As I sit here, I hold with me a 7 page intake form, an extensive list of general dietary recommendations, and a list of specific supplements I am supposed to be taking. This is from February of this year. It was from a consultation with a naturopathic doctor. I did no follow-up consultation, no lab tests, and only weakly followed the recommendations. The problem, as I saw it, was I had no guarantee that the program or the doctor in question was going to help me with the problem in question, or that she even understood it. She was not the first time I sought help.
The first was with Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness, who does his own diet and lifestyle coaching. I had a full consultation with him as well. The format was rather similar: a lot of specific questions designed to get a general set of imbalances followed by a recommended set of labs specific to my consultation. There were to be follow-up consultations and dietary recommendations.
Typcically, once you add consultations, lab tests, and supplements together, $1000 isn't a bad estimate for an initial foray into the world of alternative medicine. Unfortunately, it's a lot to ask in a world where you are on your own, and in a doctor who's efficacy you are unsure of and who you are not sure understands your condition. Such are the courses available to people who are looking for very specific, guided help beyond "get more sleep", or "eat plenty of fruits and vegetables", or "you're perfectly healthy", or "we could prescribe something". There are many people bouncing around in the blogosphere that have specific physiological complaints which are medical system seems to just sweep under the rug, or throw into catch-all categories like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.
My Condition
The condition of which I complain did not exist six or seven years ago. It's onset definitely came during my extended low-carb stint. It was a very unhealhty period of my life, characterized by excessive exercise, inadequate sleep, and reliance on chocolate and alcohol. I understand now that an obsessive mindset was pushing my body well beyond its limits. At the time, I attributed my physical malaise to insomnia and lack of sleep, which I was in turn attributing to stress. I now recognize it went beyond that and attribute it to some sort combination of the following: an accumulated nutitrtional deficiency, some imbalance in body chemistry or homones, or atrophy or down-regulation of some important glandular or hormonal system.
What it feels like
On a good day, it's barely noticable. I will go through many of my normal activities without even thinking about it. Then when I sit down to meditate, it will be apparent. On a bad day, it is difficult to ignore, and focusing on work is much more difficult. On an average day, I am aware of a sensation in the upper back, near the neck, and near the front of the head, kind of in and around the eyes. The sensation is not pleasent although I would not classify it as pain, itching, or any other common physical description. The unpleasentness depends on the severity and the more severe, the more likely it is to extend down the legs and arms. I remember back during the midst of the unhealthy period, during a very bad day, describing the sensation to a friend of mine as a "raw nerve" sort of feeling. At that level, it's difficult to even fall asleep.
Why I sought alternative help
Seeking alternative help came months after I quit eating low-carb, well after I'd been stocking up on real, whole, healing foods, long after I'd cut alcohol, chocolate, and other stimulants way down in my diet. For some reason my body just wasn't bouncing back and the variables were just too complex to sort out. This is not the sort of thing I imagine asking a general practitioner about, so I didn't even bother. The times I sought help were periods of doubting that I was actually healing, or healing fast enough. I don't doubt now that my body is recovering. It's just very slow, has large ups and downs, and so is difficult to gauge process.
How it's affected my life
The main problem with my condition is that it's made me far more anti-social than I would otherwise like to be. Rather than going out, going to parties, going to clubs, I have often closeted myself in my house simply for the idea that I need rest, or that if I didn't get enough rest or get to bed early enough, tomorrow may be a cruddy day. I went through a much more liberal month or two recently, but this may have come at the expense of a slowing or halting in my progress, so I have begun pulling back again.
In my next post I will talk about why I've chosen to experiment with RBTI and what my hopes are for it.
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