Looking back on where I started on my journey and where I am now, I am amazed at how little I knew but I thought I knew. When I reach a place I think I have a pretty good explanation and solution for my illness, I am astounded but grateful when I find, on my continual search, the deeper roots and solutions that I've been hoping for.
When I was first sick I was just dealing with chronic fatigue, lack of energy, and recurring cold and stomach flues. I had anxiety, occasional panic attacks and IBS. I went from being sick quarterly, then every other month and then monthly. I would get well enough from resting to gain enough energy to fool myself that I had regained my health and would go on a cleaning spree to make up for my down time. This of course would put me into another cycle of sickness. At Christmas time, in the days of little sunshine and a lot of stress I finally cracked. I lived with anxiety daily but this time my anxiety was heightened and constant. If I ate any common food, whether healthy or not my anxiety level would amplify even greater. I was more than miserable. It was unbearable. I would almost pass out every night as I was falling asleep and I would wake up gasping for air. If I tried to even do the smallest task my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest, my legs and chest would ache and burn and I would be struggling for air. I would immediately have to lie down. I began to confine myself to bed rest and my computer to search for a solution. The doctors said I was fine and all my tests came back normal. I began consulting my local health food store and holistic chiropractors for solutions. I consulted with my mom who had had health problems starting around my same age (early thirties). She had all the same symptoms and after fifteen years of searching she was diagnosed with Lupus.
My journey has been more of a determination to get to the bottom of my illness, heal, and get on with my life. Having a lot of business experience so I went about it like I would a project. I put my plan together and ventured out to conquer with no question in my mind that I would do otherwise. But as head strong as I am, I've had to realize that healing takes time and has so many more facets, angles, twists and turns that can set me back or hurl me forward.
My first discovery was that I could control my anxiety with food. I started out thinking I just had severe food allergies and Candida. I would go into shock eating certain foods and using hair dye and make-up. I found Dr. Crooks "Yeast Connection Cook book" very informative and helpful. I eliminated all common foods and began to notice a huge difference within two weeks of eating a lot of uncommon vegetables, grains and other unprocessed foods. If I relapsed I would have to wait a few days for my severe anxiety to subside. Enzymes would help my digestion and Tri-salts would bring me down out of a food or chemical related anxiety attack. If I rested I felt better but would get so depressed about my messy house I would clean and relapse over and over. I went on like this as well as trying different herbal remedies that flared up my anxiety instead of helping me. I tried NAET which is an allergy reversal process that my body was not ready for. My final two treatments resulted in a trip to the ER experiencing sever Mania and panic. I did learn how to use certain pressure points to aid in my digestion. I also learned some valuable information about our negative perceptions or experiences about or around certain foods and how they can cause our bodies to reject those foods causing food allergies or intolerance's. Preparing, eating and sharing food should be done with a positive mind set with love, care and relaxation, to aid in proper digestion and assimilation. This was just some of the discoveries I made at the beginning of my journey that I have found profoundly helpful. I have many more discoveries to post that I hope you will find helpful on your journey to heal.
So my conclusion at the time was that if I had only listened to my body and eaten only foods that agreed with my bowels that I would not have gotten sick. I blamed it on constantly eating foods that make me sick instead of eating the way I knew I should eat. I learned a lot of valuable lessons in health and nutrition such as food rotation (over eating of the same foods can cause food intolerance), using pure olive oil and never burning it, staying away from nitrates and processed meat, I learned that there are so many more varieties of grains and vegetables that makes eating healthy more exciting. I added legumes, nuts, seeds and fish to my diet. So many good things have come out of this one discovery. But it's only one piece of a giant puzzle I have been piecing together.
No comments:
Post a Comment