I tend to shy away from testimonials, not that I don't find them meaningful. It's just that they are not scientific and being in academia for over 30 years, I consider reports complete with empirical data published in peer reviewed journals to be the most valid. However, when something works well, I am more than happy to pass it along to my friends; Ok, I found one - it's called MindWorks. First allow me to confessthat I am the Queen of ADD and have been all my life.
Where are my books? Shoes? Glasses? Sit still. After a while one learns to live with it and exchanges the label "ADD" with "multitasking" to save face. The fact that my students call me "Professor" still is a mystery to some - including me at times. When Shaklee announced the new MindWorks I was thinking, "Ok perhaps it will help my failing memory, make me young again, and allow me to wear my 3 inch heels." Putting humor aside, I can tell you memory loss was really starting to bother me. I was pushing 60 and expecting some loss of cognition, but I also knew I was dealing with issues far beyond that - and it frightened me. You see, from age 46 to 56 I had lived in an extremely stressful state. I had the usual stress that came from getting a divorce, losing home, income, dealing with a hormonal teen, caring for aging sick parents, dying friends, etc. All came to a screeching halt however when my only child, my son, was almost killed in a car accident 4 years ago. He was on life support for a week, 27 broken bones and having the nurse tell us they didn't know what his 'new normal' would look like. My world stopped and I could not breathe.
After 3 weeks of hospital vigilance we saw he would live and I found myself back in the classroom standing in front of my students who were waiting for the lecture de jour. Only one problem - I didn't know where I was or what I was supposed to be doing. I found myself frozen as a deer caught in the headlights first day back. I knew I was in class, but that was about it. Lucky for me, my lectures were posted online so I pulled it up and hoped I was on point. It was scary. My therapist told me afterwards it was classic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that it would take time for my memory to come back. Great.
Long story short: The first day of taking MindWorks I felt a gentle mental awakening with more clarity but i wasn't really paying too much attention to results. Then one day, the same week, in class I found myself on the other side of the room - totally engaged in the subject realizing I had just taught 30 minutes without looking at my notes! Next day - same thing! Whoot whoot!!! Later the next week I found myself working well into the afternoon and actually making sense which had become a rarity past 4PM. Energy - clarity - focus! The results were enough to make me a believer!!
But what I noticed next came a treasure surprise. You see, along with all the stress of those hard years came a certain level of clinical depression. My doctors told me that one cannot sustain those levels of stress without having the pool of 'feel good' brain chemicals bottom out. To remedy it I was given the usual round of Rx's but they didn't help: Prozac turned me into a zombie and Wellbutrin made me a raging lunatic - according to my son. Nope, I settled on St. John's Wort much to the chagrin of my MD as she said it would never get my brain chemistry back to the high levels needed to feel joyful again. It helps, a little, but I had resigned myself to the fact that I may never have those light peace-filled feelings again. Well this past week i have noticed a joyful bliss creeping back into my mornings. One morning after a calm read the joy fairy just kind of settled in and a tear of gratitude rolled down my face. Yes, there was a way out of the brain dead pit - and it seems to be called MindWorks. At least it was for me. So there you go my friends: my testimonial. I am sleeping better too. My retention of facts and focus keeps getting better. I am tickled pink to get my brain back!!
-Susan H
No comments:
Post a Comment