Case Study: Change Your Environment – Change Your Health

Back in the fall, a patient of mine who is in their late high school years came in for a treatment (please note they and their parent gave me permission to tell their story). She were not in a good space. School had become an extremely toxic environment, normal outlets like sports had lost all their fun, and friends had turned on her for reasons that can be simplified as “jealousy”. She was being bullied. This patient and I had a decent relationship that dated back about a year and we’d had many treatments before that had produced solid results. I also had a good relationship with the family.

This particular treatment felt different. This wasn’t the same person on my table. She was obviously depressed and was working with a primary doctor and the school counselor to fix it. We talked about her situation and I performed some cupping and acupuncture to move energy and loosen her nervous system. She said she felt a bit better after treatment, but visually she still looked very depressed. With permission, the patient, the mom, and I discussed some possible options. We put her on Vitamin D3 and recommended she see a therapist. I also recommended that she find a job to change her surrounding environment. I said that she may feel this way until she got out of the toxic environments, especially high school.

Fast forward two months and she came back in for a tune up. She and her parents worked with the school counselor to move though graduation and get out of high school (I do not know all the details). She is now taking classes at the local college and loved some of the people she had met. She got a new job, and was thankful to be surrounded by such nice people. She felt normal again, bubbly, funny, and smiling. Her back did hurt from the physicality of the new job, but mentally she was in a great space.

My patient told me a quote that was helping: “You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people you surround yourself with.” Humans are a reflection of their environment and their environment is a reflection of the human. Sometimes, one overpowers the other. In this case, my patient spiralled because of toxic environments. It’s tough to be happy when the only people who talk to you are jealous and throwing shade. 

If you’re reading this, do you have toxic people in your life? Can you get them out? Do you work in a toxic environment? Yes, sometimes it’s really difficult to make large changes, but sometimes it’s easier than you think. Not every answer comes in the form of a supplement or a treatment. If you take a bath in soda every day, you’ll never get clean. Take stock of what and who’s around you, you may need a healthier environment.