Finding Natural Remedies for Mental Health

Life has been busy so I haven't been posting as much.  When I last posted I had discussed the life integration therapy and mentioned that was the start of the healing process.  Well, one of the next steps I went through was going off of my anxiety/depression medication.  My first attempt wasn't entirely successful but it wasn't a crash and burn either.  My wife is going to school for holistic medicine and we are very big on finding natural cures and remedies for things; only relying on western medicine and prescriptions as a last resort.  I will say to you if you are very strong in how you feel about your prescription medications that's fine, they have helped some people.  They even helped me for a short period of time, but they also caused problems for me.   I have seen, and known, many people in my life adversely affected by prescription medications.  The first thing I turned to was the essential oils my wife sells. For those who don't know what essential oils are they are plant based oils that are extracted in various ways.  The plants themselves have different medicinal properties, and in fact many medicines are based upon constituents that are found within plants.  The difference is that for prescription meds they usually just isolate the constituents they want and then synthesize them for the medicine.  The pink liquid for your stomach problems for example has some of the same constituents in it that peppermint essential oil has.  

Now there are other plants out there that can help with anxiety, meditation, calming, and brain function.  I was using some essential oil blends that were able to help me combat my stress and anxiety without taking my medication.  The fact that I had been going through the life integration therapy helped as well.  However, I still found myself having a hard time with some of my triggers, and for the essential oil to be effective I was using it quite often.  For some of the particular oils I was using that can get expensive, especially since they are not recognized by the FDA as medicine, at least not the same way prescriptions are.  If your doctor isn't going to prescribe them then your insurance isn't going to help pay for them.  For a time I began wondering if I should go back to my prescription medications just because of the cost.  

Then I found someone else who could help me with my healing process.  His name is Richard Grannon and his business is called Spartan Life Coach.  I would highly recommend searching him on youtube as he has a lot of videos that are basically free counseling.  Mr. Grannon helped me understand a lot of things about myself.  For one thing it is possible that I suffer from complex PTSD due to the nature of my childhood.  There may also be PTSD from being deployed.  One of the things Mr. Grannon helped me understand about complex PTSD is that you don't know what your triggers are and one of the best ways to deal with this stuff is to understand your triggers.  I have just posted the video that inspired me to write this blog.  Mr. Grannon explains that he was able to help himself heal from his own complex PTSD by counseling other people.  During this time he was always talking about causality with them and it led to him thinking about causality for his own issues.  Now towards the end of the video he says that there is not a known cure for complex PTSD but that maybe together we can work towards one.  I decided that maybe if I tell my story it may be able to help some other people. Mr. Grannon also reminded me of how important meditation can be, but he also states you have to be careful with meditation if you have complex PTSD.  I would suggest watching his video regarding meditation and complex PTSD before you just start trying to use meditation as part of your healing process.  

About the same time I was first learning about Richard Grannon's videos I learned about another natural product which I am still using.  It is completely natural and I recommend it to many people I know because it has helped so many people I know.  My mom is on it, which I know she needs it since she has been putting up with abuse from my father for over 30 years.  My dad may have stopped being physically abusive years ago, but emotional and mental abuse can be more damaging in its own way.  My mom actually feels happy now.  

My wife's sister was diagnosed bipolar a few years ago and they put her on a bunch of medication to help her.  She was also raped about a year and a half ago and tried to commit suicide at our house that same year during Christmas.  She has been through may different medications before finding this natural supplement.  In fact it was because of her situation that my wife and I learned of this supplement.  Today my wife's sister is completely free from all her prescription medications because of this natural remedy, and she will tell you that she feels better than she did when she was in high school before she was diagnosed bipolar.  

My point of this post is to let you know that there is hope out there.  For those of you that take medication, but don't like the side effects that come along with it; we can find alternatives out there. 

If you would like me to mention more about any of this stuff just let me know in the comments.  I will try to log on her a little more regularly for the next few weeks in case any of you do.  If you aren't comfortable asking in the comments send an email: nubeta14@gmail.com.  I will answer as soon as I can, but I am juggling many roles, especially since I am trying to go to school for engineering so I can go into a job that is more peaceful.