GERALDINE AND CINDY PODCAST EXTRA
AM: Geraldine, Cindy mentioned her healing journey. What would you say about yours? I know that you were in a support group for a period of time.
Geraldine: Oh, the support group was absolutely amazing. I remember the first time I went in I couldn’t even talk. I couldn’t even talk I was in such shock. And there was a woman who actually held me, and her husband – I mean, they had a horrific story, loss of a child, and they were extremely helpful. And I went for about a year, got to know everybody, and I had the most amazing – my own therapist. Immediately I had gotten a therapist when Lou got very sick and he had a phenomenal therapist who really loved him and said underneath all of his stuff is this beautiful and gentle soul, and she just – I don’t know that she knew that much about akathisia but she desperately wanted to help him, and there were times that he did, you know, better, and when he couldn’t do well, she told me she used to walk around the building with him if he couldn’t sit still to talk to him, you know, to work together. That’s how committed she was. She would just walk him outside so that – you know, to try to reach him, and she was very helpful. She was very supportive to me during all of this, as well as my own therapist.
AM: To get back to the sort of earliest period in which, you know, the anxiety was starting to surface, and when it became more severe, do you think that there’s something that could have helped Louis that ultimately did not involve drugs, or do you think it was kind of so serious that drugs were going to be part of the picture and that ultimately just kind of undermined the course of treatment in making him better?
Cindy: I mean, we’re both – you know, I work in integrative medicine, functional medicine, I’m a dietician and integrative functional dietician and, you know, my mom’s very into integrative healing, and so I think we probably do think that there’s another solution that could have not involved drugs, but I don’t know if he would have been open to those. But I think if you do take a holistic approach and use different modalities from different directions – and every case is different so I’m not saying people shouldn’t take medications. I do think – you know, like I said, it can definitely help people.
Geraldine: It does help. It does help some people.
Cindy: Yeah, so I think in the right situation for the right people, but I do think that there are many, many other modalities that when you put a lot of them together can be really, you know, like somatic healing with therapy, with, you know, meditation and supplements –
Geraldine: Nature.
Cindy: – and nature – you know, like all sorts of community and not being isolated. You know, there’s so many pieces to it, but I think – and having, you know, a feeling of a sense of fulfillment and creative outlets and, you know, there’s so many pieces. But I do think, you know, if, again, you kind of look at the whole picture, yeah, I do believe that there’s a lot people can do.
Geraldine: You know, family members and friends tried. I sent him a fabulous book that took a completely holistic approach from every angle, like Cindy is saying, and I brought it to him when he was away at the center, and I said this is really going to help you; please read this, you know, cover to cover. He didn’t get anything out of it. He just couldn’t – he just wasn’t capable.
Cindy: I don’t think he could focus at that point.
Geraldine: And I don’t think he was capable of taking – you know, of going that route. It was very alien to him, especially when you grow up with a lot of Western medicine and you believe in it.
Cindy: Well, I do think, like I sort of alluded to with the support group and the healing conversations, I think a huge part of healing is just telling your story and being heard –
AM: Speaking it.
Cindy: –and knowing that, you know, other people might be helped by it is also helpful, but I think, yeah, just sharing it. That’s why I think we – like, again, we’ve had some of the same conversations over and over about just, like, sort of analyzing, like, the whole situation, like, how did this happen and what do you think about this? And it’s like it just – it helps – you know, I think it helps us wrap our head around it a little bit and try to make sense of it and understand it. And I think yeah, just again in the support group, it’s hearing other people’s stories that are somewhat similar to yours, sharing your story. I think, just, humans want to, yeah, be heard and be able to tell their stories, right, and I think that’s a huge part of healing for sure, so I think any time there’s a chance for that it is helpful, because it’s not something you talk about every day. You know, sit down and let me tell you this whole saga – (laughs) – my story, right? So it’s nice to, you know, have people be interested as well.