🧠 Your Brain Isn’t Broken—It’s Running on Empty

How a New Scientific Perspective Links Mental Health to Energy, and What That Means for Your Recovery

Have you ever felt like your brain just can’t keep up—like your thoughts are slower, your energy is gone, or you're stuck in survival mode no matter how hard you try?

What if the problem wasn’t psychological at all—but metabolic?

A powerful new perspective published in Nature Mental Health this year is changing how we understand mental illness. Written by an international team of scientists led by Dr. Ana Andreazza, the article—titled "Brain and Body Energy Metabolism and Potential for Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders"—makes a compelling case:

Many psychiatric conditions aren’t just chemical imbalances—they’re energy imbalances.

And their message couldn’t be more aligned with the framework we’ve been developing here, called ERM: Exposure-Related Malnutrition.

⚡ The Hidden Energy Crisis Behind Mental Illness

Your brain is an energy hog. Despite weighing only 2% of your body, it uses over 20% of your daily energy. And that energy isn't just fuel—it's function.

When your brain can’t access or produce enough energy, it starts to cut costs:

• It downshifts cognitive speed.

• It dampens emotional resilience.

• It pulls energy from other parts of the body (a concept known as the selfish brain).

In the short term, this keeps you alive. But over time, it can look like depression, anxiety, fatigue, brain fog, or burnout.

This is exactly what ERM describes: a state where the body is forced to make trade-offs under stress, undernutrition, or inflammation. It’s not a failure—it’s a protective shift. But it has consequences.

🔬 The Five Energy Pathways That Break Down in the Brain

In the Nature Mental Health article, the authors highlight five key energy systems that malfunction in mental illness. These systems also lie at the heart of ERM.

Let’s walk through them—one by one—and what they mean for you:

1️⃣ Oxidative Phosphorylation (OxPhos): The High-Efficiency Engine

• 💡 What it does: Converts oxygen and nutrients into ATP in your mitochondria.

• ⚠️ What goes wrong: In conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, OxPhos slows down.

• 🔗 ERM link: When your body is depleted of key nutrients (like B vitamins, CoQ10, magnesium), this system falters.➤ You feel sluggish, foggy, and unmotivated.

2️⃣ Glycolysis: The Fast but Inefficient Backup System

• 💡 What it does: Breaks down glucose quickly when mitochondria can’t keep up.

• ⚠️ What goes wrong: The brain starts relying too much on glycolysis—even when oxygen is available.

• 🔗 ERM link: This “fast fuel” shift is an emergency adaptation in ERM. It keeps the lights on, but it generates waste and inflammation.➤ You might feel wired but tired, inflamed, or reactive.

3️⃣ Aerobic Glycolysis: Emergency Mode With a Long-Term Cost

• 💡 What it does: Converts glucose to lactate even with oxygen—used in growth, development, and cancer.

• ⚠️ What goes wrong: In the stressed brain, this mode gets stuck “on.”

• 🔗 ERM link: ERM sees this as a metabolic freeze response. The system doesn’t return to normal, even when stress ends.➤ You may experience burnout, brain fog, and poor recovery.

4️⃣ Redox Biology: Your Antioxidant Defense System

• 💡 What it does: Balances reactive oxygen species (ROS) with antioxidants like glutathione.

• ⚠️ What goes wrong: Inflammation and poor nutrient intake reduce redox capacity.

• 🔗 ERM link: Redox failure is a hallmark of ERM, leading to immune exhaustion and sensitivity.➤ You feel fragile, inflamed, and slow to heal.

5️⃣ Insulin Signaling: The Brain–Body Energy Traffic Controller

• 💡 What it does: Helps cells take in glucose and communicate with hormones.

• ⚠️ What goes wrong: Insulin resistance develops—sometimes before any psychiatric diagnosis.

• 🔗 ERM link: ERM recognizes insulin resistance as an early sign of energy miscommunication—especially in the brain.➤ You may struggle with weight changes, cravings, low mood, or brain fatigue.

🔄 A Smarter Way to Heal: Recognize, Resolve, Rebuild

Andreazza and her coauthors propose a systems framework called Probe–Perturb–Personalize, where we:

• Probe the system to understand energy flexibility

• Perturb it to encourage adaptation

• Personalize interventions based on individual patterns

In ERM, we use a similar roadmap:

• Recognize the early signs and metabolic trade-offs

• Resolve the stuck adaptations through targeted interventions

• Rebuild resilience through tailored recovery strategies

These aren’t quick fixes—they’re bioenergetic resets. Recovery means restoring the brain’s ability to sense, produce, and allocate energy—not just masking symptoms.

🧭 What This Means for You

If you're struggling with unexplained fatigue, brain fog, emotional flatness, or chronic stress—there may be a metabolic reason underneath.

Here’s what helps:

• Eat to nourish mitochondria (nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory foods)

• Move gently but consistently (exercise stimulates redox and energy flexibility)

• Rest deliberately (deep sleep is mitochondrial medicine)

• Balance stress inputs with recovery windows

• Track your patterns (your symptoms might be signs of energy shift, not damage)

And most of all:

You're not broken. You're running on empty. And you can refill the tank.

📚 Want to Learn More?

• Read the full Nature Mental Health article here: DOI link

• Follow our updates on ERM research, tools, and interventions

• Stay tuned for practical guides to help you Recognize, Resolve, and Rebuild

Because healing isn’t just emotional or physical—it’s energetic.

And it starts with understanding how your brain and body use power—…and what happens when they don’t have enough.

Andreazza, A. C., Barros, L. F., Behnke, A., Ben-Shachar, D., Berretta, S., Chouinard, V.-A., Do, K., Thanarajah, S. E., Ehrenreich, H., Falkai, P., Ford, J., Freyberg, Z., Gilbert-Jaramillo, J., Glausier, J. R., Goyal, M. S., Hahn, M., Herculano-Houzel, S., Hofmann, D., Kolassa, I.-T., Mack, M., ... Öngür, D. (2025). Brain and body energy metabolism and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders. Nature Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00422-6