Detoxification is usually thought of as the physical processing and removal of toxins from the body. While this is certainly the overriding goal of any formal detoxification program, detoxification can significantly impact a person’s emotional state and can cause what feels like “emotional side effects”.
Detoxification and Emotions
During detoxification, we attempt to provide the body the nutrients it needs to more easily and effectively process and eliminate physical toxins from the body. This is accomplished mainly through the liver and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, with the liver doing the lion’s share of the work. Interestingly, the liver also holds the key to why many people experience “emotional side effects” when doing a detoxification.
Detox and Emotion – Anger and Depression
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) the liver is connected with the emotion of anger. One of the biochemical jobs of the liver is to absorb nutrients from the blood and store them. Emotionally, it is thought to play a similar role, as it is believed to “absorb anger”, preventing us from becoming depressed and distraught. However, when feelings are pushed down or away and/or there are chronic bottled-up frustrations, the result can be anger alternating with depression. A depression due to liver obstruction and/or improper detoxification will invariably occur after periods of stress and pressure. If this happens to you, a detox may help you deal more effectively with the depression and/or accompanying anger.
On the flip side, it is not at all unusual for a person to experience the welling up of anger, irritability, depression, impatience, frustration, moodiness, nervous tension, a negative outlook and even emotional regression at various times during a detoxification, often times seemingly “out of nowhere”. What is really happening is that you are not only detoxifying physically, you are also detoxifying emotionally. This is an important “emotional side effect” of detoxification that gives you some valuable clues on how you can best continue your healing process.
Detoxifying Emotions
Coming to terms with anger and other uncomfortable emotions and feeling okay about releasing them in an important part of getting healthier, and detoxification often presents unique ways to deal with these emotions. Sometimes it may not be advisable to let your frustrations out in a public way. In these cases, find somewhere quiet and private and attempt to find the source of the emotion. Once found, re-enact the scenario that led to your frustration and anger; visualize the person or situation and say exactly what you would have liked to have said earlier on and/or do what you would have like to have done – no holds barred!
Alternatively, writing your feelings down on paper in the form of a letter often proves helpful. You are not actually going to send it to the person concerned, so give full vent to your anger and/or feelings. If your emotions are severely repressed and you cannot even get in touch with your anger (which is another sign of an imbalance with the liver), it may be worth seeing a fully trained counsellor who can help you to get in touch with these feelings and learn to express them. Your long-term health may depend on it.
Don’t get me wrong, it is very unlikely that you are going to have an emotional blow-up every time you perform a detoxification. However, it is very likely that, if you pay attention, you will likely notice some previously unnoticed emotions bubbling to the surface while you are detoxing. A detox may be just the right time to not only shed some of your accumulated physical toxins, but also let go of some of that emotional baggage you have been hauling around as well.
Well im on a detoxification plan but i am wondering if having depression and panick attacks is also some symptoms of this detox
Hi Janell,
Thanks for the comment; it can certainly be, although if the symptoms do not wax/wane and/or are quite severe, I would suggest you look for other causes.
Good luck!
Dr Chad
I’ve been detoxing for about 2 months. I know I have 45 years of repressed anger. I’m not sure I can handle the headache pain anymore right now. If I stop now, and try detoxing again in a few months, do I start from the beginning again?
Hi Kristie – thanks for the question; it really depends on (a) your current state of health and (b) what detoxification protocol you are following. It is highly unlikely you would be starting from scratch again if you stopped for a couple months, but I would advise you to speak with the healthcare provider that is overseeing your detoxification protocol, as they would be able to address each of these issues.
Sincerely,
Dr. Chad
I have a fatty liver and have been taking milk thistle, dandelion root, burdock root, and other herbs for 3 months. In the first two weeks i detoxed emotionally with irritability, impatience, and depression. Then i felt ok again. I hadn’t lost any weight as of 3 weeks ago (and am eating a plant-based diet) and increased my dose of the herbs by double. I’m again feeling miserable emotionally. Geez. How much depression and irritability can one liver hold? And how long to detox? I struggled with major depressive disorder for most of my teens, 20s, and 30s. I’m now 44 and am feeling stuff i haven’t felt in years. I thought I’d healed it after 15 years of really good therapy!
Hi Alice – thanks for the comment. Your emotional state may be a function of your detoxification (and it can take a while to work through a lifetime of accumulated toxins:)); however, it could also be due to imbalanced detoxification. If you haven’t already done so, I would encourage you to work with a functional medicine provider that can help you determine any nutritional and/or metabolic needs to optimize your detoxification process.
Good luck!!
Sincerely,
Dr. Chad
It was really good to read this article, I have felt that previously with detoxing with plants, and I am starting again with dandelion, nettle, cleavers and yarrow, I had a litre of it this morning which was too much and have felt really angry for the rest of the day, at not very much; a car problem escalated in wasting a day’s work, and when I had the time to work I just could not start, and started beating myself up, and feeling really angry with myself.
I am an over sensitive person and like many readers will have lots of internalised anger for 40 years (is there some theme recurring with mid-life, here?!!!) and it is really hard to cope at times like today where I want to harm myself (but I won’t as I don’t do that sort of thing) . It’s finding the path to self love and self acceptance which is the hardest, when one’s belief are full of “you are a waste of time, you are incapable, you will never make it, look at you how useless you are being”. The mind is full of rotten thoughts and it’s uprooting those thoughts that is quasi impossible.
Like some of the commenters, I have done a lot of therapy for a long time and I am not sure it has helped in a deep way. See where those plants go… There must be a way to take down liver chemicals and toxins released, safely without all this mental rubbish being emphasised.
Life is definitely NOT boring…
Hi Alexandra,
Thanks for the comment and for sharing your experience. There are most certainly ways to determine how to help your body eliminate toxins without unnecessary (unwanted) side effects. I would recommend you have an organic acids test done (like this one: https://gdx.net/product/organix-basic-profile-metabolic-function-test-urine); this will help pinpoint any specific nutritional imbalances you may have that are leading to/exacerbating imbalanced detoxification and tell your provider exactly which nutrients you need to correct them.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Dr. Chad