I've had ALL the mental health diagnoses: bipolar, ADHD, depression, anxiety disorder. By the time I turned 20, I was on so many pills I needed a gallon Ziploc bag to carry all of them.
Ya'll! That's not normal!
A few months before I met my husband, I decided to get my sh*t togehter. I switched birth control, started eating better, lifted weights, and got my finances on track (ironically, fixing myself helped me manifest a partner who would hold space for much bigger healing later on). Honestly, if I hadn't made the conscious effort to be better, I would probably be dead by now #realtalk.
I managed to get off of all but one medication by living a healthier life. Yay!
The problem? I still had MASSIVE depressive episodes. It was bad. I would be fine for weeks, then BAM! I'd want to burn my whole life down.
When we decided to have kids, I got off all the medications so my body would be as clean as possible for our baby. I was fine during pregnancy, but postpartum hit like a ton of bricks. I reached out for help so many times, but nobody took it seriously. They all said the same thing: "This is normal, we all went through it, and now it's your turn." I couldn't find words to express HOW depressed I was.
Fortunately, most of it lifted with a mostly-Paleo diet and a decent workout routine. I went on to have two more babies, and the postpartum depression was just as bad with those two. It's to be expected having three under three: there's zero time to take care of yourself and the sensory overwhelm was CONSTANT. I kept thinking that it would eventually go away.
But when the youngest kid turned two and I was STILL depressed? That's not postpartum.
I remembered back before I ever took birth control how I would get really moody when I got my period. It was existential. I was a mess. My mom would tell me that it's normal (because for her, it was). I had been on birth control/pregnant/breastfeeding so long that I didn't remember what it was like to experience my own hormones.
Lemme tell ya, it sucked.
But this time it wasn't just affecting me, it was affecting my whole family. I couldn't just drown my sorrows in iced coffee and take extra naps for 2 weeks out of every month. The symptoms were making me unbearable.
The kicker? I now had autoimmune issues too: fibromyalgia, food intolerances, light sensitivity, joint pain, and chronic fatigue (I later found out it was POTS).
I knew intuitively that the depression, chronic fatigue, inattention, food allergies, and chronic pain were all related, but couldn't find a doctor that would believe me. They all wanted to treat the symptoms that were in their area of expertise, and send me to a different specialist for the rest. I even had one lady tell me that "If what you're saying is true, you'd be dying." Ma'am, that's why I'm here. I AM dying and I'd like to...not be.
That's the curse of chronic illness. You get so used to masking it that people don't believe there's anything wrong with you (including doctors).
I did two things that radically changed my life: I finished my nutritionist certification so I could learn to order labs and interpret them. I also found a functional health practitioner that would allow me to order whatever tests I felt I needed, and coded them so my insurance would cover them.
I had three major deficiencies:
Vitamin B12
Vitamin D (it was almost zero!)
Iron
Here's where it gets tricky. I have alpha gal syndrome, so I can't take any supplements that come from mammal products, including vitamin D and iron. I also couldn't take plant-based vitamin D or iron because they're high in histamine, and I had MCAS.
It turns out, estrogen and progesterone play a major role in regulating histamine, so I had to balance my hormones BEFORE I could tolerate other supplements to correct the deficiencies.
I started tracking my cycles and realized that most of my symptoms were ten days before my period, and again right before my period...on the days when estrogen is the lowest.
It seems counterintuitive, but I was STOKED to have this information! Knowing when your symptoms peak means you can work backwards to figure out what's going on in your body. And realizing that low estrogen was causing most of my symptoms gave me a solid plan for fixing it.
While the autoimmunity and brain fog were awful, the depression was by far the worst symptom. I kept saying that if I could just get rid of the depression, I'd have the energy to figure out the rest.
There are three main supplements that helped me reverse the hormonal depression:
Vitamin B6
Black Cohosh
Folate (NOT folic acid!)
Taking these three supplements gave me enough energy to start the process of reversing the rest of my symptoms.
If you'd like the full guide to how I reversed PMDD, MCAS, and ADHD with herbs + supplements, click here to grab the Wild Abundance Guide!
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