NBS #122: They Spent $1M on Mental Health Care… and She Never Got Better

Many people are told their symptoms are “normal,” psychosomatic, or simply stress-related, even when they know something deeper is wrong.

In this episode of Never Been Sicker, Michael Rubino sits down with Miriam Putnam, a board-certified health and wellness coach and freedom-from-stress counselor, to talk about the connection between body health, mental health, and environmental triggers.

They discuss why so many people end up on prescription medication before finding the true root cause, how mold, Lyme, allergies, and other hidden stressors can affect both the body and mind, and why self-advocacy matters so much in today’s healthcare system.

Miriam also shares her own story of a traumatic accident, neurological Lyme symptoms, and the long path toward finding answers outside the standard medical box.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro: Meet Miriam Putnam
00:41 What Miriam does: body health, stress counseling, and holistic support
01:14 Have we “never been sicker”?
02:04 Why so many people are on prescription medication
03:40 What could really be underneath the symptoms
05:16 How Miriam’s journey began through her mother’s struggles
07:14 Medical gaslighting and being told symptoms are “all in your head”
08:42 Insurance limitations and why testing often falls short
09:51 Is healthcare designed to create wellness or profit from sickness?
11:24 Why mental health care often masks symptoms instead of solving them
15:56 Michael’s story about nearly being medicated as a child
16:55 Parenting, school systems, and how quickly kids can be labeled
18:34 PANS, PANDAS, and environmental triggers behind behavioral symptoms
20:30 Why real care is often only accessible to those who can afford it
21:48 How Miriam helps people get to the root cause
24:24 Informed consent and learning to advocate for yourself
26:39 The biggest lies in mental health and medicine
27:03 Miriam’s family’s experience spending nearly $1 million seeking answers
30:10 Why fixing body health is foundational to mental health
31:05 The need for more comprehensive blood testing
32:57 Why the U.S. approach to wellness is falling behind
34:06 Miriam shares her personal Lyme disease story
35:33 The airboat accident that changed everything
37:56 Hospitalization, worsening symptoms, and neurological Lyme
39:07 Getting real answers through integrative testing
40:12 The healing modalities Miriam explored
42:38 Trauma, immunity, and what may activate deeper health issues
45:05 How many doctors it took before she found answers
47:17 Why personal advocacy matters for everyone
48:41 How to connect with Miriam and get her wellness checklist
50:09 Final thoughts

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🔵 About Miriam:
Fueled by a desire to share a clear path to freedom from stress while bringing about desirable changes in the condition of your life—and to help others avoid the same misery her family experienced—Miriam created the Freedom from Stress Course after years of study on the body, mind and soul, lived experience, and passionate advocacy.

Miriam Putnam is a Certified Wellness Coach, Freedom from Stress Counselor, Holistic Mental Health Advocate with over 25 years of experience helping individuals achieve mental well-being without pharmaceuticals while pursuing a masters in Public Health at University of South Florida.

Coming from a family of pioneers, Putnam Publishing, Crayola Crayons, and aviation legend Amelia Earhart, Miriam has always been inspired by a spirit of innovation and resilience. She carries this legacy forward in her mission to “revolutionize” mental health treatment by inspiring natural, effective solutions for well-bein

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

My name is Michael Rubino. I'm on a personal mission to make sure you don't get sick inside your own home.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

I knew there was something wrong. I'm just so relieved there's something that you can do about it.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Never Been Sicker. I'm your host, indoor air quality expert Michael Rubino. And today's very special guest is Miriam Putnam. Miriam, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to be here with us.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Well, Michael, that was such a nice introduction. Thank you so much for having me today.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Yeah, thank you so much for being here. I know there's you're quite a big person and you are out saving the world quite a bit. So I'm really glad that you actually were able to take some time and be here with us. And obviously, you've got many important messages to share today. So why don't we first tell people what it is that you do so they can really wrap their head around why you're here?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Well, all right. That was quite an introduction for me. But yeah, I mean, I guess it's true. Usually I am in sessions, so I'm really happy to be here today to talk to your audience and talk to you. So I am a board-certified health and wellness coach. So I work on body health programs with people. And then I am also a freedom from stress counselor. So once a person has a baseline with their body health that is doing all right, then we work on uh erasing the stress mentally and spiritually.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

That's amazing. So when dealing with body health, what what are some of the common things that you're seeing out there? Because, you know, as you know, this podcast is called Never Been Sicker. First off, do you agree? Have we never been sicker than we are today?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, unfortunately, it's pretty true.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

So there's a lot of people on a lot of medication and underlying body health conditions are going undetected. You know, either it's allergies or it's mold or it's limes or it's some crazy parasite, or I, you know, there's so many different things going on with the body that are being left untreated, unfounded right now. And then people are taking prescription medicine to alleviate their symptoms, but it's just really a band-aid. And so then the body health condition can continue to get worse.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

That makes a lot of sense. So obviously, we just talked about prescription medication. Um, I'm gonna give you a statistic, which you probably already know, but uh recent studies showed that like 74% of adults are on prescription medication. So that's quite a quite a big number. And that's actually been a 19% increase since I guess the last study, which was just a few years before that. So um, I mean, is that is that sort of the trend that you're seeing? More people on prescription medication?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah, well, I think um our country as a whole, it spiked when we all went through the COVID period. And so I don't think that we've necessarily seen a decline. I know per county sometimes the percentage will go up or down. So some counties could be possibly around 60%. But yeah, overall, 70 to 80 percent sounds about right because I do a lot of interviews, and so I understand people are dealing with a lot of body health situations.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Certainly we'd want to get that percentage much, much lower. Yeah. Closer to zero, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, definitely. I mean, some people need prescription medicine for um diabetes or health concerns. Like obviously, medication is all right when there's something that the body is really needing. But if the medication is being used to cover up an undetected body health condition, like mainly in the area of mental health, because that's my specialty. I've been a holistic mental health advocate for over 25 years now. And that is really the area that we in society need to correct and repair.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. One of the things that we, you know, kind of just uncovered is obviously this prescription medication issue. And there's an underlying problem, though, beneath that, right? Because people are going for prescription medication to solve some sort of symptom, right? Sure. And it's obviously not addressing the root cause, it's just masking the symptoms. So, what's going on underneath the this prescription medication? That's the real problem, you think?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Well, for each individual, it's going to be something different, but it could be a liver toxicity, it could be Limes, it could be some bizarre virus that is not showing up in just normal blood tests. It could be a strange allergy, it could be mold sensitivity, it could be something happening in their environment or some allergy to things that they're eating. So I don't know. I think I just listed about 10 different things. It's a lot. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

It's not so simple, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

No, it's not super simple, right? Sometimes people have to go through genetic testing, allergy testing, specialty comprehensive lab blood testing. So it could be like, I don't know, three to four different tests that are on different days to really find exactly what's going on with the body. And then maybe the person learns okay, I have to eat more meat, or I have to eat less meat, or I have to get colonics and clean my body out, and I have to do a liver detox, or I have to change the air filters in my house because I'm allergic to, I don't know, pollen this time of year, or there's too much mold. I don't know. There's so many different things.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

So obviously you've got a world of experience, and that I guess couldn't have always been the case, right? So how did this journey start for you?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, right. Yeah. I have a lot of data now at this point in time. So when I was younger, I became a holistic mental health advocate pretty early on because I was watching my mom suffer within the broken mental health system. So I was watching doctor after doctor diagnose her with different mental illnesses that are found in this humongous book of just diagnoses called the Diagnostic Statistical Manual. And she was never getting better. So I was constantly researching how do we solve this holistically, meaning body, mind, and soul, and ideally more naturally. It's not that I was always opposed to medication because I have different times in my life had to take medication. It's not that that I'm strictly like no medication. It's that when you watch someone that you love taking a psychiatric medication that gives extremely harmful effects like rashes, shaking, hard to sleep, nervous, uh shaking, all these different things, you wonder how is this a solution? So, from a pretty young age, I think I was about 19 when I started trying to meet practitioners and people that are in the industry as far as body health or mental health, like who has a clue to how to solve this? And now I think we have it much more figured out as far as hormone testing, uh, body health issues, like we're talking about allergies, sensitivities to mold and things like that. But when my mom was going through this in and out of mental hospitals and psychiatrist psychiatrists and doctors and psychologists, it was not as understood as it is now.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

You know, it might not surprise you, but I've been interviewing people for a long time. And uh just really I have a genuine interest in wanting to learn about people and what they've been through and their life experiences and really just get to a root cause understanding of why people feel the way they feel. And uh what I've really discovered just as a kind of curious person, yeah, is that uh people get gaslit a lot by the medical community. And it typically does lean into a mental health situation at some point. I'll give you an example. I had a uh patient uh who came to us and basically was like, Look, I I have indoor air quality issues, I know I do, I need your help, I need answers. We got them some testing, they were able to, you know, find the root cause issues in their home. What they told me was they they know it's their house because they feel better when they're not in their house. And then they feel all these emotions and symptoms when they're in their house, right? And so it was a pretty good telltale sign. And they would go to 30, 40 different doctors, right? And those doctors would run labs, whatever labs they would run, right? They run labs, every lab would come back normal. And so then they start to shift. Oh, well, this person must be psychosomatic, oh, this person must be crazy, it must be all in their head because they don't understand, because it didn't fit inside the normal box that they check for, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Well, right, because right now the insurance companies only cover a certain amount of things to be tested in the blood, and in order to find really out really what's going on with the body, somebody has to go to a specialty blood test. I mean, unfortunately, a lot of doctors' hands are tied from insurance companies, is the way that I look at it. And yes, so people that have issues going on in their body end up being put in this quote unquote mental illness category because the doctor can't find anything biologically going on in the body. But that's really because the doctor has gone to a school where there isn't a lot of education on nutrition and body health foundational sort of basic, basic things on testing what needs to be tested. Insurance companies don't cover it yet.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Well, yeah, I've been hearing that more and more that really the problem stems from insurance coverages and insurance coverages only allowing for certain tests to be covered, and a lot of these other tests are just not covered. Is it is it because they're expensive? What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Well, it kind of goes along with uh the name of your podcast, and I try not to get like too much into it, but it's a little bit of a do we actually have a goal within the American Medical Association to improve health, or is it a money-making machine? You know, and that is for each individual to come to their own conclusion, I guess, and their own experience and figure out how they think and feel about it. I definitely have very set viewpoints because of the experiences that I've had.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Okay. So normally I ask you at the end of the show, but since we kind of already went there, we're gonna have to like skip to the end and pull it forward.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Oh shoot, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

No, it's okay. But basically, I always ask, like, what's the biggest controversy that you know you've you've seen that actually is true? And that, you know, because controversies could be fun because there's always at least a sliver of truth in them. And uh oftentimes, you know, some of the best controversies end up being truthful. You just don't find out until 10 years later or what have you, right? So you've mentioned the American Medical Association and and how it might be set up to profit. Usually, I think the term we we call it these days is sick care. We profit off of sick care instead of actually profiting off of wellness, which is obviously the idea of making people well. Um, and so just tell me your thoughts and feelings on that. Why do you think that that it is the way it is?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

I think if I can take your question a little bit broader and look at the APA and the AMA together, it's easier for me to answer just because I'm such an avid and strong holistic mental health advocate. Because I've I help people with body health programs, mind health, and soul health programs. And unfortunately, the healthcare system, the way that it's set up within the AMA and the APA, there is nothing that is actually workable right now as far as mental health. So when people are experiencing depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, loss symptoms, sleep symptoms, like all of these different things that aren't always easy to address within just body health, there's a medication that is prescribed to the person to mass the symptoms. So a person can't sleep really well, maybe because they have lost a loved one, or they're super stressed out because they lost their job, or they're going through a tough divorce or a move or something. Well, then a person is given a medication like Ambient that has very harmful effects over time so that they can sleep. And so then their symptoms are just masked instead of finding some body health condition that may or may not exist, addressing the environment of their house and the body health, and then helping them with a good plan to get rid of the stress and change different things in their life so that they can improve. So the drugs are um creating a situation where it's making our population get sicker. And if I start talking about it too much, then I go into kids, and it's really, really not okay that us in society as a whole are allowing this to happen to our kids, and usually a lot more at-risk youth it's happening with and then older individuals as well. So different counties, like we talked about before, if we just talk about psychiatric medication, we have upwards of almost 80% of people on psychiatric medication. And that is the biggest outpoint that I see, and why when I go in to advocate on mental health specifically, I'm talking to people about like how can we change this? Like, how can we make mental hospitals, for example, respite centers or make hospitals a little more about wellness? Like, can we put wellness IVs in the hospitals? Can we put wellness IVs in mental hospitals? Can we make it so it's not just throwing a pill at a situation and thinking that all of a sudden it's gonna get better? There's lots of different things that go into depression, anxiety, body health conditions. Like a pill is not the answer. And when a person goes to a doctor and says, you know, I'm having trouble sleeping, I'm stressed out, I don't like my boss, I am not happy in my marriage, whatever. Like, you know, somebody has like 10 different things going on in their life. The doctor doesn't have tools right now that are approved through insurance or that are approved through all the different boards at play to say, okay, well, here's your program, your wellness program, and here are the different things that you've got to do if you would like to resolve the situation. And then I think almost a society, um, society, individuals in society have been trained where we want this instant gratification uh relief or something. And to do a to do a real standard wellness program that is gonna take into account body health, mind health, and soul health, we're looking at like three months at least to really see the needle move. And, you know, it's not like pop a pill, and then that week you're like, uh, you know, now I'm now I'm not thinking about my divorce anymore or something like that, you know. So I that's what I see overall. It's it's uh putting prescribing a pill on top of so many issues that actually create more chaos in the person's life. Like maybe they don't see it that week, but over time they're definitely gonna see it because that pill is going to create more body health problems. It just will. That's what toxins do in the body.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Yeah, well said. It just reminded me when I was a kid. I remember they were like trying to put me on Ritalin or whatever I think it was called at the time. They said I had ADHD. I was just a creative kid. I just like to stand on one, I would put one knee on the chair, like and then have the chair backwards, and I would be like drawing with like my tongue out of my my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

And so I'd be apparently that's not acceptable to me for a kindergarten kid.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

And so they wanted to put me on Ritalin.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Um, and luckily your parents did it, didn't do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah, luckily.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Fantastic parents.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

They're just like, what? The kid's like, yeah, anyways, it was just like one of those crazy things. And then a similar thing happened with my son. Uh, my son is, I would say, more quiet, reserved. Um, he's yeah, I would consider him shy, but like really good communicator, really smart, definitely smarter than me. Uh, very excited to see what he does with the world.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

That's sweet, Michael.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Yeah. Um, but you know, um, and I get a little emotional, you know, just thinking about this, because it's like, yeah, obviously I wanted to protect the kid.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

But we had a counselor that was, you know, trying to talk to him a little, a little too much. It was just like he would come home and tell me, Oh, yeah, the school counselor wanted to see me or whatever. And I'm just like, for what? Well, what happened to the school counselor? And you know, it started to lean, and that we got an email from the counselor, just kind of leaning in this odd direction of like, oh, we should get him evaluated. And I'm like, uh, he's my son. I'm I'm pretty sure I've evaluated him. He's he's good. He needs, he's gonna, he's blossoming, he's getting his confidence, you know. Um, I was the same as a kid, I was shy. I I blossomed and got more confident as I, you know, started to tackle life.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Yeah, sure. A lot of kids, a lot of kids go through that.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

So, you know, to me it was it was um, you know, I immediately were like, look, uh, we're not interested. It's just simple as that. We're not interested. We've got we've got our own solutions, you know, we're we're not we're not interested in in putting putting them on drugs and and things of that nature. But it for what why I'm bringing this up is because I personally have seen it as a parent, how quick, like, oh, we should get them evaluated. Oh, we should we should see what kind of drug we can put them on. And it's like that's not okay because if I if I looked at them as an authority, which I don't, but if I did, right, I might be like, oh, well, I better listen to the authorities and put him on, get him evaluated and put him on something that he doesn't need for what, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Yeah, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

And the reason I'm bringing this up, not only for me personally, but I know for people listening, pans and pandas. Have you heard of the terminology?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Uh maybe.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Okay, so it's like a uh neuropsychiatric disorder.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Some new thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:04

And I know it's very real in terms of like the symptoms, the symptoms, yeah, sure, because like emotions are real, symptoms are real, what somebody is going through is extremely real to them. It's just how do we go about handling it? And what is the resolve? Like, where's the resolution?

SPEAKER_02 19:22

And it is a behavioral problem, the symptom. Sure. But actually, it's a body issue. And that's one of the things that has really come to light is that this is mostly we see it get triggered with mold exposure and other things in their environment, the toxins that they're constantly exposed to will really trigger these behavioral issues. And how do we know this? Because we've been boots on the ground with families, fixing their homes, getting these kids out of there, telling parents, take the kids away for a weekend, you know, go to the cleanest place on earth you can think of and see how they feel. And you know what they're reporting? Well, they feel better, but when they go back to the house, they're not, they're having these episodes again, right? And so, you know, again, you bring up a good point, like a lot of mental health issues get misdiagnosed, if you can even call it a diagnosis, really, on these issues of what they're experiencing in their body. And I mean, I don't it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that your body and mind are connected, right? I mean, it's so to ignore that, I think is part of the issue. And if we take a step back and think about all the people that get gaslit when they're like, hey, I've I'm not crazy, I've got body issues, help me figure it out. And the doctor makes you feel crazy because they're like, you're normal, everything's fine. It must be that you're crazy.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Well, sure, because there's diagnosis codes for everything, which is like brings us back to this issue of insurances, insurances within the AMA and the APA. As long as there's a code, then the insurance can be billed and then the doctor is paid. And I'm not mad about anybody going to the doctor and then the doctor has to get paid. Like I understand that that is what happens. It's just, is there actually care? Like, how are we gonna put real care back in? Because it's not actually super fair that a person with like a certain high income status are the ones that can afford real care right now. You know, an integrative or a functional doctor, they don't usually take insurance. And so it leaves a lot of society dealing with the regomaro of the system and doctors' hands are tied, and then there's lobbyists controlling insurance companies and all these different things. But yeah, what you brought up about parents taking the kids out of the environment and then the kids feel better is great. And then, yeah, I mean, it doesn't always handle all kids' situations with whatever's happening within that whole household, but I think a lot of times if Probably will.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Yeah. So hopefully for people that are listening, you know, one of the things that they're thinking about is like, okay, you know, maybe it's not a mental health problem. Maybe I am dealing with body issues, or my son or my daughter, or my husband, right? Like maybe that this is a body health issue. How do you, as a in your profession and what you do, how do you help people get to that root cause level?

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Like with finding out exactly what is going on with their body. Well, I just ask enough questions and then figure out what all what have they done already? Because I don't necessarily need to repeat things, but you know, and I do a lot of soul health things too. So what I will ask questions about if there is anybody around you that is making you feel bad, anybody around you being critical, things like that, because these are kind of energy vampires in individuals' life. So that can affect a person too. So I do a body, mind, and soul health assessment and then work out a plan with them based on their determinism, because I follow a very strict code, and so I don't enforce my program on someone. It's just what are you comfortable with and how do you want to handle this? And, you know, this is what other people have done, and this is what has worked for some people, and then going through sites and researching it because a lot of times somebody comes to see me with a lot of false data, meaning like they've seen 10 different doctors or they have all these diagnoses and they have all these confusions. And so it takes a little while to peel those layers off on, you know, like what do you actually believe? So it's just trying to figure out what have you been told first. Have what have you been told, and what have doctors told you is the truth, and how do you feel about that? So a lot of my work goes into kind of personal advocacy too. Wow, because a person needs to make their own decision, right? And be their own, their own authority. You know, like you have to necessarily have to be able to say, no, Dr. Jones or Dr. Smith or Dr. Whoever. Actually, that's not what I think. And I don't think that that's true. And I'm going to do it like this, or hey, listen, it's not okay to do that. And what about informed consent, Dr. Jones? Like, how come you didn't tell me all of the effects of these medications, their harmful effects? Like, I didn't know I would be ending up feeling like I was crying more or having suicidal thoughts from taking these pills. Like, you didn't, you didn't get me to sign those papers. It's informed consent is a whole area that's missing in our country. It's like, you know, doctors prescribe Zolof or Wellbutrin or some like many different psychiatric medications, Cyric Will, like whatever. There's so many. And then there's a missing step of informed consent. And so I will do coaching on advocacy in order for the person to be able to fill their vacuum and fill their void on like what is their truth, so that then they can go on an exact journey.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

That's really important. I didn't think about it from that perspective either, like how important it is to really like help people decipher the information and really become their own advocate.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah, you have to become your own advocate because like I'm not always gonna be there.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

You know, or maybe you're not always gonna be there. And a person has to be confident in their data and where am I getting where who do I believe and where do I believe? And have I done enough research? Have I done enough due diligence? And really keeping in mind that doctors, doctors swear to uphold a Hippocratic oath. And is your doctor upholding Hippocratic oath? You know, and that's not a question that I can answer for the person. That's a question that the person has to answer for themselves, right? Like, you know, does the is the doctor upholding the fact that he promises or she he or she promises to help you get more healthy? Is that happening or not?

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

You know, it's kind of like a mic drop.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

It is kind of like a mic drop.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

We'll just give it some space.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Good. Well, I want to ask another question that is supposed to be towards the end of the podcast, but like we're already, yeah, you're like two for two on just uh bringing stuff up that's like the perfect thing to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Oh, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Well, because you mentioned false data.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Right. And so, you know, some people say fake news, false data, right? All these different terminologies for it, but it really boils down to the same thing, right? There's so much misinformation out there, and it can be really confusing. A lot about food, a lot about mental health, right? A lot about just health in general. Um and so I'm curious from your perspective, what are some of the biggest lies you've come across either in medical history or mental health history? Like, what are some of the biggest lies that you've found out to be live?

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Like throughout my throughout my whole entire journey, this like 30 years now, I guess I'm going on. I know it doesn't look like I'm actually that old, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:24

No, it doesn't. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

It's crazy. Um, but it's really the area of mental health and mental illness. I mean, it's the biggest lie out there. The biggest lie. I think my family alone, we probably spent close to a million dollars on mental illness, right? Different mental hospitals, different doctors flying out to California and going to the VIP mental health center with the psychiatrist's office overlooking the Pacific Ocean and cute little bunny rabbits jumping around in the organic greens and, you know, like just very over the top, right? On the um, you know, the mountains and and the Pacific Palisades. You know what I'm talking about in Los Angeles, right? So my mom was out there for a while, and it was not a cheap place. And then there's places in Arizona, and there's anyway, there's many different places that she went to from the West Coast to the East Coast, and probably about a million dollars was spent. And it's unbelievable to spend that much money and not get a product, like to this day, so it still can bring tears to my eyes that my mom would be here right now if I had met somebody or my family had met somebody that could find a pathway to health, body, mind, soul. And so that's what I became dedicated to because I was looking for somebody to coach me and be my mentor. Like, doesn't there somebody who has some good information? And I did, I found an amazing psychiatrist out in California who is um uh more holistic, and so she does like specific blood tests to find like whatever the chemicals are happening in the brain and all these different things. And she's not um, she doesn't really like giving psychiatric medication. She understands like an emergency, you have to. And I found her through the Citizens Commission on Human Rights when I was working to get my mom out of anyway. It's a very long story, but there are certain individuals that I found that kind of were um how do you say, like stop gaps to me, like a resting place. Like, okay, here's an island, here's a safe island, that there's some truth here. And okay, now we can figure out some more things, and then a great nutritionist to help, you know, give the body supplements in order to stop taking psychiatric medication. Because most people, it's very difficult to stop taking psychiatric medication. They get like extreme, extreme effects when trying to stop taking it. Some medical professionals say that it's like around the area of heroin.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

So it is not an easy process for people. So I would love to see us as society, because you asked me, like, what is the biggest outpoint, I guess, is basically what you asked me. You know, like what do we need to fix in society? And it's let's fix the area of mental health. And obviously, this goes along with um environments too, like if somebody has a mold allergy or a Lyme issue going on their body, like a body health issue, is the foundation of mental health. So we fix body health, and then we can make more successful programs for mental health. So for me, it's mental health. That's why I became a holistic mental health coach and why I help people with body, mind, and soul health programs.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

That's amazing. Well, thank you for all you do. I really appreciate that. You know, it's obviously an important endeavor. And yes, we clearly have a body health issue and a mental health issue, considering they both seem to be clear. Yeah, well, right, 80% of people on prescription drugs, either for body health or for mental health.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Yeah, well, right. And it and it all starts with the body health, either in your environment or you haven't gotten a good enough comprehensive blood test, right? Because a lot of doctors order blood panels and you go to the labs to get your blood tested, and then that's like five or six vials of blood that's taken. Like a really good comprehensive blood test is about close to 20 vials, somewhere around there. Because then you're like actually checking the functions of all the organs. You're actually checking the hormone levels, you're you're checking everything, like all the micronutrient levels, you're checking, you're checking genetics, you're checking, you make sure that you go to a doctor that can give a prescription for a very good comprehensive blood test. That is probably the biggest thing that we need to get in as society so that there's no confusion because right now there's all this confusion. We just need like a standard process. Standard process.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

I would love. I would love. I can't wait to help that happen, and I would love to see it. So then people don't have to be on so much medication.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Well, standard processes are certainly possible, as we know. Um, I've created a standard process in my business to kind of go through a home from start to finish, diagnose the issues, figure out what's going on, fix them, right? So uh standard their standard processes that work in pretty much any area.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Yeah, well, right. I mean, I have a standard process for mental health, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Yeah, right. And so you have a standard process for mental health. And unfortunately, the medical community, the AMA, the APA, right, their standard process needs a little bit of improvement because right now it's like, well, what label, okay, what drug can we sell you? And that's not obviously solving the root costs.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Um, and unfortunately, that the issue is worse in the United States than it is in other countries. I mean, you'll go to doctors in well, anyway, I won't get into the specifics on exact countries, but overall, Europe is a lot more um wellness-oriented. Like you don't feel well, go for a walk. Are you drinking water? How are you eating? Are you sleeping? There's, you know, we need to actually have these questions in place that are a standard process.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Sort of like, okay, will you feel depressed? When is the last time you slept? When is the last time you ate uh a meal with really good organic protein in it? You know, these are like very basic things, like your the body will go through all sorts of issues without sleep and good food.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

So they're very pretty basic. Like we can at least just make sure the person's sleeping and eating before prescribing medicine, and then hopefully get that comprehensive blood test in there, too. It's like three things like three things.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Not a lot to ask. Yeah, not a lot to ask. Three things. I think we can I think we can do it.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Yeah, I think we should be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Okay, so speaking of these things, you've got a personal story. You we talked a little bit offline to get to know one another. You went through Lyme's disease. Can you share a little bit about you know your your personal struggles that kind of led you to where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Yeah, definitely. You know, for me, going through the intense experience that I did with my mom when I was younger and then losing my mom, I was already extremely knowledgeable about mental health because I, you know, I belong to mind freedom. I belong to Citizens Commission on Human Rights, and I've talked to police officers and psychologists and teachers and kids, thousands of them, about the truth regarding mental health and the damage of psychiatric medication. So for me, when I had an experience with Lyme's disease, I didn't have a bunch of false data, like meaning I a doctor couldn't tell me, hey, you have bipolar disorder and make me take psychiatric medications. So the experience was was very tough, but not, I didn't end up a statistic like most people do. So basically, years ago, you want to hear the whole story, Michael, or how much of the story do you want to hear?

SPEAKER_02 35:43

You know, uh, we can hear the whole story.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Yeah, okay. So I um, my little sister, love her to bits and pieces. She's a biker, and so she was doing a hundred-mile um tour or practice on this lake up like about an hour from here. And I thought, okay, how fun. I'm gonna go see my sister. She's running this VRBO house and see my nephew, and it'll be so fun. Well, uh, like a lot of areas in Florida, they're super duper country, right? And we have all these lakes all over the place. And my sister wanted to do a um sunset tour of the lake on an airboat. You know what airboats are, right? Those humongous fans on the back. Like you like, go get on an airboat and look for gators in Florida Lake.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

So I've done it.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Yeah. So that's when she paid this company to do the sunset tour on this lake. And I was like, okay, fine. Like, okay, we're gonna go look for gators on the lake. All right, whatever. And this guy basically it was an airboat accident on the lake. He was going around those cattails, you know, those like long things on the lake that grow really high and they're in like skinny little pathways. So he was going way too fast through one of those pathways, and another boat was going way too fast. And they did, they almost did a head-on collision, but they both turned so the sides of their boats hit. Luckily, the airboats didn't the sorry, the machines, the motor, motors, thank you for the word, didn't hit because it would have been a big explosion. And I was sitting on the front of the bench and went catapulting out of the airboat into the other boat and then into the lake. So it was a terrible accident.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Obviously, terrible accident. And I contracted bacteria, viruses, parasites in my body because most all of us understand how nasty lakes are.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

And I mean, it's not the place that I like to go swimming. I don't know. I'll stick with the pool and yeah, but ocean is a little better because like the water is moving, right? You know, like stagnant water where mosquitoes are breeding and alligators anyway. Um, so yeah, that's how I contracted it. I was in the emergency room that night, and stitches and the wound is not cleaned, and then I had to spend another week in a hospital. I had to go to another hospital, I didn't go to another hospital, and I kept getting sicker. So I was going to all these hospitals and I kept getting sicker. I mean, I'm pretty strong, so I kept, I was like, get better, and then all of a sudden I'm like back, you know, sick. And so I'm like, go back to the doctor. Okay, what is happening? We have to find what's happening. Well, then the limes turned into neurological limes, and then I was having seizures, and so then doctors were saying that it was some um, I don't know, like all these different terms I heard that have to do with like mental illness. And for me, I was like, no, I kept saying, no, I know it's not a mental illness, it has to be something in my body, right? Miriam, but we've already done the antibiotic treatment, we've already done this, we've already done that. And uh once I was well enough to find an integrative doctor to go to, I'm saying, okay, well, obviously, we haven't found what caused this situation with my body, because I don't typically have some issues like that. So I had there was an emergency, something happened, I was exposed to something, meaning by the environment, right? So let's find what it was. And I had toxic levels, red, like the the graph on the certain blood test that I did, right? Like it's green and it goes to yellow and then it goes to red, and red has a has a has a range, right? And it's like red.

SPEAKER_03 39:42

Yeah, it was all the way red.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

It was all the way red. It's like, wow, well, you definitely have limes. Glad we figured that out. And so then it opens up a door to a handling. Like, when do you actually find like, oh, okay, it's mold or it's limes, or it is cat scratch fever, or it is some crazy parasite. I don't know, whatever. There's a door to actually doing the detox and then doing whatever needs to happen. And I was extremely dedicated to getting rid of the limes because I had heard horror stories of what happens to people, and I just read every single blog I could get my hands on. Like, what are the successful tips? What have people done to actually handle Limes? Like, so what do you do? I'm not gonna get a port on my body, meaning like an IV filled with antibiotics. People that get Lyme disease end up, doctors give them antibiotics for the rest of their lives. Oh, wow. So they have a um IV hanging off of their body that goes through a vein, and then they're always on antibiotics. And so I knew that I didn't want to spend my life like that. And so I just kept asking and I wouldn't stop. So I put myself through a wellness program, which is another reason why I think I'm so good at understanding what somebody has to do in order to get to the other side of the body health conditions. Because what's gonna work for my body isn't necessarily what's gonna work for your body or someone else's body, because we're all individuals, body, mind, and soul. We're individuals. And so what my body is gonna want is not necessarily the same thing as yours. So I just kept trying everything that somebody told me. And luckily, I could do it, right? Is it ozone therapy, Hawkett machine, which is a machine that you sit in and ozone gets pumped into the body, and you hold little electrodes and like a little electrical current goes through the body, and so it kills all the bacteria viruses and everything going on. A rife machine, a cryoese machine, a PMF mat. Like, I just I did everything, so I'm very knowledgeable about each of those individual modalities. And like, is it all gonna work the same for each person? No, you just gotta try until you try something and go, oh wow, this is what my body needs to handle that thing. But the blood test allows you an exact pathway or a target, right? So that when you're doing a modality or thinking the person's actually thinking, like meaning powerful positive mindset on okay, I'm doing this to heal the mold allergy, or I'm doing this to heal this thing in my body, right? Because the the person spiritually is guiding the whole ship. And so the blood test opens up kind of a I don't know, like a like map. Yeah, it kind of gives a map. So yeah, so I I just didn't give up and wouldn't stop. And I did a spiritual program and handled the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

It's amazing. So two things that I wanted to kind of like touch on a little bit was because just I'm just like thinking about the story itself. You had to have gotten bit by a tick at some point to get the Lyme's disease, right? Well, then you had the trauma, yeah, and that's when it kind of all like I guess activated for you, right? Is that is that right?

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Yeah, well, the doctor, I mean, it different body types have different genetic issues going on where like immunity, immunity plays a role. Like someone else who maybe has a stronger immunity or who didn't have X, Y, and Z going on their body, like you have like eptine bar virus in body types that allows a very big open door for other things to come in. So whatever the body is already dealing with or already has it um the sensitivities are already set in stone, so to speak, then that is going to make certain other things that happen more intense or less intense. I don't know if I answered your question exactly, but I tried.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Yeah, I think so. I think you know. I was just trying to understand. I wanted to make sure I had the chrono the chronology the chronological part of the story correct. Because obviously, yes, I mean, like you can get Epstein Bar virus and be fine, and then it gets reactivated, and then you're not fine, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:13

And so and then well, right, but but it but it if it's in the body, then it creates a sensitivity to for other things to be more exacerbated.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

That's what I meant.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

So then just going back, did you when you look back, were you feeling symptoms, you think, from the Lyme's disease before you had the traumatic accident?

SPEAKER_00 44:38

No.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

No. No, I mean, the with talking to the specialty doctor, the integrative doctor, she was like, most likely, because it's a big wound. It's not like I just flew in the swamp and I swallowed a little bit of water. I mean, like part of my leg is missing from that accident. So lots of nasty things can get in the bloodstream, and then like you are sick.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

So that was a pretty extreme example of an accident and then dealing with like an emergency sort of bizarre situation health-wise.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Totally. No, it makes a lot of sense. So you had that obviously that tragic accident, you got sick, you were in the hospital. But one thing I didn't catch, because I know we talked earlier, and you were talking about the misdiagnoses and the gaslighting. I don't think we got the full understanding of how many doctors you went through trying to find answers and how long it took you to get the answers that you needed to finally be cause over your own body.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Yeah, you know, I mean, for me, because I went through the experience with my mom when I was younger and I was already an advocate and I was already had a spiritual practice and I've already been working on these things. I've been working on, I was in a different position than most people because I wasn't operating on a lot of misinformation.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Right. So I didn't have the the experience where when I would talk to a doctor and they would say something to me that I didn't think was true, I didn't believe it. Right. So I just kept going. I just kept looking. I don't know. Like I probably saw eight to ten different doctors.

unknown 46:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Like three or four different hospitals or something.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

In the grand scheme of things, it would have been nice if you only had to go to one.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Yeah, that would be, yeah, that would be great. It wouldn't make for as much of a story, but but luckily I made it out the other side. You know, unfortunately, a lot of people that go through um, you know, health issues or have to deal with their insurance and doctors that don't have a lot of um out-of-the-box information. Let's call it out of the box, right? Because you know, the going to the the educational structure system and getting your medical license and being part of the AMA or being part of the APA, it just it represents a box. And it's not, it's not a pretty one necessarily. Think of these like gold ribbon or polka dot wrapping paper or something on this box.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Kind of kidding, of course. Um, yeah, so that would be nice if it was just one doctor.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

That's the world that I hope we create.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

Yeah, but and like we're all responsible for that. I'm responsible, you're responsible. Of course, your listeners are responsible. We all have our personal advocacy that we are responsible for. And then once we get a handle on that, then it's how do I help others with this situation? How do we change the law? How do we actually get into insurance companies or make sure that the government is passing laws that will help us get healthier? You know, how do we protect or safeguard the future generations of kids so that they're not growing up on psychiatric medication and their brains are damaged before they can eat they're even full grown? Like, how do we do this as a society? So I think as a as a person takes um responsibility for themselves and getting healthier and getting their environment figured out and feeling better mentally, spiritually, and physically, then that uh uh it's much easier to then think about your neighbors or your community or the hospital down the street or the mental hospital or what's happening with all of these different socioeconomic issues that are going on at large.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

Right. Yeah. So if I'm listening and I'm dealing with body health issues, or I think I might have some mental health issues, and I want to reach out to you and work directly with you, how do I find you?

SPEAKER_00 49:07

Well, for your listeners today, I would love for them to download a free PDF I'm offering for your listeners.

SPEAKER_03 49:15

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 49:15

And so that is your wellness checklist.com. Your wellness checklist.com. And then if anybody wants to reach out to me, I have a website and there's lots of social media out there. But yeah, amazing. The your wellness checklist will kind of get somebody started on body health tips and mind health tips and soul health tips and sort of what they can do to take their next step towards freedom from stress. Because, you know, now that I am a successful professional freedom from stress counselor, and I'm offering this to many different people successfully, people get through it and they do it. It's just take your next step because you just keep taking your next step, and then eventually you get to where you're going. Like you've it's a better life, it looks better, your mind is clear, things are brighter, you don't feel so run down and like there's all these barriers and obstacles around you. Like it's it's actually possible to do.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

That's amazing. Thank you. I'll make sure we put all that in the show notes for those listening. Okay, awesome, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

My thank you, Michael.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

I really uh applaud you for all the work you do. I really appreciate the advocacy work that you do and you know making the world a better place. Like you said, we all have to take responsibility for that. And uh, I know I will continue to stay in my lane and do what I can. And I really appreciate you for yours.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Awesome. Thank you. I really appreciate what you're doing too, Michael. Appreciate you having me on today, too.

SPEAKER_02 50:48

Thank you. We'll see you soon, I'm sure. Until next time.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

Okay, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

And for you, thank you for listening. Until next time for another episode of Never Been Sicker. I'm your host, Michael Rubino. See you soon.