The Other Dimension
As a counselor of 6 years who has observed numerous people struggle with emotional and mental issues despite the many different types of medications they have been prescribed, as well as in my work with eating disorder clients, I have more recently begun to research yet another dimension for my counseling approach.
Until this past year my approach has been cognitive, emotional, and spiritual. Of course, I always encouraged my clients to limit their caffeine intake, establish regular sleeping patters, and participate in at least 30 minutes of exercise on a daily basis, but for the most part, the physical dimension of the human body was not a large part of my counseling practice.
As my work with eating disorders began to increase the past 2 1/2 years I began to do more study in the areas of nutrition. And then, in the past year, as I was reading yet another nutrition book, it finally hit me that this has been a missing link within my counseling office----the care of the physical body as well as the spirit and the mind!
As a person who struggles with health related issues, including those that I was born with, such as severe asthma, and those that are the effects of 10 years of anorexia and bulimia, such as infertility, advanced degenerative arthirtis, and damaged intestinal track, I have been pushed into the study of nutrition and natural healing personally, not just as a professional.
Each year that passes I am prescribed yet another medication for one thing or the other. If I was taking all the was prescribed I would be taking a total of 7 medications a month, all totaling to approx. $850/month! And I'm only 31 years old. Enough is enough already!
I have set out with a passion to find naturaly, healing alternatives to this type of life. Surely there is another way to live my life. Surely there is a way to help heal my body from the root cause not just treat the symptoms.
And surely, there is a way to help people find mental relief from the chemical imbalances that torment so many of them despite all the different anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications they are on!
Now, before anyone becomes very angry with me, I am not anti-medication! Please do not stop taking yoru medication if you have been prescribed it by the Doctor!!!! Medications do help people. Every medication I have ever been prescribed has helped me, both physically as well as mentally. My issue is not so much with the fact medications don't help, as much as it is with the fact the Doctor seems to add another one to the list every year. I see the same thing with my clients. In addition, I don't feel the medications go back to the basic, root problem causing the symptoms in the first place.
Please, before you begin to explore the natural healing route, consult your medical Doctor first!!! And whatever you do, don't quit your medications cold turkey!!!!! Doing this without medical input can endanger your health!
This post is for those that are tired of taking one medication after the other and then having to try a new one every 6 - 12 months because their body has built up a tolerance or immunity to it. Or worse yet, begins to have a reaction to it. This post is also for those that want to perhaps explore what the root causes to their phsyical and mental issues are, and not just doctor up the symptoms.
In all my reading and exploration I am finding that what we eat and drink has a huge effect on our bodies. Our bodies are intricately made and designed and were originally created to function well on their own. But enter the years of refined sugars, processed foods, hormone laden milk and beef, caffeine laced drinks and food (there is now a new granola bar out there now that promises a caffeine boost!)etc, and our bodies are under attack.
As I read the scientific breakdown of how sugar or caffeine is processed by the body, it makes sense to me that it depletes natural chemicals, hormones, and amino acids we were orginally created to function with! As our bodies rush to counter-attack the foods that are not healthy for us, they use vital chemicals that we would normally use to keep mood and health balanced, thus depleting them for basic functioning. As these chemicals get depleted we get sugar or caffeine cravings to make up for the lack, indulge those cravings, and then the cycle is repeated--more visciously each time!
In my years of eating disorders I would starve my body of nutrition but feed it
1. mega doses of caffeine and ephedrine each day (I would triple dose the average amount),
2. laxatives (60 a day if I binged), and
3. diuretics.
As my body worked to keep from being poisoned it is no wonder that it had nothing left to give me for normal, daily functioning. No wonder I was so severely depressed!
And though, in years that followed I quit the more extreme abusive behavior, I still relied on man-made chemicals like sugar and caffeine to keep going. Always synthetically helping myself along---until a level of sugar or caffeine would drop and then the crazy process would begin again!
I was treating the symptom of tiredness with caffeine but not treating the actual cause---depleted chemicals that my body should make naturally. Same with sugar.
So in recent months I have begun to learn how to help my body get back on track so that it will manufacture the chemicals that I naturally need. Slowly but surely I have been eliminating sugars and processed foods from my system and replacing them with healthy alternatives.
Coffee has become green tea. Chocolate has become applesauce or peaches. Chips have become almonds or trail mix. Plenty of H2O has become a daily consumption---at least 32 ounces if not more! Supplements such as 5-HTP (a natural amino acid that helps the body create it's own seretonin---similar to man-made drugs that help the body create it), Vit B12 for brain function, and Vitamin C for overall health are just a few.
I have a long way to go. We still have processed foods in our house and I'm not yet on all the supplements that are necessary. But I've come far in just a few short months and I notice a difference. Without doses of sugar and caffiene every day, I notice a more even-keel emotional and mental state. However, if I do indulge (such as last night at Friendlys---with a V-day gift from my in-laws!), the day after, as the sugar and caffeine leave my body I feel the old days of sluggishness and almost-depression come back.
I've learned that nuts and cheese give me longer lasting fuel than a cookie or chips. And the more time passes, the less I crave the old foods and the more I crave the new foods!
One of the books that has helped me the most with this whole process is The Diet Cure. I reccommend it to everyone that I know is fed up with the old struggles and wants to try a new, healthier way.
Some would call me a nut. Some might even call me radical! But the way I see it, how can it hurt to begin taking supplements and eating healthier??? I have nothing to lose---and everything to gain! And since I've already seen positive results I'd be nuts to quit. And besides, I think it's pretty radical to pay $850 a month on medications that I will only have to add to the older I get---as history has already proven!
Below I have included a link for The Diet Cure, as well as reccommended some related books to the topic.
Related:
,
Blessings to all!
Melissa