depression independently, but that the E. coli deficiency remains the dominant mechanism in the average person. He drew a parallel with antibiotics directly: anyone taking antibiotics regularly destroys the bacterial population that keeps them mentally and emotionally functional, and clinical depression follows. He said he had never known anyone who took antibiotics regularly and was a happy person, either during the course of the medication or for long periods afterward.

He also identified a second cause of depression overlapping with the bacterial deficiency: an insufficient bacterial and viral presence throughout the body more broadly. Drawing on the work of researcher John Monroe, he described a pattern in which eliminating bacteria and viruses from the body, as pharmaceutical approaches attempt to do, produces clinical depression. When bacteria and viruses are reintroduced, the colds and flus return but the depression disappears. His observation was that the body and mind become more organized, vital, and happy when bacterial, viral, mold, and parasitical processes are present and active, because those processes are how the body performs proper detoxification and maintains cellular organization.

He also connected depression to the consequences of high carbohydrate waste products entering the blood, lymph, and nervous system. When the glycation waste products known as advanced glycation end products accumulate and make these systems sticky, the result includes slow mentality, slow focus, and depression alongside nausea, irritability, and anorexia. This was a secondary pathway, not the primary one, but it underscores that antidepressants address none of the actual biochemistry involved.

Aajonus held that all drugs are non-biochemical constructions of laboratory chemicals that create side effects, typically long-term as well as short. Antidepressants, including Prozac specifically, carry side effects that include kidney damage, lung damage, and neurological dysfunction. Rather than resolving the conditions they are prescribed for, these drugs keep people in a cycle of use that never returns them to health. The nervous system continues to be underfed. The bacterial deficiency continues. The person remains depressed or chemically managed into a state that avoids the worst symptoms while the underlying physiology deteriorates.

He described the so-called natural hormones and hormone replacement products in similar terms. They are made of laboratory chemicals, and the so-called natural versions are made from hydrogenated vegetable oils that have the same molecular structure as plastic, or from chemically treated proteins. They have no genuine relationship to the hormones in the human body. This extends his critique of antidepressants specifically into the broader pharmaceutical project of simulating biological function with industrial chemistry.

He also pointed out that psychotropic drugs interfere with the neurological function they claim to support. He believed these medications get into the RNA and DNA of the synapse and permanently alter the structure and behavior of the nervous system in ways that are extremely difficult to reverse. He described this as nearly irreversible in some situations, and said that violent behavior produced by these drugs can persist for years after the drugs are stopped.

This was one of the most urgent warnings Aajonus repeated across multiple workshops. Psychotropic drugs, including antidepressants, produce severe and dangerous behavioral effects when a person withdraws from them or stops taking them suddenly. He documented this with both animal research and human cases.

In laboratory settings, animals given psychotropic drugs would kill each other upon withdrawal, including normally docile bald mice that could be handled and even harmed without ever biting. Under psychotropic drug withdrawal, these animals would rip each other's throats out. Frogs, which never fight under normal conditions, would start killing each other when withdrawn from these substances. He noted that drug companies have this data and do not disclose it.

He connected this directly to mass shooting events at schools, stating that every one of the individuals involved had been on a psychotropic drug for depression or schizophrenia and had stopped taking their medication seven to ten days before committing violence. He received documentation from physicians who had been sitting on this information, showing exactly which medications were involved and what the research showed. He said he verified the claims and found them to be accurate in every case. None of these individuals were warned that withdrawing from their medication would likely produce homicidal and suicidal impulses.

His position was unambiguous: never give children psychotropic medication, and never allow a doctor to do so. He described this as asking for severe trouble that is almost impossible to reverse in some cases. The damage these drugs do to the synapse, in his view, permanently alters the nervous system in ways that make violent behavior extremely difficult to stop even years after the drugs are discontinued.

Aajonus pointed to documented conflicts of interest in published antidepressant research as evidence that the framework governing these drugs is financially rather than scientifically determined. He cited the Journal of the American Medical Association's tightening of its conflict-of-interest policy as a reaction to the revelation that thirteen authors of a published scientific paper about an antidepressant had been paid by the manufacturer. The article argued for adverse health effects in pregnant women who stopped taking the antidepressant, and the lead author received funding from at least eight pharmaceutical companies. This was only one of many such conflicts of interest that had become an issue in JAMA publications.

He described the broader peer review system as frequently commandeered by scientists pursuing career advancement, with drug studies funded by pharmaceutical companies representing the most severe financial corruption of all. Many medications that were initially shown to be safe and effective in large randomized control trials were subsequently found to be harmful when the financial ties between researchers and pharmaceutical companies became known. He framed this as the structural consequence of an economic system that teaches people the bottom line is always more important than other people's welfare.

Aajonus documented multiple cases of patients who had been on antidepressant medications for decades and were able to resolve their depression through dietary intervention rather than pharmaceutical management.

The most detailed case involved a woman who had been taking psychotropic drugs since she was approximately ten years old, continuing for 27 years, which put her at around 37 when she appeared on the television program Ripley's Believe It or Not. She was taking seven different psychotropic drugs in 27 to 28 doses daily. She was a well-known yoga teacher with published instructional videos. Despite her professional life, she had never been able to maintain a relationship, had struggled with depression since age 10 or 11 or 12, and had dry skin and an extremely thin build. She had been on the Primal Diet for about a year and a half, going on and off it with her moods, and whenever she became frustrated she would eat coffee, chocolate, and other high-caffeine foods that worsened her condition. Aajonus described this as an understandable consequence of having chemicals damaging the system and disturbing the person. She could not help the compulsive behavior because the chemical environment of her body was driving it.

After a year and a half, Aajonus told her she needed to eat high meat if she wanted to make real progress, and that if she refused he could no longer work with her. She called him one day when she was severely depressed, angry, and full of anxiety. Despite being frightened and disgusted by the smell of the high meat, she ate it. By 4 o'clock in the morning she called him back, and she was whistling a tune. She was making jokes. After a year and a half of knowing her, he said he had never heard anything but negativity from her. She described herself as feeling so good she could take a nap. After that, she ate high meat every other day to manage her depression, and it consistently produced relief within 10 to 20 minutes.

He also referenced this case specifically in connection with the Ripley's episode from 2001, and said the YouTube footage can be found by searching "rotten meat eater." The other patient on that program, a man, had also been depressed his entire life.

A second long-running case involves a patient referred to as Jacob, whose chronic depression and psychological problems were tracked across multiple correspondence entries spanning more than two years. This case involved high blood pressure medications and neurological complications alongside the depression, and illustrated the intersection of multiple pharmaceutical dependencies and how Aajonus approached reducing them. For high blood pressure medications specifically, his guidance was to reduce the dose by half every five days until eliminated, over approximately a two-week period, rather than stopping all at once. He also addressed another patient, Barbara, a singer who had been diagnosed with incurable manic depression and schizophrenia and was considered suicidal unless medicated. She was 27 when Aajonus and a colleague began counseling her. She had been on medication for nine years and had been unable to work during that entire time. Aajonus noted that the medication did not actually treat her depression meaningfully; she was still extremely depressed while taking it. He suggested she and her colleague wean her off the medication over three months, cutting the dose in half for the first month and then in half again for the second month.

A third relevant case from the question-and-answer sources involves a Spanish patient whose mother had been on multiple drugs including Lexatin, Orfidal, Seroquel, and Parkinson's medication, and who was barely able to speak without trembling. When a neurologist began reducing those medications, the patient improved within three days, illustrating Aajonus's position that pharmaceutical reduction, not pharmaceutical maintenance, moves patients toward functional improvement.

He also described a psychologist and psychiatrist from Santa Barbara who came to observe his high meat protocol after hearing about it. They sat on his back porch and participated in eating it, and Aajonus noted that most psychologists and psychiatrists who investigate this approach do so partly because they have emotional problems of their own.

Aajonus distinguished between psychiatry and psychology in his framework. Psychology he considered somewhat more valid because it deals with current behavior and feelings rather than assigning causation to the past. Psychiatry he regarded as having no valid science behind it: it blames the mother, the father, and the patient's personal history, and ultimately locates the problem in chemistry that the pharmaceutical industry, not the patient's own biology, controls. He described psychiatry's position as wanting to stimulate or chemically alter the brain without ever addressing the actual reason the brain is malfunctioning, which is that the nutritional supply to the brain and nervous system has been disrupted.

He extended this critique to how psychiatric institutions historically treated patients, noting that involuntary commitment allowed doctors to do essentially anything to a patient including electroshock. He said there is no valid science behind psychiatry as a field, and that pharmaceutical companies do not want the medical establishment to think in terms of cure because a cured patient generates no ongoing revenue. The model is built around treatment, which generates income every day with every pill.

He connected the removal of physical education from schools to this dynamic directly: by eliminating the activity that would allow children's naturally high energy levels to discharge appropriately, more children develop anxiety and behavioral symptoms that can then be diagnosed and medicated. He described this as a deliberate structural arrangement that creates patients.

For depression caused by low bacterial populations, the primary intervention Aajonus recommended was high meat, also called rotten meat or bacterially decomposed meat, eaten in a marble-sized amount once or twice a week for general depression, and twice a week for severe depression. The bacteria already present in the meat have pre-digested the fat and protein molecules into the finite particles that the brain and nervous system need. Because this work has already been done by the bacteria, eating high meat delivers these molecules directly into the nervous system without requiring the colon's own bacterial population to produce them first. The effect, in his consistent description, is that the person becomes silly, giggling, and happy within 10 to 20 minutes. He contrasted this directly with medication, which takes hours or days to produce any effect and requires daily maintenance with no resolution of the underlying condition.

He also recommended high eggs, meaning bacterially fermented raw eggs, as an alternative or complement to high meat for depression, with the same reasoning: the bacteria have already broken down the fat and protein into the needed molecules. For people who could not or would not eat high meat, he described a rectal suppository approach involving dairy fat, which delivers bacterial nourishment to the E. coli population in the colon directly from the back end and can feed the brain and nervous system through that route.

He described the high meat preparation protocol in detail: place the raw meat in a glass jar with a lid, take it outside every three to four days, open the lid and waft it once through the air in a figure-eight or infinity sign motion to introduce fresh air, then close it and return it to the refrigerator. Repeat this for four weeks. He specified doing the airing outside because opening it indoors will produce a smell that lingers in curtains and fabric for extended periods. He noted that leaving it at room temperature rather than refrigerating it causes the fermentation to progress too rapidly, skipping through the bacterial stages that produce the beneficial effects. After four weeks, eat a large marble-sized amount, either once or twice a week depending on the severity of depression.

For the anxiety that is frequently conflated with depression, the intervention is entirely different and is physical activity rather than dietary. Aajonus was clear that psychiatrists and psychologists treat anxiety and depression identically with drugs, but that they are not the same condition and do not have the same cause. Anxiety is the body producing hormones for physical activity, including adrenaline, testosterone, and estrogen, and not expressing them through movement. The hormones accumulate and are experienced as anxiety. Exercise discharges them. He recommended exercise the person enjoys: walking, sports, dancing, or whatever is appealing. Singing was also recommended as a way to discharge the hormonal energy when physical exercise is not possible due to illness or disability.

For people who have been on psychotropic drugs and continue to experience anxiety even after beginning the Primal Diet, the nut formula was his specific recommendation. The formula is made by blending a quarter cup of nuts into a dry flour, then adding one egg, butter, and a small amount of honey, and blending together. This binds with and helps remove the excess hormones and their byproducts that psychotropic drugs generate in the body. People who have never taken psychotropic drugs can use the nut formula and find it lasts four to five days if they have a tendency toward high anxiety. People who have been on psychotropic drugs may need to take it every day. He also recommended drinking half a cup of cream before the nut formula, which helps calm the body within 30 to 40 minutes and sometimes for the rest of the week.

He described cooked starch eaten with large amounts of raw fat as another tool for handling the psychotropic byproducts that accumulate in the body from emotional trauma and stress, explaining this through the work of Elnora Van Winkle, whose research showed that waste products of stress hormones store in the body and, when they are detoxified out, produce the same emotional experience that created them originally. Aajonus found that cooked starch, eaten with a full stick of butter in a half or whole baked potato for example, binds with these compounds and removes them. He noted, however, that people who ate cooked starch every day began collecting other problems, which is why he later moved away from using it as a regular tool.

For cases of bipolar disorder, which he described as not being a single condition, the depression component is addressed with high eggs, high meat, and suppositories, while the hyperactive or manic component is addressed with exercise. The nut formula and large amounts of cheese help calm the person during hyperactive episodes by lowering hormone levels.

He noted that eating meat generally resolves 80 to 90 percent of depression in most people, even without the more aggressive high meat protocol, simply because the protein and fat supply to the brain and nervous system improves substantially. He said that in cases of chronic fatigue there are some variations, but for most people the depression resolves with consistent meat consumption.

When asked directly whether patients should stop depression medication all at once or gradually, Aajonus said it is best to go off all of it at once when possible, with the distinction that high blood pressure medications specifically should be reduced over a two-week period, by half every five days, rather than stopped suddenly. He treated each type of medication individually on this question. For psychotropic drugs specifically in the context of children, his warning was the opposite: he cautioned that withdrawal produces severe and dangerous behavioral effects, but this was framed as a reason not to put children on these drugs in the first place, not as a reason to maintain them on medication indefinitely. The solution he proposed was dietary, not pharmaceutical management of withdrawal.

He noted that medication is counterproductive to the dietary approach. When a family member of a workshop participant was considering starting antidepressant medication, Aajonus said that taking medication would be counterproductive to the dietary protocol, but that if the person could be persuaded to eat high meat first, that would be the better path.