Health and Wellness: Do you want to be well?

Submitted by ONE-EIGHTY COUNSELING

A variety of maladies frequently bring suffering clients to my sofa with most complaints stemming from crippling anxiety and depression. These clients engage in counseling hoping to learn insight or new ways of coping, and a good number of them are interested in doing that without the use of pharmaceuticals.

There are plenty who use counseling as an adjunct to prescriptions they are already taking. That is fine, too. All of them want to alleviate their distress and I want that for them as well.

Historically, I have used all the common evidence-based therapies: talk therapy, behavior therapy, exposure therapy and, when warranted, trauma therapy. But sometimes these modalities are not enough to get people to where they want to be, and they may not necessarily be treating the root cause of the anxiety and depression, which is a big problem in our current “sick care” model. Too often we treat symptoms instead of moving upstream and fixing the root cause.

For example, a person with a depressive (or anxiety) disorder can take their daily medications, work on appropriately identifying and communicating their needs and feelings, they can process traumas that are causing destabilization and they can learn to reframe their negative thinking patterns and learn effective boundaries and adaptive coping skills.

All of these are helpful, but the limitation of these strategies and what they do not address are the gut issues that are quite possibly fueling the depression and anxiety in the first place. Using a “wellness” model approach, we now look through the lens of functional nutrition.

Functional nutrition uses food as a natural medicine to help restore balance to the body and brain, replenish nutrient deficiencies, heal the gut, prevent disease and treat anxiety and depression. Since a number of nutrient deficiencies are linked with depression, by monitoring micronutrients and introducing targeted foods that are rich in specific vitamins and minerals and other nutritional compounds, depression can be ameliorated quite successfully. Using functional nutrition along with exercise personalized to your ability level is extremely effective at improving mood and decreasing anxiety and has no negative side effects.

I get a lot of mixed reviews when talking about exercise with my clients, but the studies show that exercise is the most underused antidepressant on the planet. Just 20-30 minutes of an aerobic activity is equivalent to four hours of an antidepressant, so as the saying goes, “embrace the suck!”

90% of the body’s serotonin, dopamine and GABA (your happy chemicals) are made in the gut. The gut is also home to more than 70% of your immune system. Your brain and gut communicate with each other all the time through hormones and neurotransmitters. This conversation between the gut and brain is called the “gut-brain axis.” After you eat or drink, your gut tells your brain how to feel.

Maybe you’re doing pretty well with your diet. Perhaps your choices are decent, some days you’re hydrated and eat super green and on cheat days, it’s pizza, pasta, dessert or the occasional sugary drink.

You may not be reaching for alcohol or feasting on fast food, but you can still have gut (or brain) inflammation and nutrient deficiencies that are creating a mood disturbance. The foods we eat are either a powerful form of medicine or a slow form of poison. You are not what you eat, you are what your body can do with what you eat.

I don’t focus on weight loss, nor do I help you get “swole.” That’s someone else’s expertise, but using a holistic individualized approach, we can get you to a better place mentally and emotionally.

If you are highly motivated to be in a better place, and sick and tired enough that you are willing to put in the necessary effort to change daily habits, give our office a call at One-Eighty Counseling and let’s begin your wellness journey today. The question is, do you want to be well?

For more information, visit oneeightycounseling.com.