Is there any science behind what’s happening to me since going plant based?

Since going plant based a few weeks ago I’ve noticed a change in my mood for the first time in about 10 years. I haven’t really laughed out loud at anything in a long time, I wouldn’t say I’ve been depressed necessarily. I’ve been happy.

But now things are suddenly make me laugh again, like REALLY belly laugh like when I was a teenager. I haven’t experienced this in like a decade. I’ve tried googling this but all it pulls up are articles about people laughing at vegans.

I will say I went plant based for health reasons, so it’s not that I am happier because I feel better about causing less harm to animals. That was not my motivation, and when researching this I’ve read a lot of people say that’s why you become happier, but for me I can say that isn’t a factor, although it does make me feel good.

But chemically and hormonally speaking, is there science behind what’s happening to me? Is my body making a chemical now that it wasn’t before when I was eating animal products, that’s allowing me to really actually laugh now? Like doubled over laughing, can’t catch my breath laughing like when I was a kid.

I want to know the science behind this so I don’t lose it. I’d like to capitalize on it but I don’t understand it. Has anyone else experienced this?

Edit: Wow, thank you everyone for being so kind and helpful. I’m glad to know this is real and not in my head, and will definitely be doing more research and googling the things I’ve been told to google! I want to try to reply to everyone individually but want to amend my post to put what I’ve been eating and how I used to eat since a few have asked. Again I will say I’ve only been plant based a couple weeks so am still figuring this out. I’ve also been eating the same thing pretty much every day, lol, and I have a protein shake pretty much every day cause I am still trying to find the best way to get plenty of protein on a plant based diet. My diet now looks like plain oatmeal with nut butter for breakfast, protein shake for lunch, chickpea pasta with tomato sauce for dinner, and rice cakes with nut butter and dark chocolate chips as a snack before bed. I try to eat plenty of greens with these meals, and I’ve been eating raisins as a snack as well. I’m in the process of losing weight (again I went plant based for health reasons!) so it’s only about 1500 cals of food a day right now. Sometimes I have egg replacement (like in the carton) for lunch with veggies. I eat lots of broccoli, tomato, spinach, peas and carrots, potatoes and I LOVE sweet potatoes. Sometimes I’ll have lentils with vegetable soup. I also love rice bowls (Spanish rice, avocado, lettuce and tomato, with black beans and a spicy sauce and some kind of plant based chorizo or something).

My diet is basically the same as it was before going plant based, except I switched out my dairy milk for coconut or cashew milk, and my butters for avocado oil, and am trying to get my protein from protein powder, lentils, legumes and chickpea pasta. I don’t drink alcohol or caffeine, and that hasn’t changed. I’m also gluten intolerant so all my foods are GF. Overall I’ve been eating 90% whole foods for years, and the only things that changed are what I listed above.

I’ve been struggling with libido the past few years and feel very hopeful this is going to help with that as well, since it has been changing my mood so much. If anyone had experience with this, I’d love to hear it! Thank you all again for all your help! :)