Getting to a Root Cause with Real Work
- aashworth003
- Sep 10
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 7
This past winter and spring of 2025 I was led to a couple professionals in the mental health field that I refer to as miracle workers. I do not believe what they are doing is necessarily different than a lot of people in the helping field, however, what they are doing is really seeing their patients and knowing the story behind a client's level of symptoms. I have been absolutely astonished in six months how much better I have felt within my body from the dedication and support I have finally received. What felt very hopeless for a long time, has now turned into a level of hope that I can lean into and trust.
After a decade of battling a messy diagnosis and continued dismissal from other clinicians as stated in my last blog post, I can now talk about some stepping stones that propelled me into a place of real, metabolic healing. Between breath-work, the chiropractor, supportive physical therapy exercises for my joints, hormone replacement therapy and creating an emergency pain management plan with my MD, more pieces of the puzzle have come together. I have had to continue accepting there is no cure for the internal struggles living with a premenstrual dysphoric disorder and further named I do not have to accept the same advice from medical clinicians that have no knowledge of how to support women effectively in this area of care. I no longer feel tossed around in maze. I am the one creating it.
Step One:
I have learned (while doing it afraid at times) navigating the mental health field, you have to find individuals that want to champion your growth and know the science behind how body's morph and change moving through trauma. For a long time, I believed that trauma would stay a part of me and I just had to live with it. Present day, my belief around this has altered. I am understanding with more research coming out, that humans are capable of reducing inflammation stored in the body and we have the opportunity to live with less pain. It feels overwhelming and extremely hard to start any kind of healing process because we are not educated on how to understand where our body's are stuck or attack themself depending on the level of trauma (direct or vicarious) you were exposed to. And when I say stuck, I mean muscle's shutting down and joint pain putting your body in freeze states that takes away from daily life. Most the time when our body is stuck we assume it is anxiety. This is partly true and definitely not the whole picture. It was when my body was becoming physically ill about a year ago, I knew things were still being missed in my health journey and needed more intentional supports.
I gained the most insight right away through labs (at Labcorp) done outside of the mainstream medical system that showed me where my body is attacking itself, areas I have deficiencies and more clearly named generational trauma patterns that have kept my nervous system on high alert for more years than I was aware of. My current chiropractor helped me read these labs and sat down to write out a month by month plan on how to take tangible steps to 'unlock' stuck areas within my muscular skeletal structure that weren't getting the relief they needed. It took three months of consistent sessions to start having sustained relief. There were many days I did not want to show up and I chose to keep fighting for me. I was also mind-blown that in years of asking questions and trying to get help for my severe joint pain and inflammation, no doctor ever suggested a full blood panel to understand what I was lacking. Know these panels matter and you can get them done if prior clinicians have wrote them off. Gene and environmental factors do play a role in PMDD. Getting a functional medical hormone test alongside bloodwork is necessary.
Step Two:
Break your journey down to one day at a time. Literally. You have to re-create safety within your body to want to survive. For me breathe-work was the first space I walked into that taught me how to be safe in my body and start responding to my harder emotions with more self-compassion. I was able to get out of survival mode where I was living from a place of still trying to escape danger, even though I was not in dangerous situations anymore. This was huge in regards to taking my story back and tending to myself in ways I never had from caretakers in younger years. When I started my breath-work journey, it was focused on rebirth and tending to my inner child. Throughout the early sessions, I named I had a lot of shame, disgust and disbelief in my body's pain. I wanted to make excuses for others poor behaviors in my background that I needed to stop doing immediately. This was huge in regards to resetting my body. I practiced saying out loud for weeks that I was hurt and what happened to me was never okay. I had to let my body know it was hurt, disrespected and not everything was my fault. After radically accepting past events and not creating excuses for others who caused the harm, it then set me on a path to tend to my body with softer touches, loving words and gentle forms of self-care. I can now hold my emotions with a wiser perspective on harder days.
Step Three:
It is OKAY to have to re-arrange finances and ask for help so you can go to your own appointments. I know there are many women out there who are continuing to sacrifice being a provider for others due to financial security and struggle to break this cycle to tend to oneself first. The system is very vicious in this way because there is not a lot of wiggle room for time off or having routine appointments scheduled. I made a bold decision to reduce my hours around direct client care, so I could go to my own appointments without guilt. Switching this mindset and setting strict boundaries in my work schedule was highly worth the discomfort I experienced at the time when there were still many unknowns. I also set money aside to pay for a money management course, so I knew what I was capable of and did not have to feel anxious about never being able to pay for appointments myself. There are ways to create payment plans or utilize superbills with out-of-network providers to get quality care and not feel as though you can never start.
I can confidently say after seeing many clinicians, having misinformed information and fumbling around doctors on past insurance, it is WORTH meeting with providers in your area within other fields of expertise to be educated on what your body is trying to tell you. You are worth the time, care, and support. There are clinicians out there that want to see you thrive, not just survive.
Thank you to the few clinicians in my life right now, who are not downplaying my symptoms and being a team with me to help my body recover.
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