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just a year ago I was struggling daily
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with debilitating symptoms of my schiz
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Factor disorder in fact one of our most
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popular videos was me sharing my
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experience of being hospitalized for a
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psychotic episode just a year and a half
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ago as you probably already know over
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the last year I've embarked on sharing
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my experience of using ketogenic therapy
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and metabolic therapies to treat and
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manage my skitso affector disorder and I
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feel and have communicated that it has
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been an incredibly healing experience
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but I know that there has been some
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contention around my use of viewing it
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as a healing experience and so that's
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kind of what I want to get into and
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break down a little bit in this video so
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maybe when we start off this kind of
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breakdown of this as a healing
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experience it might be worth clarifying
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the language a little bit there have
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been some people who I think have
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internalized that I am communicating
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that metabolic therapies are a cure for
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schizophrenia or for mental illness and
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I just want to clarify that I have never
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used the word cure or cured what I am
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suggesting really is that metabolic
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therapies have contributed to my own
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healing of my skids affector disorder
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and of my experience of my mental
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illness but even that I know that some
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people are having a little bit of
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difficulty around in terms of me using
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the word healing even and I get why that
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might be a really big kind of scary
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thing to wrap your head around when you
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know we have kind of come to a place as
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a collective Mental Health Community of
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yeah kind of accepting that you need to
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learn how to live with these illnesses
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and true healing isn't necessarily
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possible and maybe even if you go
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through the same experience or a similar
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experience to what I've gone through
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over the last year you maybe still
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wouldn't choose to use the word healing
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but maybe it would be helpful to take a
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look at what the definition of healing
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is so according to the ox dictionary the
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definition of healing is a noun the
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process of making or becoming sound or
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healthy again and an adjective tending
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to heal
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therapeutic and this I feel both really
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resonate with my experience over the
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last year I really understand that the
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language that we choose to use to
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communicate about our experiences really
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matters but I think it's also really
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important to try to understand how this
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language can serve to limit
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or to liberate I shared in one of our
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recent videos that the goal of these
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things is not Perfection but rather
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possibility and opening yourself up to
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that or opening up your capacity to step
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into that possibility and so I'm
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choosing to view healing as kind of this
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transformative process I am continuing
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to manage my mental illness in a
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different way using metabolic therapies
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but that doesn't change how
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transformative this experience has been
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I've said so many times throughout the
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last year that I just feel this
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tremendous increase in capacity I'm no
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longer experiencing debilitating
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symptoms and I'm just kind of able to
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step into my life in ways that I had
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thought were never going to be possible
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for me and this really feels to me like
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a tremendously healing experience and so
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maybe just as a quick overview or recap
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of what I've been doing to manage my
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illness in a different way I've
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primarily been using ketogenic therapy
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which is essentially following a very
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very low carb diet under 20 gram of net
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carbs per day really high fat and
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moderate protein and this is essentially
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to get my body into a state of ketosis
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where my brain and body can run off of
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ketones instead of glucose the idea is
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that this is helping to heal my
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metabolism as well and then I've also
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been implementing other therapies to
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improve my metabolism such as regular
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exercise improving sleep hygiene and
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circadian rhythms cutting out drugs and
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Al alcohol Stress Management social
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engagement purpose in life and all these
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kind of different things that are
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contributing to improving my metabolic
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functioning and all these different
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metabolic interventions have served to
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vastly improve my experience of my
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mental illness to the point where I
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don't really experience symptoms of it
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on a daily basis anymore and it has
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improved My overall mental health and
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ability to show up in my life which
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again has felt tremendously healing
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another component of what I've gone
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through in terms of trying to manage my
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mental illness over the last 10 15 years
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has been how using psychiatric
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medication has also kind of impacted my
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ability to function or my quality of
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life being able to reduce my medications
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over the last year has really kind of
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opened my eyes to how they were
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affecting me in difficult ways and how
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it has felt really good and healing to
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be able to transition off of them and
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now I know that some people have said
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that
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that is my definition of healing but
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that really is not it that has been kind
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of an additional side effect benefit of
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this all is being able to reduce my
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medication and ultimately improve my
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quality of life in that regard too I
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have been completely off of all of my
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psychiatric medications for almost 4
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months now and I am feeling really the
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best I ever have and now that is not to
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say that I am against medication or even
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that I am against going on it again
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personally in the future but where I'm
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at right now I know that it's not
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something I necessarily need however
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again open to revisiting that or
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incorporating it as needed in the future
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of course working closely with my care
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team on that too and so now a big kind
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of common criticism or response to all
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of this in terms of me using metabolic
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therapies to manage my mental illness
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and feeling and communicating that that
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has been a healing experience there's
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been a lot of people
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saying well you can't say you're cured
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or it's not healed unless you're able to
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go back to the way you were eating
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before or what you were doing before
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without implementing these metabolic
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therapies if you can go back to that and
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if you can stop using metabolic
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therapies and still be symptom free then
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you can say you're healed and basically
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people just saying that if I can't go
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back to eating lots of carbs and sugar
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without symptoms then I can't say that
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I'm Healed and I think that this is
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interesting because I don't think that
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this is the way we would look at really
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any other disease or illness it might be
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worth thinking about this with a
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different illness let's say for example
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someone has lung cancer they've smoked
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their whole life and it has resulted in
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them developing lung cancer but they've
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gone through treatment and they are now
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cancer-free I don't think that anyone
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would say to that person well you're not
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healed you're not cancer free unless you
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can go back to smoking multiple packs of
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cigarettes a day and stay cancer free
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that is ludicrous I'm really not trying
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to hide anything or trick people you
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know in terms of using this intervention
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that is managing my illness and saying
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that I'm completely healed that's not
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what it's about I think I've been very
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transparent about really focusing on
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lifestyle changes that I've made in line
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with metabolic therapies and the fact
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that I am using these to manage and heal
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my illness does not at all negate the
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deeply transformative healing process
00:07:37
that I've experienced through it and
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there are a ton of different health
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conditions that do require ongoing
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management stuff like diabetes high
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blood pressure all these sorts of things
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that require lifestyle interventions to
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maintain wellness and healing of these
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conditions and again I just don't think
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that that takes away at all from the
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healing aspect of what people experience
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using these and now I think that I use
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the word
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healing really Beyond just the healing
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experience of reduction of symptoms of
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my mental
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illness this last year and really diving
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deep into what it means to take
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ownership over my health and well-being
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and
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to yeah be able to step into this new
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experience of my life has been
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profoundly healing on its own as well my
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entire Outlook of life has changed over
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the last year I've always kind of fallen
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down holes of existentialist thinking
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and for the longest time that was like a
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core element of why I struggled with you
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know depression and just having a really
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difficult time of understanding in my
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place in the world especially navigating
00:09:02
difficulties that pertain to my mental
00:09:04
illness but I don't know something has
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shifted over the last year where I still
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have similar thought patterns and
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whatnot but my perspective on it has
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shifted to be one more
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of yeah what I talked about in in a
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recent video of trying to be open to
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possibility looking at the world and my
00:09:27
experience of it with awe and gratitude
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and yeah I can't understate enough how
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much that is a portion of my healing
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experience over the last year as well
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and I really think that a lot of this
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does have to do with again taking more
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ownership over my life and my well-being
00:09:47
but also just this increased capacity
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that I have been able to feel as a
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result of ketogenic therapy and these
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metabolic interventions where I am
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feeling like I'm able to give so much
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more of myself to my own
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self-development to my relationships in
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life to how I show up in work and yeah
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just overall how I'm able to show up in
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and experience my life I feel a way
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greater ability to just be present in my
00:10:21
life and that was something that I
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really struggled with for a long time
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largely as a result of struggling with
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my mental illness and debilitating
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symptoms but again you know it goes so
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much Beyond just eliminating symptoms of
00:10:35
my mental illness and what I understand
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as a really healing and transformative
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experience there has been tremendous
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healing over the last year in terms of
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how these metabolic interventions have
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reduced and eliminated symptoms of my
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mental illness but it goes beyond that
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too even and it's a little bit hard to
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communicate this because yeah I lived
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with this for my whole life this sense
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of not really being able to fully step
00:11:05
into experiencing my life but having
00:11:09
more space in my head and my experience
00:11:13
of Life as a result of eliminating the
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symptoms and the difficulties that came
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with my mental illness has really
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allowed me
00:11:21
to step
00:11:24
into a life with more
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possibility and
00:11:30
to yeah engage in my life in a way that
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I had never thought was going to be
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possible and that has been a tremendous
00:11:38
element of this healing experience as
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well and now I'm going to get into why
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it may be problematic to get too far
00:11:46
into policing vernacular that we're
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using to communicate about healing
00:11:51
experiences and whatnot but before I do
00:11:53
that I do kind of want to maybe validate
00:11:56
where some of these difficult feelings
00:11:58
about how I'm communic communicating
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that this may be coming from and I
00:12:03
wonder if maybe I have been kind of
00:12:05
communicating this idea that my life is
00:12:07
completely changed I'm a different
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person with no relics of mental illness
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anymore because that is not the case and
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I'm actually planning to do a full video
00:12:16
on this talking about how I still feel
00:12:20
like my brain works a little bit
00:12:22
differently there is some element of
00:12:25
whatever you want to call it
00:12:26
neurodiversity mental illness still at
00:12:29
play in the way I experience life
00:12:31
because it's been a huge part of the way
00:12:34
my brain and I have developed throughout
00:12:37
my life and so to clarify that when I
00:12:41
say healing I'm not meaning that every
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last piece of mental illness or that
00:12:48
experience for me is gone and my life is
00:12:51
completely different not at all what I
00:12:54
mean by healing is more things like I
00:12:56
don't experience debilitating symptoms
00:12:58
anymore I don't experience side effects
00:13:00
from medications anymore because I was
00:13:02
able to get off them and maybe more
00:13:04
importantly my perspective and yeah way
00:13:09
I'm able to experience my life has
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shifted and changed and evolved and
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again that has felt really really
00:13:17
healing so I have used words like healed
00:13:21
or in remission or in recovery and I
00:13:25
think that unfortunately there is a lot
00:13:27
of debate happening about which which
00:13:29
word is accurate or right or what I
00:13:31
should be using going farther to other
00:13:34
words that maybe people have inferred
00:13:37
from what I've communicated cured
00:13:39
whatever it may be but I think that
00:13:42
getting to hung up on that specific
00:13:44
vernacular and language is kind of
00:13:46
missing the point and I think that it
00:13:49
would do us a lot better to focus
00:13:53
on understanding the experience and the
00:13:58
possibility and meshed in that I have
00:14:00
experienced profound change and relief
00:14:03
in the experience of my illness and I
00:14:06
think that it's way more worthwhile to
00:14:08
focus on that and to talk about that and
00:14:11
explore that and focusing on the
00:14:14
tangible life improvements rather than
00:14:16
on policing terminology to communicate
00:14:19
about about that experience I think that
00:14:21
over fixating on whether a term like
00:14:26
healing or curing is possible ultimately
00:14:30
becomes a pretty self-limiting
00:14:33
belief and fully acknowledging that this
00:14:36
largely stems from societal narratives
00:14:38
that we've all come to internalize about
00:14:41
what it means to live with a chronic
00:14:43
mental illness we've kind of been put
00:14:46
into this box where we've been told you
00:14:49
will never recover there is no
00:14:51
cure you will never go into remission
00:14:54
even often times and that can be really
00:14:57
really limiting and and I think that we
00:14:59
need to be really careful as a community
00:15:03
of people experiencing mental illness to
00:15:05
not over internalize this and
00:15:08
incorporate this limitation as a part of
00:15:11
our
00:15:13
identity why can't we be way more open
00:15:16
to what could be possible especially
00:15:19
when our understanding of medical and
00:15:22
lifestyle interventions are continuously
00:15:24
evolving and so to kind of wrap this all
00:15:27
up I think that I have always looked at
00:15:29
the concept of healing as a very
00:15:31
subjective experience and what this
00:15:34
means to each individual is probably
00:15:36
going to look a lot different and yeah
00:15:41
this past year for me has been one that
00:15:44
to me personally has felt incredibly
00:15:47
healing and that maybe again there is
00:15:49
some sort of breakdown and communication
00:15:51
happening here where maybe people are
00:15:53
internalizing me communicating that I've
00:15:56
gone through a healing experience as
00:15:58
meaning that I have reached this
00:16:00
conclusive end point where I am healed I
00:16:03
am rid of mental illness and I am a
00:16:06
different person and that's really not
00:16:08
what I mean at all I've said this a lot
00:16:11
on our Channel over the last 6 years
00:16:14
that recovery is never going to be an
00:16:17
end point it is kind of an ongoing
00:16:20
Journey that you are going to be going
00:16:23
on for the rest of your life likewise I
00:16:26
feel that this healing Journey will
00:16:28
continue to
00:16:30
evolve probably for the rest of my life
00:16:32
as well I know that these various
00:16:34
interventions that I'm using metabolic
00:16:36
therapies are going to require continual
00:16:39
effort But continuing to prioritize what
00:16:42
my brain and my body need to thrive and
00:16:44
to go through this healing experience
00:16:46
does not at all underscore the profound
00:16:50
healing and progress that I've made the
00:16:53
fact that I need to continue to use
00:16:54
these metabolic therapies to allow my
00:16:57
brain and my body to th
00:16:59
does not at all diminish the healing and
00:17:02
profound progress that I've made and
00:17:04
like I said earlier in the video I am
00:17:06
totally open to revisiting what kind of
00:17:09
interventions I need to use for my brain
00:17:12
and my body at various points maybe that
00:17:14
will mean needing to use medication down
00:17:16
the line I don't know again progress and
00:17:20
healing is never really a linear thing
00:17:22
and we can never really know what's next
00:17:26
but I think that there is again
00:17:27
tremendous value in taking stock
00:17:31
of what we've done to help ourselves and
00:17:34
how that can be a really transformative
00:17:36
and healing process so I really want to
00:17:39
take this opportunity to encourage you
00:17:41
all to remain open and curious to
00:17:45
emerging therapies or different ways
00:17:47
that you can ultimately improve your
00:17:50
quality of life and again another really
00:17:52
important reminder that I have
00:17:54
implemented all these metabolic
00:17:55
therapies and worked on treating my
00:17:58
mental illness and these alternative
00:17:59
ways in conjunction with my care team
00:18:02
and that has always been a priority to
00:18:04
make sure that I was doing these in the
00:18:05
safest and most responsible way possible
00:18:08
so I would love to hear from any of you
00:18:10
about your own experiences or journeys
00:18:12
of healing or any questions you may have
00:18:15
about this as a concept in the comments
00:18:17
below make sure to subscribe to our
00:18:18
Channel if you want to learn more about
00:18:21
mental health and specifically using
00:18:22
ketogenic therapy and metabolic
00:18:24
therapies as an intervention and yeah
00:18:27
about what could be possible in terms of
00:18:29
healing everyone's path of navigating
00:18:32
their mental illness or of really any
00:18:34
challenges in life is going to be unique
00:18:37
and look different and I am sharing my
00:18:41
experiences with the intention of being
00:18:43
a message of hope not necessarily as a
00:18:47
prescriptive thing for others to follow
00:18:49
as well but more trying to challenge
00:18:54
what we think is possible and to
00:18:56
ultimately rewrite the narrative that
00:18:58
we've been fed about what it means to
00:19:00
live with a chronic mental illness and
00:19:02
really trying to introduce this idea
00:19:05
that healing is possible thank you so
00:19:07
much for watching this video and as
00:19:09
always wishing you and your loved ones
00:19:10
good health we'll see you in the next
00:19:12
one bye
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