Holistic Support for Recovering your Mental Health

“Do you have any guns in the house?”

I remember the naturopath addressing my husband, who stood directly behind me.
“No,” he replied, relieved that I was out of harm’s way.
Meanwhile, I sat there and wondered why no one was asking about the knives.

My Battle With Depression

I’d spent the last few months putting away every slightly sharp object, from the butter knives to the kid’s craft scissors to the steak knives. Out of sight, out of mind. Not that I’d told anyone I’d been doing this – I didn’t want to say it out loud because it validated my feelings. Truthfully, I didn’t want to hurt myself but didn’t feel safe when they were lying around.

I wondered how I had arrived at this place. A weary, caregiving hubby beside me, desperately searching for answers. My mum, traveling over 6,000 miles to help. And yet another doctor trying to prescribe solutions.

I’d been looking for answers for seven years but they were few and far between.

I Did Everything They Said, But Was Still Adrift

I saw the psychiatrist. I talked to the counselor. I prayed. Obviously, I took the meds. But, no matter how hard I tried or willed myself not to succumb to the fear, my heart would race, and nausea, diarrhea, and tears would crash over me like a tsunami. My overwhelming emotions swept away everything in their path, leaving me hopelessly adrift in a sea of sadness.

Why couldn’t I cope with any stimulation?
Why were my days consumed with panic?
Why was I battling depression?
Why was I sleeping all day?
Why couldn’t I take care of my kids and my home?
Why couldn’t I hold down a job?
Why did I want to lie down, close my eyes, and never wake up?

Maybe you can relate…

… To the feelings of sadness and overwhelm.
… To the pervasive sense of hopelessness.
… To feeling unmotivated, angry, tearful, or anxious.
… To trying things that don’t bring relief.

Learning Mental Health Isn’t All In Your Head

One day in a new doctor’s office, I heard three powerful words: I can help.

She reassured me that she had options we hadn’t tried. That she looked at things that conventional physicians didn’t always consider. And, she promised, that within six months, I’d be feeling more like myself than I had in years. She offered me hope. But most importantly, she told me the truth.

What I learned that day, and in the months to come, was that even though I thought my brain was broken, I was wrong. I learned that mental health was not all in my head.

What’s more, there’s an 80% likelihood that it’s not all in your head, either.

Less Obvious Factors That Can Affect Mental Health

Several things contribute to poor mental health. Traumatic events such as physical injury or emotional trauma can affect the way our minds work. But there are also less obvious, less considered reasons, like:

• poor gut health
• imbalanced blood sugars
• food allergies
• inadequate nutrition
• hormone imbalances
• mold and toxic exposure
• addiction, and
• thyroid disease

I Made Changes and My Mental Health Improved

For me, my mental health had been affected by a combination of terrible gut health following intense rounds of antibiotics in my early 20’s, food allergies, poor blood sugar regulation, and amino acid deficiencies. Later, it was threatened again by toxic mold exposure, low hormones, and thyroid dysfunction.

The best part about these discoveries was that some changes made a radical difference in less than a week. For example, when I stopped eating gluten I watched my anxiety attacks completely vanish in three days.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I found hope and healing and I believe you can too.

Nineteen years have passed since I sat in that doctor’s office. Today, I’m happy to report that I’ve been off my antidepressants and my benzos for over ten years. To be clear, I’m not anti-medication, sometimes they are needed. But I believe we need to look at the whole picture to figure out if there are underlying triggers that have been missed.

Intervening: Food, Holistic Approaches, and More

Knowing what I know, I wasn’t content with just finding emotional stability for myself—I wanted to help others find their own path to hope. I firmly believe in The Suicide Bridge Project’s mission to create a world where fewer lives are lost to suicide. One of their focus areas is finding ways to intervene across the suicide ideation spectrum. I believe a key area of intervention that isn’t talked about enough is the connection between food, the body, and our moods.

In 2022 I created the “Change Your Food, Change Your Mood” program and will be sharing some of those resources here on the blog in future. The program is a place where people struggling with their mental health can find alternative options than those presented by traditional medicine. Some of the ways we work through this with patients are holistic nutrition and lifestyle shifts. Other times we delve into testing and assessments, amino acid therapy, and supplements.

I’m confident these principles can help you, because they’re the same ones that helped me.