tug of war: physiology vs therapy

If you’ve never heard or thought of food supporting your mental health, then this may sound like witchcraft - and I get it. But let me break this down into an analogy that might help.

Let's imagine 2 people are playing tug-o-war. One person represents traditional talk therapy. The other person represents your physiology (things like your diet, brain inflammation, deficiencies, and even toxicities). 

If someone has anxiety (as well as unchecked inflammation, nutritional deficiencies and toxicities) this is going to pull pretty damn hard on one end of the rope.

But, because the other person desperately wants to feel better and they’re going to therapy and doing the techniques and the strategies they’re supposed to - they are also pulling with all their might at the other end of the rope.

As you can imagine, 2 people who are trying to pull with everything they have - are not going to go that far. There will be minor movements in one or the other direction but no sustainable change.

But, If we can make some adjustments in your diet and nutritional health to get your physiology on board - then both people can walk ‘rope in hand’ in the same direction towards better mental health. 

Once your physiology is on board and there is no longer a (not so fun) game of tug-o-war going on, your therapy techniques start to work better.

Why? Because you’re working WITH your body, not AGAINST it. 

Let me tell you about my story and why this is so important.

A year ago I was at my witts end. The smallest inconvenience or disappointment would throw me over the edge and no amount of therapy techniques could stop me from unleashing my anger at those who I trusted. This made me feel out of control, full of shame for my reactions, and eventually it led me down a path of not wanting to live anymore because I didn’t feel worthy of life. 

My therapist at the time told me to ‘put my phone down’ or ‘not engage’ or ‘wait until I was calm’ but that is absolutely not what I would do. I would charge full steam ahead into arguments over the smallest issues. And there was absolutely no way for me to ‘think’ my way out of acting this way because I was IN IT. 

This is all true until I started taking nutritional lithium - which is a trace mineral. Suddenly, I could feel upset but in control of my reactions. My talk therapy techniques and strategies actually started working for me. I was in control.

By balancing my minerals ever so slightly, therapy actually started to work for me because again, I was working WITH my body. No longer against it. 

So if you find yourself feeling defeated that the strategies and techniques aren’t working, or like therapy just isn’t helping - it may be time to look into a deeper root cause for why you’re feeling that way in the first place. And what changes you can make to support your mind and body on this healing journey.

This is what I do with clients every day.

Together, we find the biggest dial movers that are going to provide them with the quickest change. This could be anything from balancing minerals, regulating blood sugar, decreasing inflammation, all the way to addressing parasites, mold, or heavy metals.

You are capable of more. Sometimes, you just need a bit more than therapy.