"The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor."
–Sir W. Temple

"I have created you and cared for you since before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime - until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you."
–Isaiah 46:3,4

Past Questions of the Month:

Hope and Assurance

This website was created for those acquainted with mental illness and in need of hope and assurance.

Question of the Month

If you have a question that you would like addressed, or have comments or suggestions, please let me hear from you. Contact: carolyn@hopeandassurance.com

I am tired all the time. I feel like I am just pushing myself. I can barely do what is required at work. My body hurts all over, especially the joints.  My doctor’s not offering much help other than meds for depression and agreeing that I probably have fibromyalgia.  Do you know of anything that might help?

It never ceases to amaze me how God uses our experiences to reach out to someone else. What we go through is never just about us.  It may also be about a friend or family member or someone we don’t even know. God’s purposes are much bigger than you and I can ever understand.

So, in answer to your question, I have had very similar experiences to yours and I am grateful to say that I have found help for them. I want to answer your question over more than one month.  There is a lot to tell and it is all so good that I do not want to leave anything out that may benefit you and others.

What you shared with me in your email indicates that your life, like many others, has had its generous share of hurts, pain, and unmet needs; and thus, a great deal of stress, fear and anxiety over the years. Enormous damage can take place in the body when our mind reels from the onslaught of broken or strained relationships, job loss, financial pressures, rejection or death of a loved one.  We may spend years struggling to come to terms with what is left and how we will live. Even without these major life events, daily life in our world today puts us at risk for symptoms of high stress. We can expect too much from ourselves in everything we do. Pushing, pushing, pushing, doing, doing, doing, more, more, more, eventually takes its costly toll.

Four years ago in August, I told my doctor, with tears in my eyes, that I could no longer do what was expected of me at school as a special education teacher. Everything in me screamed, “No! No! I cannot physically do this again!”  My strength was gone.  I could no longer push. Fatigue was not relieved by sleep, food or vitamins. Even the caffeine from coffee and several 20oz. cokes a day lost the ability to keep me going. I soothed myself with butter pecan ice cream and chocolate; but, the comfort wore off as soon as the package was empty.

Only rarely did I have the energy to cook a meal.  Most often, I grabbed whatever was quick and handy to eat. That meant chips, cookies and nuts were staples. Along with coke, I drank sweet iced tea by the homemade gallon. Although I desired to eat more nutritious foods, I couldn’t make it happen. What I was doing felt like all I could do.

A couple weeks later, I went to pay a bill at the doctor’s office. The receptionist asked if I’d like to do a saliva test.  She explained that my doctor thought I’d benefit from what she had learned at a recent conference.  I had no idea what she was talking about or what a saliva test could measure.

I found out that the saliva test takes samples of saliva at four different times of the day.  It can measure the levels of hormones such as cortisol, estrogen and progesterone throughout the day.  (Cortisol and cortisone have nothing in common with each other. This was one of the first questions I asked.)

Unknown to me, she offered me the opportunity to experience the help offered through Bio Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy.  I learned that my adrenal glands, which respond to stress, were overworked and fatigued. They had basically stopped producing the hormone cortisol.  When adrenaline is released in response to a real or perceived stress, cortisol is also released.  It changes protein to energy and releases our stored sugars. By doing this, our bodies can respond quickly and surely under danger. The same resources (such as progesterone) the adrenal glands use to make and build up cortisol are used to make other hormones like estrogen.  So when the ability to make cortisol is depleted, the resources for making other hormones are also gone.

Because everything is designed by our Maker to work intricately together in our body for our good, chronic unresolved stress and the resulting loss of cortisol set up a domino affect throughout my body. For me, this led to the beginning of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, insomnia, tender and hurting muscles and joints, thyroid problems and the danger of diabetes. The delicate balances between hormones had become dangerously skewed.

There was much for me to do in making my recovery successful.  Next month, I want to share with you about the changes I’ve gladly made, with God’s intervention and strength, to help myself heal.