Mental Wellness & Our Guts

The Brain/Gut Connection

Mental wellness & our guts: they’re super connected. Our bodies are amazing; we already know that if we’ve gone through pregnancy and childbirth. But, what you might not know is how interconnected our mental wellness is with our guts.

For years, the scientific community has been studying this connection. The microbiome (collection of bacteria in our intestines) is majorly responsible for our overall health and wellbeing. I’ve heard gastroenterologists say for years “GI is pretty close to Psych.”

In our guts, we have good and bad bacteria, and we generally feel like shit when we have more bad bacteria in our system. This is true for our mental health too. The good bacteria in our guts is actually responsible for producing a lot of the “feel good” hormones we need to stay balanced.

How I got into this.

It’s fascinating really. Anyway, enough will all the scientific bs. Here’s my story and how I wound up becoming OBSESSED with this whole gut/brain connection thing.

After I had my daughter, I suffered from severe postpartum anxiety. Most of you already know this if you’ve read this blog before. It hit me like a freaking wrecking ball. I had a fairly smooth pregnancy (other than becoming huge because I was carrying around an almost 10lb baby). When she was ready, we had a scheduled c-section at 39 weeks. Everything went smoothly.

I had a great recovery. Until, I didn’t sleep for 2 weeks straight, started hallucinating, forgot to eat or drink anything for days on end, etc. Shit got real…real quick. Luckily, I was put on medication immediately, and I began therapy to learn coping strategies. I was in total survival mode.

Fast forward 8 months.

When I stopped pumping, I had no idea that my body would incur another hormonal shift that would again throw me for a loop. My GI tract went crazy. I was literally shitting my pants and vomiting uncontrollably out of nowhere. Fun stuff, right?

I saw a gastroenterologist and had to go through some testing to determine I was perfectly fine. That’s when they told me 90-95% of our serotonin receptors are located in our guts. Wow, that’s good news (I mean, at least I didn’t have something serious wrong), so we focused on medication management.

Then came the fever.

I developed a low-grade fever out of nowhere. For about 6 months now, my temperature is usually between 99.5-101. Not totally bothersome, but just kinda makes you feel yuck. This is called a psychogenic fever. I’m still having random bowel issues, which usually correlates with stress. My brain is so freaking foggy from all the meds, I’m not sure if I even know where I’m at half the time.

Basically, I’m stuck in a rut, and I’ve been here for a while. I’ve finally had enough, and I started searching for hours. Thankfully, I was introduced to a holistic wellness company that uses products specifically formulated to boost the gut/brain connection that is oh so important.

I’m just beginning this journey, so I don’t have any first-hand experience to give you from me, but from all my research and reading testimonials, I’m confident that these products are going to get me on the road to being a better version of Cassie.

Take charge of your mental wellness.

If you can relate to any of my experiences or if you’re just curious about mental wellness overall. I recommend taking this short assessment (don’t worry, it’s FREE) to help gauge your mental wellness.

Now, more than ever, we know how important mental health is to our physical health. Our mental wellness and our guts need to be in sync. We have the power to live better and be better. This is the time to focus on what you need to do to become the best version of yourself.