BEYOND MEDS
Monica Cassani has seen the system from both sides – as a social worker and as a person whose life was severely ruptured by psychiatric drugs. She writes critically about the system, as well as about holistic pathways of healing without medication.
Hi Monica I had to write and say what a difference your story is making in my life. Your story is my story !! I am 8 months in withdrawal from being polydrugged for 20 years with psychiatric drugs. I am a RN x 32 years but ended up so ill while being misdiagnosed over the years I am on disability. I too am just learning what my real problem was 20 years ago. I have histamine intolerance and possible mast cell activation syndrome and small intestine bacteria overgrowth. My gut was damaged from being sick a lot as a kid. I had lots of antibiotics and I now realize some food allergies. I was healthy and strong up until 1994. I was a gardener an avid horseman and I worked hard as a full time RN. I was given psychiatric drugs in 1994 when I was having anxiety insomnia and an elevated heart rate. That spiraled out of control over a 20 year period with diagnosis like fibromyalgia chronic fatigue syndrome Epstein Barr virus depression bipolar and others. I was able to work up until 2007. I was bedridden two years in 2012 and 2013. I then was told in 2013 I had Lyme disease and I ended up sicker thanks to the antibiotics. I hit rock bottom in 2016 and hit my knees before God. I somehow found the book Medical Medium by Anthony William. It saved by life. I with the diet and juicing got off all the drugs I had been on years. I did not know it but I was eating a low histamine diet. I began to feel better. Then as I came off the drugs I starting having horrible bowel problems and crazy symptoms. My blood pressure went high and I was hospitalized. It finally leveled out. I then started to listen to my body. I learned about SIBO and how this causes problems with histamine and other things. I found your post on this site tonite looking up how psychiatric medication affects histamine in the body. I cried after I read your post. I am healing like you right now. I have worked on all my trauma and my body is healing. It is changing. I am seeing doctors soon to treat all my problems. I am seeing improvement with a low histamine diet and a DAO enzyme. I cried for my
Mother too. She was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1950 and had a frontal lobotomy. I believe since I am so like her she may have had a histamine problem or a methylation gene defect. I think the doctors found it so easy to label me when they could find no answer. My own family also chose this and have failed to support me as I heal. I am still in withdrawal from the drugs Paxil Ativan and Lamictal. I have been off of them for 5 months. I came off so easily compared to the past it was shocking. I am finding my true self again after years of being so ill. Your story is a blessing. And an inspiration. God bless you. Jackie M.
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