My mother was diagnosed with bipolar and treated with lithium and other drugs for years before she was diagnosed with celiac, and autoimmune disease that centers around the small bowel. It was assumed that I would have this issue myself, and indeed I've had many times where my moods dominated my life. It never felt like 'me' to be depressed, or hyperactive, and I had a wide variety of other mood and neurological issues such as anxiety, confusion, constant fatigue and insomnia, along with a variety of unexplained groups of physical symptoms. So, obviously I turned out to have celiac disease too.

Now that I have stopped consuming gluten, the trigger for celiac, my moods are much more stable. When I inadvertently consume some, part of the reaction I have (which is days long) includes psychological symptoms. Now, in the absence of frequent gluten poisoning, these symptoms stand out.

However, with all this experience, I have no idea how my microbiome affects my mental health. The effects could easily be explained by the immune storm kicked off in my body by gluten. I also have little idea of how my health observations relate to normal people who don't have celiac. Probiotics don't seem to affect my sense of well-being.

There is a startup in Los Alamos focused on personal microbiomes. I'm thinking of getting analyzed: https://www.viome.com