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How I got over anxiety and depression

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Stress and the strain it puts on the adrenals is one reason people can develop gut issues over time.

I recently compromised my adrenals and began having a lot of disturbing symptoms that gave me anxiety. Depression was not far behind. It was a difficult experience but I took away some important lessons from it that I am sharing here.

I hope that this post will help explain how digestive issues can develop (from observing clients and my own powerful experience).

I went from being healthy and stress free to having so much anxiety about my health, which of course made my symptoms worse. It wasn’t overnight. A lot happened in my life to challenge my body and gut.

Now that I am through it, upon reflection, I realize that it could have been a lot worse. I never really developed any digestive symptoms as part of my issues, but my hormones suffered tremendously. The self care I’ve practiced over the years has paid off, making my body resilient to stressors that could have broken down a weaker body.

I’m going to use my personal story to bring light to how physical and emotional stressors can cause health problems and what I did to recover.

My story (how I upset my adrenals)

Anxiety and depression is one of the most common symptoms among people with digestive and hormonal imbalances. And this summer I suffered from both and it humbled me greatly and made me understand my client’s experience from a deeply personal level. I experienced how worrying about my symptoms made them worse.

It is challenging to make changes/progress from this state because everything feels hopeless and scary. But slowly, the things I implemented to support myself began to work together to banish my emotional and physical symptoms.

My issues took about 2 years to develop and it was not just one thing but a collection of things that overwhelmed my system’s ability to cope.

Huge life transition/international move/bad news

It started when we decided to move to Argentina. My husband stopped working and was also diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at the same time. Having to leave my beloved city and home after 12 years truly broke my heart. Moving to another country really scared me. This was a lot of stress.

Mold illness

When we got to Argentina I was so stressed that my hair started falling out. Eventually I calmed down, but I had intense rashes daily. I found out a year and a half later that we were living in an apartment with black mold and I had mold illness. Mold illness can really stress the immune system and cause leaky gut.

Something else that added to my stress was that Argentina had import/export laws that made it impossible to order anything I needed from abroad. So I experienced a lot of scarcity around not being able to access testing and supplements from the U.S. Healthy food was also hard to navigate.

Travel and more transition

The next huge transition came two years later when we were planning our move to Berlin. Between the month of December and March I traveled to 4 countries and lived 4 apartments). I think it was too much for my already unsettled nervous system.

In March I moved to Germany and it was one of the most stressful travel experiences of my life. Travel is already a stressor for me but I just made it to Germany just as the EU borders were closing. And at one point I was told that my flight from Madrid to Berlin was cancelled and I thought I was stuck. That trip took a few years off of my life and it was right when the Corona terror was highest in the world.

Moving to a new country during a pandemic was hard. We had zero community. We knew nothing. We could not speak the language and many things were difficult.

Tick bite

We went hiking outside the city which seemed like a stress reducing thing to do but a week later I found a tick on my back and it tested positive for two nasty bacteria: rickettsia and anaplasma. I was not treated for those infections because I never developed any severe symptoms and an antibody test showed that my immune system was fighting them off.

Trauma

While miraculously my body was able to deal with these pathogens it was a very traumatic experience for me because the root cause of my IBS was massive antibiotics from a tick bite that caused Lymes disease. I was trying to heal from mold toxicity when this happened. I was still under lockdown with little support. Even going to the doctor felt scary.

Overworking

Both a blessing and curse, I was given the opportunity to write a book about GERD in 6 weeks which included 100 GERD friendly recipes. It was a tight deadline and a ton of work. It kept me busy but was too much work. I think this is when my adrenals began to suffer. I was working too much and going to bed late. I was probably eating too much sugar and chocolate at this point. The whole world was stress eating. I also had a full client course load during that time.

Symptoms began

A few weeks after I finished the book I started having dizzy spells. I would intense get head rushes getting up off the couch. I almost fainted in a store. My hands and feet started tingling. This really scared me. Not to mention I started very easily. Loud noises on the street, sudden movements made me jump. This was the classic signs of adrenal fatigue but I never experienced them that intensely.

I finally went to the doctor and he ran some standard blood tests. A complete thyroid panel showed perfect hormone function but slightly elevated antibodies. He sent me to another doctor to test my thyroid but because of the language barrier I had a hard time getting an appointment or was turned away from testing because I did not speak German.

When I finally got tested they diagnosed me with mild Hashimotos and prescribed hormones. Since then, I have realized that I don’t actually have an autoimmune disease, this was just a sign that my body was deeply stressed. With good reason. When I reflected back at what I have been through.

The bright side of the story is that I learned a lot about mold illness and thyroid disease and can now help other clients with these issues.

What I learned is that when your adrenals are suffering it can take the thyroid down with it. For me the adrenal fatigue caused havoc on my hormones, causing me to lose a lot of weight and have unusually difficult and painful cycles.

The body can heal if you give it what it needs. Usually it recovers more than a diet change and supplements. It needs support from different angels and the more support you can provide, the quicker you can heal. This is how I did it.

How I healed my adrenals (and slashed my thyroid antibodies)

A GI Map test revealed that I had intestinal permeability (leaky gut) so I also took a food sensitivity test and removed some of the foods I ate frequently that I was sensitive to (eggs, cow dairy, avocados, cashews, almonds). This helped lower the inflammation in my body.

I stopped over working. This is a no brainer, because it stopped the continued insult but I still needed to do more to heal the damage.

I started a homeopathic formula for my mood issues. It was prescribed by my doctor. The depression went away first and then anxiety slowly followed.

I reduced the time I spent on Instagram by limiting my time there to posting only. I stopped scrolling the feed and I even took 2 weeks off from posting, which was lovely.

I saw a physiotherapist who worked on the tension in my jaw. That is one of the places in my body that I hold much of my stress. She helped work it out and put a mud pack on me afterwards. It was so relaxing and a great excuse to get out of the house.

I started a spiritual practice with a friend, called inquiry, where we explored a new topic from weekly teachings. The week that we did Superego work was very powerful. As a result I beat myself up a little less and that is a big huge deal.

I started taking B vitamins which get depleted with stress and it help with the numb and tingling extremities. I also cut soy and processed gluten free products like chips and bread sticks from my diet and ate more veggies and broth.

I practiced chi gong and took daily walks to release tension from my body and move my lymphatic system.

I found a somatic experiencing practitioner online and started working with her to release some of the trauma of the last few years from my body.

I added some fun things to my life. I started riding a bike. And hosted a good friend for two weeks at my house. I was really nice to have that in person connection. I loved cooking with her and showing her around Berlin.

I also had a few Zoom conversations with friends who shared their experience with thyroid antibodies and menopause, that made me realize that what I was experience was natural and normal and did not mean I had some awful disease. Anxiety lowered by a few notches.

Lastly, I spoke to a medical intuitive. I wanted her to tell me what the heck was wrong with my body. My anxiety told me that something as off. However, what she told me was that nothing was wrong and that I simply needed to create better boundaries and stop taking on other people’s symptoms and worries. It was a very good reminder of my empathic ways, and the conversation calmed me down. It made me realize that some of the things that I was experiencing were not mine and I was able to let them go.

A few weeks ago I got my thyroid antibodies retested. By caring for my adrenals and taking a few supplements I was able to slash them in half. They are now in a range where no one can diagnose them as Hashimotos.

So, that is what I did that brought me and my adrenals back into balance. I did it without yoga, meditating, deep breathing or walks in nature (the advice you always see online). There are many ways to restore and it is important to first of all, be patient, it took me months to feel better. And to find something that works for you.

What worked for me will not work for everyone, it is not an exact roadmap to follow. It is just an example of how many different things it took to bring me back to normal. It was a marriage of body, mind and spirit.

It was not a quick fix but stopping the insult (overworking) and supporting my body and mind with what it needed to calm down and regenerate.

I hope that this blog posts gives you an idea of how a collection of stressful events, both emotional and physical can exhaust the adrenals and cause gut problems. The GI Map also revealed that my h pylori infection came back and I treated that over the summer while I was having symptoms. The stress caused a lot of havoc in my body, and I did not feel well.

Anxiety and depression are perhaps the worst symptoms you can have. But these things are fixable.

It may be helpful to write down all the stressful things in your life that have led to where you are now, so you can understand that this did not happen for no reason. Have compassion for what you have been through and then write down a list of what you can do to help support your mind, body, nervous system and soul.

Do this when you are feeling connected and relaxed. Ask the universe for help and clarity or reach out for help.

Having just been there I can tell you that there is a way out even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Don’t expect miracles from just one thing, and know that with time and a variety of things to support you, that your adrenals, gut and immune system will do what they know how to do best. Heal and rebalance.

If there is anything I can do to help you regain your gut or adrenal health please reach out. Or get daily guidance on instagram.


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