On April 14th, I had a thrilling breakthrough in my understanding of medication withdrawal. This breakthrough will help my patients with their recovery tremendously. I'm very excited to share my new insights with you in today's Holistic Update!
For this article, I will describe the nature of the problem, and in next week's Holistic Update, I will share the treatments and clinical outcomes.
Also, Jack Rome and I have prepared both a YouTube video and a podcast that will explain everything succinctly and clearly. Look out for that new podcast coming next week. For now, read on to share my Eureka moment.
P.s. the pictures in this article are of the Earthship houses in El Prado, New Mexico where I went on vacation last week. Amazing!
The Immune System's Invisible Role in Psychiatric Medication Treatment
How Your Body's Defenses Can Keep You Ill
When Leslie (pseudonym) went from the best she had ever felt to feeling awful towards the end of her Fluvoxamine medication withdrawal process, I explored several possible causes for her deteriorating condition:
1) Withdrawal symptoms, 2) worsening immune reaction to Fluvoxamine, or 3) not enough support for healing underlying health issues.
After addressing all possible contributing causes, she was still not feeling better, so I finally put her back on a little bit of Fluvoxamine. She reported that she felt better for about 2 days, then felt worse again on the Fluvoxamine.
In fact, Fluvoxamine was creating a significant increase in both anxiety and suicidal ideation. So, I asked Leslie to stop it for the second time.
What else was left for me to do? I was mystified by my energy testing results: lowering her 5-HTP supplement when she seemed to show typical signs of low serotonin function like anxiety, depression, insomnia, and poor appetite.
Finally, without knowing what could be causing her setback, I went back to doing some more energy testing. This time, I checked on her immune reaction to her own serotonin, serotonin reuptake pumps, and serotonin receptor.
The results of the testing connected all the dots for me. Leslie had developed a severe immune reaction to her own serotonin neurotransmitter and serotonin reuptake pumps.
This is understandable given that Leslie has been on an SSRI of one kind or another for about 30 years. Her immune system has been targeting her antidepressants as xenobiotics over that period. During that time, her serotonin reuptake pumps have been bound tightly to her medication as well as her own serotonin neurotransmitters.
It makes sense that this situation would make her vulnerable to a negative immune reaction to her own serotonin system. The molecules are all right next to each other.
After Leslie's enlightening session, I began to use energy testing to check on all the neurotransmitters, their receptors, and reuptake pumps, as well as ion channels for all subsequent patients. Here is what I learned:
1) If a patient has been on many different medications for many years, s/he would probably have a hypersensitivity to a variety of neurotransmitters, neurotransmitter receptors, neurotransmitter reuptake pumps, or ion channels—depending on the patient's past history of medication exposure.
2) Even if a patient has not been on medications for many years, if the patient had a "bad" reaction to a medication, it's possible for the hypersensitivity reaction to continue once triggered.
I discovered with testing that one of my patients who had not been on a medication for 15 years continues to have a severe hypersensitivity reaction to his own serotonin and serotonin reuptake pumps. His clinical condition is consistent with an extremely poor functioning serotonin system.
3) The problem is common among patients who have been exposed to drugs and medications, which are xenobiotics and natural targets for an immune reaction to occur.
4) The hypersensitivity reaction can occur over the course of the withdrawal process, often showing up towards the end of the withdrawal process.
As the patient heals, perhaps s/he doesn't need the medication as much, which leads the immune system to work harder to get rid of it through the inflammatory pathways in addition to the normal metabolic pathways.
How do we treat this problem?
The immune system, once triggered, recognizes the target as an enemy to the body and targets this "foreign substance" over a prolonged period of time.
Like developing a hypersensitivity reaction to foods or becoming immunized to COVID, the remedy relies on changing the information that guides the immune system.
How does one do that? Changing the information system of the body falls under the realm of energy medicine treatment.
That is exactly what I used to help my patients heal from hypersensitivity to their own neurotransmitters, neurotransmitter receptors, neurotransmitter reuptake pumps, or ion channels.
Follow this Holistic Update next week for how to use energy techniques to heal from this problem and for the clinical outcomes of the interventions.
Have a wonderful week!
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