Updated: Jan 19, 2021
I have dealt with what I call "dark thoughts" all my life. I was even diagnosed with depression and put on medication at one point but I didn't feel like it helped. In fact, all it did was give me headaches. I did some talk therapy which helped a little but what helped the most was just the realization that I had to be more aware of my thoughts and where I let them go. Unfortunately, I developed the strategy of distracting myself from these "dark thoughts'" with social media or the internet. Not the most productive thing to do as social media helped me compare my worst parts of my life with the best parts of others lives. It's still something I struggle with daily but awareness of the problem is the first step.
I've also had to figure out how to deal with pain. From the time I was a teenager I would have terrible cramps. I would take ibuprofen which seemed to help but after a while it did not help. Fortunately the pain lessened with time but it would have been so helpful if my nurse practitioner had known about the herbs that I learned about in medical school which took my pain to zero. I have also been through my fair share of sprains and strains including badly sprained ankles, waking up with a sore neck and various other aches and pains. I have even thrown out my back bending over to pick up a shirt off the floor. A shirt!
Later in life I watched a friend go through chemo and radiation for breast cancer. My mom has also battled cancer twice! All these things led me to question, is there a better way? And that is what brought me to naturopathic medicine.
