Stories of Transformation - Farideh

Summary

Starting with chronic back pain as a child and anxiety/depression from age 12 (on medication by 21 for anxiety disorder, family history of it being genetic), this person also developed gluten allergies and multiple physical discomforts that ramped up over time. When symptoms weren't getting attention, body gained 20 pounds that wouldn't come off despite daily exercise, then gained 40 pounds during a cleanse in a short time, reaching a point where they couldn't keep hurting their body for "doing the wrong thing" and moved into self-love practice for about 7 years. When they found Dr. Joe's work, they had accepted their life and were happy with themselves but felt hopeless, lived with other conditions but the weight really upset them. After 3-4 months of meditating on it, had an intuitive thought that their anxiety disorder was healed and took themselves off medication (Effexor, which has strong withdrawal symptoms)—not recommended but they knew they were managing well, had tried before and wanted to die in 24 hours, but this time 24 hours later they were fine with no withdrawal. A year later, they use meditation "like medication" (on bad days "it's a double-dose kind of day"), and when they got busy and reduced meditation 3 months after stopping meds, realized they "cannot miss a day"—viewing this as a gift since for people with depression/anxiety, missing meditation isn't an option. They note that with anxiety/depression you can easily make yourself feel terrible but don't practice feeling good or have neural pathways for it, requiring dedicated time that actually makes the rest of life feel better and gives more energy. Now happier than when on medication, lost 30 pounds (the "invisible weight" they carried was lifted), and experimenting with eating gluten again (donuts), with chronic back pain and remaining weight still to address in future testimonials.