Mold and Emotions Series Part 7

Hey everybody. Dr. Diane Mueller mold illness and Lyme disease survivor and in this video we're going to talk about mold and emotions. Now, it's so common. You'll hear me talk over and over again about the importance of really honoring the fact that mold illness is hard. It's so much inflammation, you have so much trouble with your nervous system, with your hormones, it's widespread body being out of balance, right? So it's really, really, really, really normal when you have mold illness to experience emotions of all kinds and to feel out of control managing them. So one of the things we want to talk about in this video is how to break that emotional state, right? So if you're in an emotional state, which is common, which is normal, which is valid, all of that kind of stuff is true. You're in an emotional state and you're like, gosh, I can't get myself out of this cycle. One thing to try is, is something that has been shown in some of the research actually on stopping smoking and how people that smoke cigarettes can actually start to break that habit, right? So obviously this is a different type of habit, but the habit, quote unquote, that happens with mold almost across the board is we get in these vicious thinking cycles because our brain is so inflamed and we can't get out of it. And so these cycles, cycles of thinking are almost occurring without our conscious decisions to think certain things or to make certain actions, right? So we could define some of the thinking that can be, say, pathological and problematic. While normal and common, we can describe that is as habitual because some of that thinking is occurring because of our nervous system just firing in this inflamed state. So one of the things when people stop smoking, one of the things that we see in research that talked about is sometimes we can do things, for example, like okay, if somebody wants to smoke a cigarette and they're trying to stop, the next thing they do is they go to the kitchen and they drink a full glass of water and they just concentrate on the water. And the first step with quitting smoking in this very long multi step process is just breaking the state of that addictive thought and then seeing if they still actually need the cigarette. And, and what we see and what I've seen when I've used this with some of my clients is that it takes a step of smoking a little bit less. It doesn't change the whole thing by any means, but all of a sudden maybe they're smoking a pack a day, maybe they smoke two less cigarettes because they've actually taken a step to take a moment, break the habit, break that impulse and more actively choose versus just light up because they are just in a habitual state. So we can apply that same sort of concept. When you're feeling any of the common feelings that come up with mold, whether it's anxiety or depression or rage or angry outbursts or back and forth of all of this, or just, you know, crazy feeling out of your mind or just numb, you know, that's some, some days I would just feel numb. When I had mold illness, like just like melancholic and like nothing mattered. I didn't care about anything. And I would get in these vicious thought cycles, right? And so one of the ways we can get out of that at least a break state is we can go to the kitchen and drink a glass of water and just concentrate on the water. Now, this isn't going to be like a revolutionary thing where you're going to wake up and you're going to be like, oh, you know, Dr. Nann, I did this water thing and now I don't have any mold emotions, right? That's not what this is for. This is for helping you if you are catching yourself in these, these thought processes and these negative type of emotions that while valid, while normal, while very justifiable with everything you're going through, not really helpful in living a happy life, not really helpful in getting your nervous system calm to heal, all of these types of things. So one of the things you can do to try to break the state is you can go to the kitchen or wherever you're at and you can get a glass of water and see how much you can just concentrate on. All I'm doing is drinking and just concentrate on the act of consuming that cup of water. Hydration also helps to calm the nervous system. So we get a two for one with this. We're breaking the state and we're calming the nervous system. And this can sometimes serve for some people as a helpful thing to at least change the state a little bit. So if you're feeling like, gosh, you can't stop crying, crying, you're just like, you know, you're just overwhelmed with everything that, that takes to feel this way, to heal from this, to get the answers, to be the advocate, to keep your job. If you're doing that, to keep your relationships, it's like, so there's so much, right? And so we can get into these thought cycles and sometimes taking that time to just say, all I have to do is drink this water right now. When you're done with that glass, you might feel a little state shift. Like, all of a sudden, you're. You might be like, okay, this still is sucky, and this still is real hard and all of these different things. But there might be enough of a state shift where it's like, okay, I can at least do my next task of the day, right? So sometimes it's enough to just give you a little bit of an impetus to really help you along the way. So try that again. Like, I'm not by any means. I want to be very clear. I'm not by any means trying to give the message that you're gonna do this and all your emotions that are associated with mold are gonna go. That's not realistic. But with mold, there's so much obvious dysfunction in the body for most people that these little tiny things and these little tiny things that can move the needle a little bit sometimes can make a big difference. So that's the helpful tip for today. Many more to come. Many more on this channel. Again, I'm Dr. Diane. Please subscribe, and I'll see you next time.