Mindset

Back in high school, I was a model student. Perfect grades, honors courses, gave a speech at graduation—you know the drill. I liked it when I did a good job at assignments, and when teachers liked me. To continue being a good student, I learned the “rules” of school (not just the dos and don’ts, […]

It seriously pisses me off sometimes how awful the gut health blogosphere is. On the one hand, you have all the pharmaceutical shills with their fancy websites trying to keep you tied onto the conventional medicine train tracks, and on the other hand you have a bunch of people who are blogging to let off […]

The Teaching Tales of Milton Erickson are absolutely fascinating — a testament to the power of our own minds in both the beginning and end of our physical troubles. Erickson was a hypnotist (and somehow I don’t have a problem with that) who used his powers for good, in psychotherapy. His stories are incredibly motivating, […]

A few years ago, I gave up on finding a cure for Crohn’s. I distinctly remember the conversation I had with a friend. We ate at Little Big Burger, where she had a cheeseburger and crispy fries drizzled with truffle oil…and I had a plain burger on a lettuce wrap. I was jealous of her […]

Every since yesterday, I’ve been thinking about the psychological underpinnings of diarrheic urgency. Why is it that I can play chicken with myself all day, but not feel that gotta go gotta go gotta go feeling until I am literally unlocking my door? How is it that most of the time (with a few legitimate exceptions) […]

Mike Massimino became an astronaut, but only after applying an extensive amount of work. And over the course of several years, he applied twice to become a NASA astronaut and both times was rejected in the first rounds. A few years later, he tried again, finally getting an interview. But the interview included a medical exam, […]

Yesterday I sat down with a friend of my mom’s and talked about living with a gut disease. She has Crohn’s, her daughter has Ulcerative Colitis, and like many people she’s stuck in the middle of “regular” doctors and all of the weirdo alternative stuff. And like many of us, she knew what her next […]

I completely melted down in my naturopath’s office this week. Tears, about 500 tissues, profuse apologizing, all of it. I couldn’t even explain why I was such a mess. Usually I hold it together. This week? Not so much. It’s the skin issues–they always get down, every single time. My Crohn’s, when it’s acting up, is […]

You know that itch you get to rearrange your furniture at 9 o’clock at night? When you have this vision of how–let’s say your bed–can better fit your space. How it, if you’d only just rearrange a teeny little bit, would give you better sleep and more rest and everything you’ve ever dreamed of. The […]