Have you ever been to a Western medicine doctor? You tell them you’d like to heal holistically. And rather than them being supportive, they tell you to take a pill, for the rest of your life.

I promise, there are more options!

A Client Story

A therapeutic client of mine, we’ll call her Maria, went to her gynecologist last week asking for help to rebalance her hormones using natural medicines. The gyno said, “I have had clients try to resolve hormone issues holistically with naturopaths and acupuncturists in the past, but I haven't heard of any successes. All they do is tell you to change your diet and drink more water. We all know those things don't do much. You really only have two options that will work: hormonal birth control or an antidepressant.”

I have been working with Maria off and on for about a year to help her come OFF her antidepressant because she decided she wanted to feel her emotions rather than suppress them. As a yoga teacher and meditator, Maria understands that suppressing her emotions inhibits her healing. Now, she is down to taking 5mg of Prozac, every-other-day (yahoo!) and she is experiencing another cycle of serious depression and mood swings, which is a normal side effect when coming off of these life-long pharmaceuticals.

After this visit with the gynecologist, she called me crying. “My doctor said my diet won’t even help and that I can’t heal naturally. She said I should just go back on the medication I have been working so hard to come off. I don’t like either of the options she gave me. I just want to feel better naturally. There has to be another way where I don't just ‘numb out’ and actually feel what is going on! I know my body is trying to communicate with me, I just don’t know what it is trying to say.”

As her therapeutic guide, I wish this doctor had taken the time to ask Maria what had been going on in her life. If she had, she would have learned that Maria is dealing with two young, rambunctious kids who have been staying home during COVID, two uncles who recently passed away, familial stressors with aging parents, and a recent hysterectomy. She even recently gave up alcohol which was a coping mechanism for a long time.

Maria hasn’t been able to feel her emotions since she was 18, when she started taking her antidepressants (of which she has tried MANY), and now that she is coming off her medication, she has to deal with all of the emotions she hasn’t been feeling for the last 20 years.

​And the crazy thing to me is, we don’t even know if antidepressants actually help!

Prozac’s False Foundation

Let’s talk about Prozac for a moment. *Or instead of Prozac, you could probably insert any SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor), SNRI (Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor), anti-anxiety or anti-psychotic medication instead.

First of all, Prozac was created in 1988, (that is SO long ago!) It was created on a hypothesis that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. This explanation, widely cited as empirical truth, is false. It was once a tentatively-posed hypothesis in the sciences, but no evidence for it has been found in the last 34 years. Yet the idea of chemical imbalances has remained stubbornly embedded in the public understanding of depression. Google stats say that the efficacy rates are really high, yet other empirical studies say otherwise.
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​So, if this hypothesis that depression comes from a chemical imbalance is INCORRECT, why is this the “quick fix” Western medical doctors and nurses are still prescribing to almost everyone who comes into their office?

​Johns Hopkins University wrote an article saying that most often, antidepressants stop working for what seems to be no reason. "There's no good research that shows why a medication may stop working for someone," says Paul Nestadt, M.D. "I think it's less an issue of building up tolerance and more likely constantly changing stressors and factors in the brain."
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​And we start teens and even children on them, young! According to the Mayo Clinic, “FDA reported that an extensive analysis of clinical trials showed that antidepressants may cause or worsen suicidal thinking or behavior in a small number of children and teens. The analysis showed that children and teens taking antidepressants had a small increase in suicidal thoughts, compared with those taking a sugar pill (placebo).”
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​To me, this is very alarming. Antidepressants had worse outcomes than sugar pills? We need to be looking at stress factors and what is actually going on in people’s lives! We need to understand more about how to support the brain and body to work together, not just cover up the pain and sadness with a cocktail of potentially harmful pills. Prozac and so many of the other pharmaceuticals don’t allow us to get to the root of the issue. They serve merely as bandages.

​As psychotherapist, academic & eco-psychologist, Bill Plotkin said, “...the most precise definition of depression is a bad case of suppressed emotion, emotions that have been managed instead of being felt…when a person is depressed in this way, she has a significant backload of undigested feelings piled up being an inner dam, blocking the natural flow of her psyche and her life. If this blockage becomes severe or prolonged, her physical and psychological vitality will grind to a halt. She will become sluggish, vegetative and quite possibly suicidal…” as in the case of Maria. What the depressed person needs is to feel more, not less. Read more about emotional suppression vs. expression in our blog here.

Introducing Psilocybin as a Solution

Currently, more than 65 universities in North America and Europe have been approved for clinical studies with psilocybin ranging from treating depression and Alzheimer’s to addiction. Psilocybin has clearly risen to the forefront of medical research.

​Mushrooms - psychoactive and non-psychoactive - according to the widely searched WebMD are promising in their research to support people in feeling more, not less and are out performing other prescription medications. Mushrooms are adaptogens and they adapt to every body based on what each body needs. Mushrooms are made in nature and are crucial for the Earth’s survival. They are truly medicine for the earth and for us. Read our blog 10 Reasons Mushrooms are Medicine to learn more. To dig even deeper, read this newly published book that explores over 500 clinical studies on adaptogenic mushrooms called, Medicinal Mushrooms: The Human Clinical Trials.

From these hundreds of research articles, we know that mushrooms promote neurogenesis for the growth and development of nervous tissues. They support neuroplasticity of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections. They are especially helpful in response to learning following an injury or trauma and they are anti-inflammatory so the body can come back to homeostasis and heal. And this is just scratching the surface of their benefits. They are different from pharmaceuticals because they actually allow for our brains to repair and heal.

While psychedelic mushrooms are not federally legal in the U.S. and in many places around the world, governments are starting to approve, with certain populations, the support of clinical trials with mushrooms such as psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms’ to see how they can help with some of our world’s biggest problems.

A recent Insider article was written about a study showing that psilocybin has even been supporting doctors “burn-out” from COVID-19. According to Dr. Anthony Back, an oncologist and palliative-care specialist at University of Washington’s School of Medicine, "What psilocybin can do is it disrupts that cycle of thinking long enough for someone to have some relief from it, and usually gain some insights about what is going on."

“Psilocybin has been shown to help people with moderate to severe depression within less than a week, often with lasting benefit,” said David Hellerstein, a research psychiatrist at Columbia University who has studied the use of psilocybin paired with therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Following treatment, people often feel more connected to others, to the natural world, and have enhanced spirituality and optimism.

Even micro-dosing, taking a sub-perceptual amount of psilocybin, a few days a week for a few months at a time could help. This article reports “adults who micro-dose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers.” There is a need for further research into the mental health consequences of micro-dosing including studies with rigorous longitudinal designs but we just may be onto something powerful here with natural medicines that we don’t have to take forever.

Mycologist and medical researcher Paul Stamets has illuminating research covering the psilocybin movement through history into the current modern moment. On this website, Paul shares overviews of the most clinically significant studies, the newest research on psilocybin analogues, micro-dosing, and the implications for using mushrooms to clean up oil spills, to save the bee populations, to cure cancer and so much more.

Interested to learn more about micro-dosing? Read this article to see if Paul Stamets suggestion called ‘The Stamets Stack’ can support your healing. I would say consult your doctor and see what they know about micro-dosing psilocybin. They may be aware of the research or maybe it’s time to look for a new doctor? That is up to you. But either way, if you choose to micro-dose, it is important that you have the necessary support from a holistic coach, guide or therapist as you work to unwind why you are feeling the way you are in the first place.

Just like Prozac, psilocybin mushrooms are not a “magic pill” which will fix all your problems. We actually have to get to the root cause of depression and anxiety in the first place, and creating neurogenesis of nerve growth instead of pumping ourselves with fake hormones could be a great place to start.

Now, it is possible that depression may be caused by chemical imbalances, (again, researchers just don’t know for sure), so what can we do naturally to rebalance?

About The Gut

Scientists have actually found that gut bacteria produce neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and GABA, which are critical for mood, anxiety, concentration, reward, and motivation. The gut microbiome can cause changes in how our brains react to what is happening in our lives.

“One area of medicine is particularly prone to look at its organ separate from the rest of the body. That area is psychiatry. Mental problems are examine from all sorts of angles: genetics, childhood experiences, and psychological influences. The Last thing that would be considered is looking at the patient’ digestive system. Modern psychiatry just does not do that. And yet medical history has plenty of examples where severe psychiatric conditions were cured by simply “cleaning out” the patient’s gut. A renowned Japanese professor Kazudzo Nishi, has estimated that at least on in ten psychiatric conditions is due to self-intoxication coming from the bowel.” -Natasha Campbell-McBride, Gut and Psychology Syndrome

So, my client’s gynecologist was terribly mistaken. We know that diet is crucial for our overall wellness! I personally can’t believe a medical doctor blatantly lied about the proven effect of diet on hormones, mood and neurotransmitters or did she really not know? What do our doctors know? Are these medical professionals actually ignorant or are they playing into a system that isn’t designed to support the well-being of the patient?

About The Gut

Now look, ​​I’m not anti-medication, I’m anti-suppression. I believe that using natural medicines from the Earth that promote neuron growth and create new neural pathways in our brains can greatly benefit our well-being! Is this really that far fetched? It makes so much sense to me.

I want us to…

live in a world where psychiatrists and doctors sit with their patients for more than 10-30 minutes and actually ask what is going on in their patients lives.

I want to offer ongoing support for clients if they do choose to take medication.

I want all humans to learn to listen to their bodies as they are clearly trying to communicate with them through nightmares, illnesses, imbalances, ease & dis-ease alike.

As health professionals, I want us to see people for what happened to them, not seeing what is “wrong” with them.

We need to wake up ways of healing that really work, where we don’t have to suppress our emotions but rather to feel the wisdom that lives inside.

I want people to understand that Lexapro was created based on a false hypothesis that has only helped so much.

I want people to also understand that ‘talk-therapy’ has only helped so much.

​So, let’s expand our search to new holistic medicines to heal and grow!

What do you think?

Let’s create a dialog here.

     • What do you know about pharmaceuticals like Prozac?
     • What do you know about micro-dosing mushrooms?
     • Have either of them helped you or hurt you?
     • Do you see any potential blind spots you could kindly point out to me?
     • Can you simultaneously share the research?

Let’s imagine a better world together and use the Earth’s medicines to support it.

​I know we can. 🍄 ⭐️ ♥️