My Story - The 5Ds 

DIETS, Divorce, Death, Depression

and Discovery

 

Growing up, I struggled with food.  I was an adolescent in a larger body, and experimented with various eating disorders,.  From that point onwards I became a disordered eater and avid dieter through much of my adulthood.  Like many, I suffered many negative health consequences. 

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I am also a parent and sister to family members who are coping with or have coped with mental health conditions. 

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Many years ago, after living what appeared to be the perfect life, I went through a tough divorce - not just for me but for my son too.  I went back to work, and saw I was not spending enough time with him nor was I pursuing my passion.  I decided to apply to grad school for Human Nutrition, and just as I began classes, my mother suffered a cerebral aneurysm.  

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During this time, I saw it wasn’t just me hurting.  My mother’s death triggered a major depressive episode in my son which was the straw that broke the years of unspoken trauma he endured from our divorce.

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At this point, we enrolled in a wilderness therapy program, followed by therapeutic boarding school after which, my son and our family were on the road to recovery.  

 

Along our journey, I met many mental health care professionals - from neurologists at the Mayo Clinic to wilderness therapy directors to PhDs of Human Nutrition, and this affirmed my clinical focus: functional nutrition is vitally important when it comes to how we feel.