Posts by dustytinker52

What other physical symptoms are you dealing with right now?

Larry Campbell said:I know, believe me, I know. At the end of the day, the weight falls entirely on your shoulders. I’m not saying psychotherapy can't work wonders—it absolutely can—but there's a catch. When you're finally left alone with your thoughts, everything is back on you, and you need an immense amount of strength, willpower, and courage to face it. You have to give yourself grace and time. A problem you've been battling for ten years isn't going to vanish overnight.

You're spot on; I think, deep down, we're all essentially saying the exact same thing...😁

Roger Scott17 said:Look, if you want to actually kick those fears to the curb, you need a real strategy—you’ve gotta do the actual work on yourself. Just basic talk therapy isn't always enough.
Facing your fears head-on is really the only way to finally be free of them.
But before you can even tackle them, you have to "get your headspace organized" first.
Once it finally clicks that *you* are the one in the driver's seat—not those anxious little voices—that's when the real healing starts.
It might take some people a lifetime and others a bit less, but honestly, it’s the only way to beat anxiety. EVERYTHING starts in your mind.

You reach this point through therapy and dedicated self-work too... I completely agree with that last part, because that’s exactly how I managed to overcome my agoraphobia and social phobia. You have to rebuild that core sense of self-confidence and feel that you are safe and protected (whether that's through logic or even a higher power, if that helps), believing that nothing bad is going to happen. It’s a long, grueling process, but it's something you have to do for yourself; nobody else can do the heavy lifting for you.

Larry Lewis said:I once dealt with a panic attack myself—and believe me, it is no laughing matter.

I wouldn't go so far as to say everything works exactly the way you described, but you really can't expect
an overnight miracle from all that hard work... it's more about taking it one tiny step at a time... just one little inch at a time...

That’s exactly my point—which is why I mentioned how much intensive therapy and deep spiritual self-work are absolutely necessary...

The real issue here is that you can't just solve this through sheer willpower—it’s not like I can just tell myself, "Get a grip, stop thinking these things!"—because if you could simply force thoughts away, mental health struggles wouldn't even exist in the first place.

Larry Campbell said:The problem is that this constant hiding is killing me. Realistically, I know people barely notice, but I’m constantly plagued by the fear that someone *will* see I'm not okay, and then what? I can't exactly call out of work every single day. I really need to find a way to "dial down" the intensity of worrying about who is saying what or what they might think... maybe if I could do that, I might actually find some peace of mind.

I was actually reading Elaine Aron's book, "Highly Sensitive People," and she touches on this exact dilemma—that nagging question of, "Do other people actually realize I'm struggling?" It turns out that for almost all the participants in her studies, the answer was a resounding YES, even though the research showed that in about 90% of cases, people around them had absolutely no clue they were having a hard time mentally. They didn't pick up on the shyness or the anxiety at all. She suggests that this specific worry is one of those major obsessions that Highly Sensitive People tend to get caught up in. Honestly, a good workaround is often just to lean into physical excuses—saying things like, "Oh, my blood pressure is acting up today," or "I'm just feeling a bit under the weather"—because people are generally much more sympathetic toward minor physical ailments than they are toward mental ones. And, of course, if you have that particular sense of humor, sometimes you can just laugh your way through a messy situation to take the edge off.

That’s really the crux of the matter, isn't it? All those little platitudes—"just keep your chin up" or "show your fears who's boss"—they sound great on paper, but in the real world, they rarely hold water without actual psychiatric support and some serious, intentional spiritual work to rebuild your own resilience. It takes real time and grit to recover, because after being subjected to something as soul-crushing as workplace bullying, a Highly Sensitive Person can spend years just trying to find their footing again. If I could offer one bit of advice for when you start your next job: make sure you learn how to mask your vulnerability; don't let them see just how much it affects you.👍

Why don't you try sitting down and actually talking this through with someone? You’ve just buried everything deep inside without ever truly processing it... you can't just sit around expecting things to magically "get better" on their own. People spend years, sometimes decades, fighting the fallout from abuse or workplace bullying and similar stuff...

@Bryan Barnes2 thanks for getting back to me👍

Could you take a look at this part of the report as well?

Fungi by PCR
Pfizer 2904 10-5000 Positive
Candida (albicans tropicalis) 588 MFI 10-5000 Negative

Thx

restlessdriver said:.

Once I cut out bread, starchy carbs, and all those processed vegetable oils and margarines—and instead pivoted to rich, fatty soups, using lard instead of oil, and centering my whole diet around fat without the carbs—my cholesterol numbers actually dropped by half because my body finally started burning fat for fuel.

Give it a shot and you'll see that you might not even need the pills, though unfortunately, most people just opt for the quick fix, which usually ends up being way more damaging in the long run.

I’ve had the exact same experience. Rather than relying on medication, it honestly feels much better to just ditch ALL carbohydrates—especially wheat and anything made from it—and try an LCHF or Paleo approach. Aside from lard, you can also lean heavily on coconut oil, coconut butter, or even coconut flour if you're baking something...

I just had some stool samples tested at a local lab because I've been dealing with some stomach issues, and they flagged Aspergillus (is that a type of mold?). Does anyone here know anything about this? What exactly am I looking at, and what should my next steps be? (My follow-up consultation isn't until Friday, and honestly, I'm going to lose my mind waiting until then)🙂

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say my H. pylori test came back positive, but I’m a bit stuck on these low values listed below... could this be a sign of celiac disease? Thanks!

Hey everyone, could someone help me make sense of these results? (It's a stool sample analysis):

Antibiotic Resistance by PCR

b-Lactamase (bl2b) 6674 MFI 10-5000 - Resistant
Nitroimidazole (nimD) 168 MFI 10-5000 - Susceptible
Fluoroquinolones (qnrA) 96 MFI 10-5000 - Susceptible
Tetracycline 88 MFI 10-5000 - Susceptible
Imidazole (nimA) 109 MFI 10-5000 - Susceptible
Vancomycin (vanA/vanB) 196 MFI 10-5000 - Susceptible

And also this part:

GI Health Markers

Anti-Gliadin IgA 2.0 U/mL 0.0-0.5 - High
Calprotectin 398.1 μg/g 0.0-50.0 - High
Fecal Fat 384.86 milliunit/ml 0.00-40.00 - High
Fecal Occult Blood - Negative
Lactoferrin 0.00 μg/mL 0.00-7.00 - Normal
sIgA1 2378.76 μg/mL 0.00-1000.00 - High
sIgA2 6577.54 μg/mL 0.00-1000.00 - High

Thanks!👍

Angela Wright said:I know a few people who have sent tissue samples on glass slides in specialized PhD analysis kits via FedEx without any drama at all, and they had them sent right back from hospitals in the States through that same route without a single hitch.

Thank you so much!👍 So, I finally got the confirmation from the folks over at FedEx this morning... though honestly, dealing with the UPS crew was a bit of a comedy of errors. It was pure chaos; one guy is acting like it’s absolutely no big deal and we're all set, while the other is looking at me like I've asked for a favor from the President, questioning if they actually have to store it for us. Just typical back-and-forth nonsense.🤣Honestly, I can’t even deal anymore... that’s three of them this morning alone! Seriously, I'm done. I’m just going to stick with FedEx from now on.👍

Hey everyone, please feel free to move this thread if there's a better spot for it. So, I need to send a chair sample over to a lab in the UK for testing. I tried calling UPS (they actually suggested either UPS or FedEx), but the folks at UPS were completely clueless when I asked if they could handle shipping human samples or not. Here is the specific guidance I got from the lab:

"The method you use to return the parcel to the UK is entirely up to you. In our experience, FedEx and UPS tend to be the most reliable couriers. However, we recommend checking with them before you pay for the test, as certain countries have specific regulations regarding the shipment of human samples. It might be helpful to clarify that the package is classified as a Biological Substance Category B (UN3373) and that all packaging meets compliance standards."

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to get this sample sent out? 🤷

pls help!