Friday Sep 22, 2023

Beyond the Mental Health Label -- From Illness to Wellness

Dr. Christina Bjorndal, a naturopathic doctor and authority in the treatment of mental illness joins The Catalyst to speak about her own experience with depression, bulimia and suicidality, which, at one point, left her in a coma. Yet, in a stunning message of hope she reveals that it was this latter incident that set her on a trajectory of healing, a process she says is both individual and ongoing. As human beings we are divided into four quadrants: mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. Western medicine is limited, Dr. Christina explains, focusing only on the physical aspects of mental health. Naturopathy and pharmaceuticals can work together to better treat not only symptoms of mental illness but their root causes.

To get to those root causes we must be willing to dig into our own pasts. What underlying fear is the brain, which is designed to keep us safe, protecting us from? Do our problems stem from nature versus nurture, from genetics, epigenetics and/or intergenerational trauma? We often wear masks in public to hide our suffering, such as the one Dr. Christina wore throughout her time in the corporate world. However, the body will whisper that something is wrong until it yells in the form of a crisis.

Dr. Christina leads us through an exercise in which we have an honest conversation with our hearts. Join today’s discussion to learn more about how we can learn to check in on ourselves, starting in the smallest ways and the important difference between information and transformation.

Quotes

• “Anyone struggling with their mental health, suicidal ideations, depression - you're really the furthest from love for yourself that you can possibly be.” (7:21 | Dr. Christina)

• “Labels help to explain a constellation of symptoms, your experience, but they don't explain how you got there. And often, that explanation is rooted in some earlier experience that predates the diagnosis.” (10:31 | Dr. Christina)

• “As a human, you're comprised of the physical level, mental, the emotional and the spiritual, and Western medicine is mostly focused on the physical level.” (13:35 | Dr. Christina)

• “I subscribe to the theory, a little bit more of epigenetics, which is that genes load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.” (23:09 | Dr. Christina)

• “Whenever you say you want something - lose 20 pounds, want to leave a relationship, job, change, whatever you say you want something, but you never do it is because you've got an unconscious sub commitment, you're committed to something else. And that's something else is often being safe, keeping you safe.” (28:51 | Dr. Christina)

• “That is what depression does to you. It really clouds your judgment. It's like you're in a dark cloud and you cannot see through that cloud. You're pretty much immersed in it. However, the sun is actually still shining behind that cloud.” (34:25 | Dr. Christina)

Links

Connect with Dr. Christina Bjorndal, ND:

Website: drchristinabjorndal.com

Facebook: Dr. Christina Bjorndal

Twitter: @drbjorndal

YouTube: Christina Bjorndal

Instagram: @drchrisbjorndal

Connect with Lara:

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Instagram: @drlarasalyer

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer

Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/