Women’s stories
“Menopause, metabolism, thyroid, adrenals — I was at the lowest point
I could get.”
Rhonda was “alone in the desert” of menopause as she bore the responsibilities
of both an only child and a single parent. Caring for her mom through a terminal
illness, then cushioning the blow for her father in his ensuing grief and illness
— all the while maintaining stability with her own only daughter, who has
a bipolar disorder — had led Rhonda down a path of loneliness and despair.
Her broken health and spirit failed to rebound until age 53, when she found the
Personal Program.
“I must have been going through perimenopause three or four years when we
ran into y’all. I went through four years of hell. And I don’t think
we fully understand what’s going on, in perimenopause, because it’s
such a gradual process.
“And maybe I was already in menopause but didn’t know it, because I’d
been on the Pill. The minute I stopped the Pill, which was exactly four years ago
in January, I never had a period after that. And then I knew I was in menopause.
Just stopped. Scared the daylights out of me. Because I’d just been in a relationship,
and it just stopped. So I had to go out and get a pregnancy test. It was negative,
thank heavens, but that really scared me.
“Now my symptoms weren’t bad, as far as
hot flashes — very little — but the emotional piece —
the depression, just not feeling like myself, not wanting to do anything, not wanting
to clean house — was there, which made it hard.
Depression is the thing I really dealt with the most going through menopause.
“I’m not on antidepressants — never have been. I’m into
trying natural things before going to the doctors. That’s just how I am. There
was nothing I was taking from the doctor. I didn’t want to get on hormones
from the doctor, either, because I’d had a lump removed when I was 20. So
I haven’t changed any medications. The only thing I’ve done differently
is this program. That’s it.
“My cousin was on internet to look up thyroid health, and that’s it,
y’all popped up. It’s a godsend, because I’d been praying. I’m
telling you, there’s something goin’ on there. I’ve been on the
program 2–1/2 months now, and within three days I felt a difference. But I
think because I was feeling just so bad, it made a really big difference. Immediately.
And I know that it probably seems crazy, but in my eyes, that was an intervention
from above.
“The first thing I felt was that the depression started going away. I had
some depression that was bad. It started with less depression, and then
it slowly began to evolve into wanting to… wanting to live. Menopause is
a funny thing. We have the periods, we have the babies, and then we get hit with
menopause.
“I had anxiety, nervousness,
couldn’t sleep, didn’t
want to clean house, didn’t even want to get up out of the chair... I didn’t
even want to take a bath. I mean, I’m telling you, it was bad. I’m
thinking, I’m living in a filthy dirty house, I can’t even take a bath,
and I’m depressed. But I can eat — that never went away!
“So when my cousin found you, I was in a bad funk. She pulled up every article
on your site, and when I started reading about menopause, I realized the other things
that menopause affects, like your thyroid. I said, ‘I have to call these people.’
I think some of my problem was menopause, part of it was my metabolism, part of
it my thyroid, maybe my adrenals, too. I have a lot of stress in my life. I said
to myself, Let me give this program a month or two to see if it doesn’t help.
“I’ve also been sick, ‘coz my mom died four years ago and I took
care of her for months, every day, and had to help her change nursing homes and
then hospitals. I’m an only child, and it was a really, really hard time for
me. She took a real toll on me, and I just didn’t get my health back for a
long, long time. I’m not going to tell you I wanted to kill myself, but I
was just at the lowest point I could get. The only way I could go was up. Once I
started on this program, slowly but surely, strength coming back, the will to live.
“This has put me on a path of not only physical healing, but spiritual healing.
I started cleaning out the house, and getting rid of people in my life, too, that
I do not need around me. Hope has come back, dreams, a zest for life. I’ve
had a very, very big spiritual awakening — I mean a big spiritual
awakening. What I need has been put in front of me, for health, exercise, spirituality,
deliverance. Since I started on this stuff, it has been unreal. It’s like
an opening of everything — spiritually, physically, everything has started
to come together. To build a stronger woman, I just don’t know how else to
put it. It’s just what I want to hear. The spiritual realm has opened up big
time.
“I’ve started laughing again, too. I hadn’t laughed in —
oh, my goodness — four years. Just laughing at stuff. I think the letting
go has maybe helped with the physical healing. I was in a bad place. I hadn’t
cleaned my house for six months, it was so bad. Then in December, it took me a week,
but I cleaned the house. And it has stayed clean ever since. I mean, I wasn’t
even cooking, but now the health food store over here knows me. I do live alone,
so that’s a part of my problem. A part of my problem is loneliness. But slowly,
the depression went away, the anxiety went away. I still have trouble with the sleep,
but I think that’s just going to take time.
“I am starting to have dreams again, though. Dreams of life. Dreams for me.
Hopes and inspirations. I guess some might call that selfish. But instead of Oh
me, poor me, I’m going through this, why am I going through that,
there has been an uplift. To start to rebuild my physical body. It’s given
me courage. I’m telling you, girl, I was in bad shape in every aspect. You
can focus again. You get on this stuff, and it’s like — I couldn’t
see straight before — I couldn’t see straight, and then all of a sudden,
you can see straight, you can focus, your
mind is clearer. Everything just slowly started to go away. And it’s
replaced with clarity.
“I was alone in the desert, honeybun. There was no light at the end of the
tunnel. None. After starting on this program, I wanted to live again. Thank you,
baby!”
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Last Modified:
08/17/2009