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Healing is hard, being sick and having symptoms is hard. Why would I share that with you? Friend, you have to choose your hard. Today we are talking about giving up, and more specifically the dangers of giving up and what some other options maybe instead.

Let’s dig in.

Welcome! if this is your first time listening - I’m Audrey Christie - I’m a functional and integrative nurse nutritionist and energy medicine practitioner who helps women heal from chronic illness and autoimmune disease. Helping you to stop chasing symptoms, find your root causes, and heal your body from autoimmune and chronic illness.

I hear so often - that my clients before coming to me have run out of hope. They have tried to search for a diagnosis, without success and they feel lost, stuck, afraid, depressed, and always tired.

Searching for a Diagnosis

One of the main reasons why people give up on feeling better is because they are waiting on a diagnosis, a label for the way they feel.

You don’t need a diagnosis.

Read that again.

You don’t need a diagnosis.

People that are suffering from a symptom or collection of symptoms spend an average of 5 years getting a diagnosis. 5 WHOLE YEARS. Half a decade. And that is the average, which means half of those people spend longer than 5 years. Five or more years of suffering, stressing, and making whatever is there label-less fester and get worse.

You don’t need a diagnosis to heal, in fact, I recommend not getting one for MOST people. It changes absolutely nothing. You still have the same option of conventional medicine to mask symptoms vs. starting your own Root Cause Revolution to heal your body.

I would even go as far as to say, don’t get a diagnosis because once you do - once you do you own that disease. I have worked with people that are so ingrained in their label - even making it their username “autoimmune warrior” or “psoriasis girl” or “RA Survivor.” Why would you make this your I am statement? You are not your disease, you might have some symptoms, you might have an imbalance BUT you can heal which means you aren’t the disease. And ANY practitioner that tells you otherwise should be fired right away. You deserve better than that my friend.

And a side note on the user names - if you are going to claim something let's claim and state healing, not dis-ease.

What happens when the “expert” tells you it’s hopeless? You give up. I have seen it over and over again, people thinking they are doomed. And it isn’t the case.

I have tons of stories from my practice, people going from doc to doc, spending 1000’s a month on tests, referrals, some even having surgeries, and all for what? To still have symptoms, to be taking medications that cause more symptoms, and to be on the verge of giving up.

What Happens When You Give Up

When you give up, you let the disease win. When you give up trying to heal, you lose. Again, both paths healing and suffering are hard, so which one do you choose?

When you give up midway through root cause rebalancing, you actually cause more problems for yourself and make it even harder to heal. If you have been on a healing journey, you know that healing happens in layers and that it isn’t a pop a pill and get a cure type situation. You didn’t get your chronic illness overnight - it took a lifetime of little damages to your human suit to get there and you won’t heal overnight either.

When you stop abruptly or give up you actually allow whatever it is your fighting to set up something called biofilms. Biofilms are protective networks for microbes, parasites, and fungi. Biofilms allow them to be more resilient to stress. Not like stress like life stress but stress from incomplete treatments. Often I see these forming when people have received multiple rounds of antibiotics, or have attempted to do too many cleanses or detoxes that didn’t support drainage pathways first. When microorganisms are protected by their biofilm shield, they become almost invisible to detection, particularly for less sensitive forms of pathology testing.

Once biofilms form, it makes treatment harder. It’s not your previous holistic team's fault or even your doctors -

When we can’t see the microorganisms or know just how much is there, effective treatment becomes difficult. This is because the quantity and type of microorganisms are what determine the types of antimicrobials required to help you heal. So if we can’t see all the microbes, we don’t know what to address. And now they are more resistant to treatment.

Just so you know, quitting isn’t the only thing that causes biofilms… but biofilms are one of the side effects of quitting.

Life Happens, What to Do

Life happens, right? So what happens if you know things are getting turbulent for you? Rather than quit, talk to your practitioner. Make a plan. Going to the mountains for the summer and need to push pause - okay - you can work a reduced plan before hitting it hard again. But if you just stop...that is what can cause the problems.

How to Get Things Back on Track

As I mentioned if you have quit, if you have taken multiple rounds of antibiotics, or have attempted to do too many cleanses or detoxes that didn’t support drainage pathways first, or if you have given up - then first I want you to know - I understand. I have done it too, and I have worked with 100s of clients who have given up before coming to me.

Now let’s get back on track with a few tactics:

Tune In Journal

I want you to start a Tune in Journal. Take a minute and write down each of your symptoms on a separate page. You can use a little journal for this - I am a sucker for a pretty journal - or just notebook paper. You could even do this digitally if you must but I find there is special magic and scientific evidence that pen to paper works better.

Under each symptom- write down or brain dump ANYTHING that comes up. If you are stuck, start with everything you know about the symptom when it started, what it is, when it occurs, and then as you free-write you will notice more and more coming out on to the paper.

When you are done, you get to play the role of zygologist and draw lines or conclusions as to what might be related. Or take it to your health practitioner appointment.

Make an Appointment

I want you to grab an appointment with me. I have free mini-consults if you haven’t been seen before (there is a little waiting list for that) and I have $20 mini consults that give you a priority consult appointment). We are going to go over your history and see what it takes to get you back on track. These do fill up fast!

Simple Stomach Acid Test

Before Your Appointment - I want you to do the Simple Stomach Acid Test. Stomach acid plays a role in much of the function and physiology (the what and the how) of nutrients getting into our bodies or nutrients triggering our immune system to go haywire, especially if fatigue is on your list. It also has a really important role in the protection of our body, serving as a primary defense system against parasites and foodborne bacteria.

Here is a simple test you can do at home - to determine if you need to increase or improve your stomach acid. You can grab that here by clicking the button and entering your name and email address:

Yes Please!

 

More questions about not giving up?

If you have more questions about not giving up and healing from the root cause of what you are going through I would love to have you join us in the Wellness Circle, my exclusive and free community to help women pursuing holistic wellness, body, mind, and spirit and discussions around the Root Cause Revolution Podcast and even some free office hours on Fridays to get your private questions answered - friends chronic disease is a preventable and autoimmune disease is capable of being healed or put in remission (and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise you deserve to feel good!) You can get the direct link on the show notes page or at audreychristie.com/facebook

To wrap this up - I want you to leave this episode knowing 2 things: first, don't give up, second, you don't need a diagnosis to heal, and 3rd if life happens speak up there are ways to pivot and keep going without doing damage!

Be well,