Stories of Hope ~ a teen's foggy brain, rash, itch, fatigue, nausea
"I threw up most days. I felt like the life was being sucked out of me. It was like my body was exploding."
Starting in grade 8, Solveig's life became a nightmare.
"I was the most itchy you've ever been times 100. I would have to dig my nails into my skin to distract myself in class. By noon I had to call my mom in tears to pick me up from school" she told me.
~Solveig's skin in grade 8
Doctors gave her antibiotics for the skin infections.
Allergy tests came back normal.
The Dermatologist suggested birth control pills.
Turns out the issue was much deeper.
Solveig had a condition she was told didn't exist (until she found the right people)...
"an environmentally-induced disability that has been around for the past 100 plus years.
Symptoms include some combination of sleep disturbances; chronic fatigue; chronic pain including migraine headaches; poor short-term memory; difficulty concentrating that some people describe as a “foggy brain;” mood disorders like depression and anxiety; skin problems; dizziness; loss of appetite; movement difficulties; visual problems; tinnitus; frequent night-time urination including bedwetting among children; heart palpitation; difficulty regulating blood sugar levels; nose bleeds; asthma; cold extremities; reproductive problems."
Sounds like just about every child I've worked with before we support their resilience.
Solveig was hypersensitive to electromagentic radiation. She had a condition called Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS).
What Is EHS?
The World Health Organization recognizes EHS as...
“. . . a phenomenon where individuals experience adverse health effects while using or being in the vicinity of devices emanating electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic fields (EMFs).... Their exposures are generally several orders of magnitude under the limits in internationally accepted standards.”
Solveig's experience with and recovery from EHS is a beautiful example of losing, and then re-building, resilience. She found a major source of stress, relieved it, and then started to rebuild.
In this interview, listen to Solveig explain...
- How she discovered that WIFI was at the heart of her troubles
- Why removing herself from the trigger helped, but wasn't enough
- Why taking out sugar and gluten helped relieve her unbearable itchiness and foggy brain
- Why pushing through symptoms and hoping she'd grow out of them was the wrong thing to do (and just made things worse)
- The stigma she felt being a teen with a condition “that’s not real”
- How Dynamic Neural Retraining showed her how deeply connected the brain and body are, and that her recovery would require she nourish the body to support the brain but also that she re-wire the brain so she could move into a state of growth and repair
EHS Affects More Kids Than We Know
Over the last ten years the radiation to which we’re exposed has increased by a quintillion (that's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 if you're curious). Isn't it logical to wonder how that might affect our health and mood?
When I listen to this story of recovery I imagine, with a heavy heart and deep concern for those who brush off the effect of wifi on health, what life would look like now for this articulate, beautiful, courageous 18 year old had she not kept digging until she found answers.
Scroll up and take 33 minutes to listen to this important story of resilience. See below for more resources about EMFs and EHS.
Related Blog Posts
Why Food Matters To Resilience
Do Sugar & Gluten Affect Behavior?
Select References On EHS
Book: Electromagnetic-Sensitivity and Electromagnetic-Hypersensitivity, by Michael Bevington 4th edition (2018).
Book: The No-Tinfoil Guide To EMFs (2017), by Nicolas Pineault
Physicians for Safe Technology on EMFs and Behaviour, Memory, and Learning
Bioinitiative 2012 Report on wifi and child behavior
Dr. Martha Herbert, PhD, MD Pediatric Neurology on EMFs and autism
