- Sep 25, 2026
When Food Becomes Your Only Relief: Donika Hristova’s Recovery Story
What happens when food becomes the only reliable way to quiet anxiety?
For Donika Hristova, years of food restriction, weight criticism, secret eating, and overexercise gradually developed into severe binge eating. As the pressures of school, work, immigration, and financial stress increased, food became both a reward and a source of emotional relief.
When the Relief Stops Working
Donika describes reaching a point where she was constantly eating despite being physically uncomfortable. Her mind continued seeking relief even when her body could not tolerate more food.
The temporary comfort also became less effective over time. Binge eating was followed by guilt, self-hatred, and a growing sense that she had failed at something everyone else seemed able to manage.
Her anxiety eventually developed into a serious mental health crisis, and she was diagnosed with bipolar II depression. Donika is clear that medication provided essential stability and saved her life. After several years, however, cognitive side effects and ongoing symptoms led her to become curious about additional treatment options.
Discovering Ketogenic Therapy
After learning that ketogenic diets had long been used in epilepsy treatment, Donika began wondering whether ketosis could also support her mental health. She eventually followed a therapeutic ketogenic diet while monitoring her symptoms, although she acknowledges that she did not have the level of clinical support now recommended for this process.
Donika experienced changes in her mood, energy, sleep, cognition, hunger, and sense of control. One shift felt especially significant:
“I never in my life allowed myself to feel satiated and not feel guilty.”
Still, keto did not instantly remove every disordered eating pattern. Donika sometimes overate keto-friendly foods and responded by fasting or exercising to return to ketosis. Her story shows how a helpful nutritional intervention can coexist with eating disorder behaviors that still need attention.
Building a Broader Recovery Toolkit
Over time, Donika invested more deeply in sleep, consistent movement, meditation, stress management, relationships, and purpose. As her mental health became more stable, she gradually relaxed her strict ketogenic approach and transitioned toward a flexible, whole-food way of eating.
Today, she describes having a much healthier and more balanced relationship with food. Emotional eating occasionally appears, but it no longer controls her life in the way binge eating once did.
Donika’s experience is personal and should not be treated as medical advice. Ketogenic therapy for psychiatric conditions requires careful consideration, and changes to medication should always be made with qualified medical supervision.
Watch the full episode to hear Donika’s experience with binge eating, bipolar II depression, ketogenic therapy, and building a sustainable approach to mental health.
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