Are toxins making you crazy or are people crazy for not listening to you

If you or your family has ever faced a health scare from mold, Lyme disease, or other chronic illness, it’s likely shaken your sense of safety. You might feel blindsided by new discoveries like toxic load, and if you’ve turned to friends and family for support, you may feel like it’s in your head or you’re overreacting, even if they didn’t say so.

If this is you, it’s not your fault.

If this is you, it’s not your fault.

The truth is, there’s always something affecting your health, and it’s not possible to fix it all. To try, it’s just overwhelming, not to mention costly. That’s why in this blog post, I’m going to show you how to do this.

So why do people feel crazy when it comes to getting rid of toxins in their home?

1. They can’t get buy-in from their spouse or friends

The number one problem I see when someone knows their home is affecting them, the first thing they do is worry about their family. This often leads to conversations with family and friends about removing all the toxins. This usually results in them being looked at as if they’re crazy, making them feel isolated, with the whole thing feeling overwhelming to fix.

The truth of the matter is, while there are likely thousands of things you could do, it’s usually one or two major things that make the biggest difference. It’s important to be laser-focused on those and not let the rest overwhelm you. This, in turn, has a ripple effect on buy-in from everyone around you, and helps you decide whether the other things are important or if you’ve done enough. That’s why I always like to recommend starting with one or two very simple solutions.

There is no better example of that than Alana. After years of searching on and off, she and her husband purchased their perfect forever home and completed a full renovation before moving in. They were all so excited to start a new chapter in their new home after waiting for so many years. However, after a few months, Alana noticed she felt tired, dizzy, and brain fog from time to time. At first, she dismissed it as stress from the move and getting settled, but as her symptoms continued and worsened, she couldn’t ignore them. Her mind was filled with dread, thinking, “Oh no, are past health issues returning?” She immediately started looking into all the potential root causes, getting tests run and treatments, but didn’t even realize her home was a potential contributor until over two years into her journey. By that time, she was spending more than half her time at doctor’s appointments, and it was difficult to start her day before ten o’clock in the morning because she was so exhausted. Luckily, we realized she was being affected by a few specific things. So we went to work and made a few simple adjustments. She noticed an immediate change that night and was finally able to get quality sleep. As she continued to make progress, her husband was relieved that the cost was in the hundreds of dollars rather than the tens of thousands it would have been to fix everything at once.

So while I absolutely believe you could fix everything in your home, the most important thing to do like Alana and I were able to do, is identify what’s the biggest effect, and attack those first. Nine times out of ten, there’s usually one or two major factors that are drastically affecting you, and that’s what you need to focus on first. This simplifies it for everybody. Your spouse can get on board, it’s easier for your friends to understand, and it helps you stay laser-focused on only a few issues.

2. They’re doomed to fail because they create a plan based on wild guesses, wrong assumptions, hoping their efforts weren’t wasted

The second problem I see often stems from two issues. First, making the simple changes above doesn’t produce the desired outcome. Or, the situation is more complex, with many of the problems fixed with Step 1, and you double down on reducing your toxic load. You’re consumed with expensive, unvalidated solutions you find online, and the family feels overwhelmed and doesn’t buy in, even if the first situation was solved

The solution is surprisingly simple. Just like a doctor wouldn’t make a diagnosis without running tests, you shouldn’t spend lots and lots of money based on guesses and hunches. Sure, small implementations and low-cost items can sometimes fix the situation. Why wouldn’t you do that? But anything beyond that, you should consider getting real hard data, which is surprisingly inexpensive to obtain these days.

Kaci is a great example of this. For Kaci, it wasn’t as clear cut. She and her husband bought a semi-custom home after a severe mold experience. Her health deteriorated from the mold, causing dizziness, nausea, and headaches, with months of testing with different practitioners before feeling better. They were looking forward to a fresh start, especially after their costly mold remediation. Within a few months of moving in, she noticed minor symptoms, and as they worsened, she realized they were in certain areas of the home. It was all getting too much for her. Her husband, who has always been supportive, just wanted her to get better. They didn’t know the root causes and weren’t willing to cut any corners in finding out. I originally believed it was a few different things, and even though we could have addressed them, there could have been other things, and really, we were guessing. So unlike Alana, we identified the data we needed to obtain and used very inexpensive meters to discover exactly what was affecting her. She felt relieved to have hard data to show other people that she wasn’t crazy, and it also validated her symptoms. While her husband was supportive and on board with anything needed, he felt better investing in fixes that were clearly issues, based on the data. It was so exciting to see them come together around fixing a problem that not only did they both believe was real, but that they could now see was real.

So, what I want you to know is that while simple individual solutions are sometimes obvious, as they were with Alana, in other situations, like Kaci, there could be multiple options or factors. That’s why I always suggest that you lead with data-driven decisions.

3. They’re terrified and filled with dread walking around their house with their meters

The next issue I see is that you’re constantly walking around the house, hearing your meter screech, watching the numbers, and thinking there are bad readings everywhere, in addition to the other areas you know that need to be addressed. The whole feeling is overwhelming because you know these things have affected you in the past, and you’re worried which straw will be the next to break your camel’s back. Now you’re having nightmares about you and your family getting sick.

The solution is to embrace the fact that you can’t fix everything, but you can fix things one at a time. If you go to your spouse and say, “Honey, we need to fix these hundred things right now,” the only thing you can guarantee is that you won’t get buy-in to fix any of them. Secondly, there’s always something you can fix. So you have to develop a rule system for where the line is, then do one thing at a time: evaluate, calibrate, and then move on.

Melissa is a perfect example of this. See, she had, over the years, had a pretty significant chronic condition that prevented her from working. As she got better, she went back to work as a consultant but started to notice she was getting completely drained at work and exhausted at home, and it was all getting too much for her. Her husband has always been very, very supportive and wanted to help, but didn’t know what he could do. Once we collected all the data in their home, it validated the hotspots and other factors affecting her, giving them relief knowing they had solid answers. However, the data also revealed a hotspot in their crawl space that would have been missed without the meter. The data also revealed a few of the sources and areas were not as serious as we anticipated they would be. Armed with solid data, she and her husband quickly prioritized the key areas to address, and since he was part of the decision-making, he was fully on board with the changes. Within a week she wasn’t getting as drained at work or at home, and her husband’s sleep tracker showed his sleep improved and he benefited from the changes! Because she felt so much better after the changes she had made and had the data points, she and her husband both felt good about holding off on addressing the other items, knowing from the data that they had prioritized and addressed the most imortant issues.

Now that you know how to use meters and interpret the data, you won’t get terrified by the results and can quickly create a triage plan. That way, you can make decisions based on facts that reflect your unique environment, not assumptions. If you do this, you’ll significantly increase your chances of success.

You can stop letting toxins make you crazy!

Here’s a quick recap of what you’ve learned: First, there’s usually some obvious culprits, and you should focus on fixing those first instead of spending a whole bunch of money, if there aren’t some obvious culprits, then identify the data you need and spend some money on some meters, and lastly, now that you know how to interpret the data and use the meters to don’t get terrified and create a triage plan. 

If you’d like a little bit of free guidance on how to hit the ground running to get rid of these things with customized advice and steps you can take immediately, then feel free to connect with me by clicking the Let’s Connect button below.