“What mold illness does to your emotions and what to do about it” by Tina Paulus FDNP

I love the great outdoors. I love horseback riding, raising and training horses to trust humans, skiing, hiking, finding waterfalls and lakes to photograph, finding great natural health information to help someone, and I love being able to do all those things. I praise God for it. Being able to do those things I now don’t take for granted, because I couldn’t always do them.

I think I was born with mold illness, but it wasn’t until I got more exposures as an adult that I really went downhill, especially in my attitude. As a child I constantly had a green runny nose, asthma attacks, lots of allergies, and constipation. I got to a place where the least little reason for my body to catch every cold and then turn into pneumonia and pleuritis happened multiple times per year as an adult. These things really angered me. I had so many things I wanted to do with my life. I did not want to spend my life in bed asleep or watching tv because I was too exhausted and weak to do anything else, which is exactly where I was about 5 years ago. I stared out the window wishing I could go do something out in my beloved wilderness. I quit feeling like I had a purpose in life and wanted to die if this was how I had to live. But our creator changed all that for me.

Some of the emotions that come up from mold illness are –

• Denial because it’s just too much for me to accept that my house or work place is contributing to my illness.
• Overwhelm because of the impact of the illness to the limbic system in the brain and having to deal with limited resources, in your thinking, energy, and in your finances. Mold illness sends your brain into fight or flight until you can get rid of the mycotoxins and reboot your limbic system.
• Confusion againbecause of the impact to the limbic system and “I am not sure why I am having these symptoms.” It doesn’t help that some days are good and some days are bad with symptoms. And our healthcare professionals don’t have answers for us. And because we are in fight or flight our rational thinking is impaired by the mold mycotoxins.
• Lack of confidence and socially awkward because we don’t know how we can cope with this in the future, and we look perfectly fine so most don’t believe we are sick.
• Hopelessness because of the extreme fatigue, lack of being able to think rationally, and wondering if I am ever going to get over this? Where can I get out of the mold? (Hint: Don’t go online at this point to find info because you will find things to feed your hopelessness)
• Fear/anxiety is also part of the impact on the limbic system (Remember not being able to think rationally). You start wondering if you are going to get worse or ever get better. You can feel fear out of nowhere and to high degrees for no reason that you can see. Panic for no apparent reason is very common.

These are all common things to feel when you have mold illness (CIRS). The way this happens is that mold is an invader to our bodies. Our immune system recognizes it as such and attacks. But most of us with mold illness have genetic problems that cause us to have a chaotic inflammation response to it and can’t get it out of the body.

So our brains get sent into fight or flight because of the danger to our body. Our automatic response then is to have a rush of hormones to help us fight or flee. So then your heart starts beating faster, your breath gets shallow, your digestion stops, and all the energy goes into the big muscle groups for your fight or flight.

But your limbic system doesn’t know the difference between an internal stressor and an external. So just your thoughts can set it off and keep the stress loop going, or the mold toxins can do it. If you feel stressed or anxious for no apparent reason then your limbic system is activated. The way you know is that there is not a reason for a sudden palpitating of the heart, nausea, shallow breathing, tingling in the fingers and toes, restlessness in the muscles, the thought that you are losing control or a real sense of fear and dread. Those are all linked to limbic system overload. You may just wake up in the morning feeling this way or suddenly feel it anytime. Remember that your automatic response will be to start scanning your environment for danger and so you will perceive most things as stress. It could be something someone said to you. It might be you are stuck in traffic.

In mold illness (CIRS) parts of your brain can shrink, atrophy, and cause this problem. Don’t worry, it can be fixed for most people simply by cleaning up your system and rebooting it. Some other things that happen is you get fixated on something, ruminating on things, you can even become aggressive and feel a lot of shame associated with that because this is not you.

So what can you do to make things easier for yourself? Let’s start with these stressor helps –

• To manage this you need to increase self-acceptance and just know that this is really hard for you right now because of the mold illness.
• Just being aware that it is not your fault, you are not doing anything to feel that way, it’s just your illness, helps to make you feel better
• Tell yourself you are going to work on it, that you don’t want to be aggressive and you will work on managing your temper. But you also need to acknowledge that things are a lot harder for you but they will get easier.
• Remind yourself you are safe, it’s just part of your illness
• Just being able to notice what is happening in your limbic system and take a few moments to take some deep slow breaths to help you come out of there will help tremendously.
• Don’t judge yourself for these feelings you are having, it’s not your fault. Remember you don’t need to respond to this stressor that you perceive in front of you.
• Practice this as often as you can. Check in with yourself to see how you are feeling from time to time, how your body feels during the day and practice the calming breaths and lack of judgment upon yourself. It help to reduce the inflammation that happens in the body that is causing all this.
• Work on thinks like mindfulness, meditation, listening to your favorite music that sooths you, think about the future you want and what it will look like.
• Try to spend time with loved ones who you feel accepted by and feel refreshed by even after you leave them. Talk about interests like art, music, whatever is important to you, just not you illness, to keep your interests alive in you.
• Make sure you have a supportive health care practitioner who you feel supports you and understands and listens.

Supplements –

• Make sure to take the supplements that are right for you in this time. Don’t go without them.

Exercise –

• Don’t do more on the days you feel better and less on the days you don’t. Start out with just a little less than you can do on your bad days and gradually work up to doing more everyday even if you don’t feel like it.
• If you are bedridden do some movement to help yourself.
• Make sure you are doing something to move your lymph which only moves if you do.
• Walking seems to be the best for most people if you can manage it. Try to work up to an hour of walking by doing what you can and increase by 2-5 minutes a day.
• Try some gentle stretching.
• As you get better try to incorporate weight lifting into your routine. Remember to start out small and gradually more.

Rest –

• Make sure you don’t overdo. It is not good for any part of you much less your emotional health, at this point, to become so exhausted that you can’t do anything.
• If you need rest stop and do so. If you have a need to lay down do so if you can.
• Try to sleep around 8.5 hours every night. (example – Bed at 9 pm, up at 5:30 am).If you can’t sleep try to meditate. This helps to clean the brain out of the mycotoxins and anything else that doesn’t belong there.
• Reduce blue light exposure at least an hour before you go to bed (try for 2 hours). This means no computer, phone, tv, and non-incandescent lights. Use candles or blue blocker glasses. This will keep cortisol from going up to stop your sleep and help melatonin to go up to help you sleep.

Diet –

• Make sure you know what you nutritional needs are. When in doubt, test don’t guess.
• Listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs and what causes problems.
• Avoid processed foods, grains, dairy, sugar, high carbohydrate foods (even fruits for the most part).
• Make sure to have protein every time you eat, lots of good vegetables (except those that have a tendency for mold), good fats like coconut oil, grass fed butter, and fatty fish.

So in conclusion

To help your brain and emotions you need to be good to yourself, don’t judge, just work on knowing you are safe. Take the supplements you need to complete your nutrition. Don’t overdo anything especially bad thoughts and exercise. And eat right for you and this illness.

If you have been dealing with a mysterious illness and want to regain your strength and energy so you can live a purposeful life again, click here to get “Could my mysterious illness be from mold?