Dearest Mia,
First off, Happy New Year to you, your loved ones and staff. I wanted to write to you today to let you know that a few days before my period, I am singing and smiling and sleeping. My health started declining in my mid 30s and I developed asthma and many, many allergies and sensitivities. Each year that passed, I grew sicker and a host of debilitating symptoms starting coming out of nowhere: Hypoglycemia, intense food cravings, PMDD, depression, debilitating anxiety, panic attacks, racing disturbing thoughts, sensitivity to all kinds of noises, body aches, allergies to all fragrances, weight gain, adult acne, hair on my breasts and chin, all consuming sex drive or no drive at all, rage, irritability, mood swings, hot flashes, energy crashes, etc,etc,etc. At 39, I was convinced I was going INSANE! So I started seeing a psychologist, she was the first one to hint that all of these symptoms might be linked to my periods (it took her two years to convince me I was not crazy, or bipolar or OCD or manic-depressive). From then on I went to a gynecologist who prescribed Paxil and that helped for a while. At 40 I had my tube tied and in retrospect I don’t think that helped my case at all. I kept going from gynecologists, to chiropractors, to immunologists, endocrinologists and one after the other just kept prescribing band aids for the symptoms without getting to the root of the problem. Desperate and having thought about suicide even, I kept searching and reading and then one day I ran into the Magnolia Diaries Volume II, and for the first time I read of this woman and other women blogging on her site describing very similar experiences to mine. It was one of the first glimpses of hope I found and another way of validating what my psychologist had said before, that I was not crazy. Looking back, premenopause arrived and found me completely uneducated and ignorant about the involuntary journey I had embarked on. My lack of coping skills, lack of support, single motherhood and dead end job didn’t help either and I am sure my adrenals got fried too. Until one fateful day when Magnolia posted a review of your book “Female Brain Gone Insane.” The next day I bought your book and it has changed my life! After reading the last page I decided to contact you, to thank you for writing something so poignant, so needed and using the language of a friend. The book really felt like you were talking to me exclusively, I saw myself on 90% of those pages. Long story short, you agreed to consult with me over the phone and from our first consultation and the plan you developed for me, less than a month later I feel NORMAL! Grounded, walking with energy, sleeping restfully, my sense of humor is back, and I am not barking at the moon anymore. Whether this sense of having me back again will sustain or not remains to be seen, but your reassurance, your kindness and the hope that you bring to me, that is priceless. Mia, I feel the world needs to know about you, I never expected to feel hope again and single handedly you have handed my life back to me (Thank God). My children have a much less grumpy mother,my coworkers can tolerate me at work and I feel better in my skin. I hope to continue working with you in my recovery and I hope and pray to God that I still know you when I enter Menopause. God sent you to save me from the grip of a debilitating life altering, HUGE hormonal imbalance and I know this is a process and I thank God everyday he put you in my path. All I can offer right now is thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I could never repay you for what you have done for me, after ONE! Consultation with you I feel that I and my children will make it through this.
Sincerely and forever thankfully yours
Your biggest fan
Elliot
