Mold Symptoms: Not Just in Your Head
So many struggling lives enter our doors, searching for answers to chronic mental health problems after having been told it was just all in their heads. Many other providers have advised them to accept lifelong medication and lifelong symptoms. Some of them have heard from therapists and counselors that they just had to get over it. Then we discovered that mold toxicity lay under the layers of anxiety, depression, obsessions, compulsions, insomnia, panic attacks, and other neuropsychiatric complaints. Many cry at the freedom, freedom from being blamed for or imprisoned by a diagnosis of “It’s all in your head.”
Not Just in Your Head
Okay, while the problem isn’t ‘all in your head,’ something really is in too many brains: mold toxins. So many dismiss mold as being everywhere. They say, “They’re everywhere, so they can’t be the problem.” Or they limit it to ‘black mold’ and advise bleach. Most people do not have significant effects from mold toxins. ‘Most,’ however, does not mean ‘all.’
Probably 1-in-4 or 1-in-5, regardless of ethnicity, has to deal with symptoms. The more commonly accepted effects include respiratory symptoms like asthma and sinus allergies. For our patients, their symptoms go beyond the commonly accepted: fatigue, chronic pain, brain fog, more. For many, the symptoms manifest as mood disorders like anxiety, depression, obsessions, compulsions, insomnia, and panic attacks. Since so many in mainstream medicine do not recognize mold toxins as affecting mental health, these sufferers go through years of medications with marginal benefit, until they finally look beyond the conventional doctor’s advice.
Why’s, What’s, and How’s
Once diagnosed, patients want to understand the What and Why of mold toxicity, and we provide that understanding. We first explain that molds do live all around us, both inside and outside. We then explain that not all of these molds are problematic. Some, especially the outdoor molds, just trigger allergies or send toxins off into the wind, of no concern to anybody. On the other hand, some molds that grow on water damaged building materials can produce chemicals that harm us. If enough of these toxic molds grow and produce enough toxins in a building with inadequate ventilation, they can start affecting people. Even then, many individuals are genetically gifted with detox systems and experience little to no effects from this inside exposure. But for those whose detox systems are a little weaker, the symptoms can start to pile up.
These toxins unknowingly trapped in your home or workplace float through the air, just like other volatile organic compounds. While they are actually produced by the molds to kill off mold and bacteria competing for the same resources, their ability to float off into the air like perfume means we start breathing them in. Thus, though sloppy clean-up can result in touch-absorption, they usually come in through our lungs, breathed in and passed on to the blood stream. From the blood stream, they can generally pass into the rest of our bodies, as most are fat-soluble.
Inside the Cells
Once in the cells and tissues, they hurt is in all sorts of ways, depending on their particular chemical properties and where they land. One of the most common and most impactful mechanisms of harm works through the immune system. The mold toxins can kick our immune system into chronic activation, producing chronic inflammation in the sufferer. This chronic inflammation causes many other symptoms, including mental health problems. Different areas of the brain can bet inflamed, producing different neurologic and psychiatric symptoms.
To overcome these mold toxic effects your brain and life, at the very least you have to escape from the mold exposure. For a few, this escape leads to an impressive recovery and release from the grip of their mental illness in weeks to months. For others, the symptoms linger until they get help removing the remaining toxins from their bodies and turning off the inflammation. Often, these are the ones that come to us looking for a different answer than “It’s all in your head.” We tell them, “It may be in your head, but it’s mold toxins, and we can get them out, so that you can get better.”
Help and Hope
If you are struggling with mental health issues and wonder if mold might be behind your illness, read further on our website or consider the links below describing research linking mold to neurologic and psychiatric illness. We want to help you live a healthier, more abundant life by identifying the root causes of your mental health symptoms and treating them correctly.
Other Articles of Interest:
Our Mold Focused Site:
Citations:
Article in Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/holistic-psychiatry/201708/mold-toxicity-common-cause-psychiatric-symptoms
Empting, L D. “Neurologic and neuropsychiatric syndrome features of mold and mycotoxin exposure.” Toxicology and industrial health vol. 25,9-10 (2009): 577-81. doi:10.1177/0748233709348393
Hyvönen, S., et al. (2020). “Moist and Mold Exposure is Associated With High Prevalence of Neurological Symptoms and MCS in a Finnish Hospital Workers Cohort.” Safety and Health at Work 11(2): 173-177.
Potera, Carol. “Molding a link to depression.” Environmental health perspectives vol. 115,11 (2007): A536. doi:10.1289/ehp.115-a536a
Ratnaseelan, Aarane M et al. “Effects of Mycotoxins on Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Immune Processes.” Clinical therapeutics vol. 40,6 (2018): 903-917. doi:10.1016/j.clinthera.2018.05.004
Shenassa, Edmond D et al. “Dampness and mold in the home and depression: an examination of mold-related illness and perceived control of one’s home as possible depression pathways.” American journal of public health vol. 97,10 (2007): 1893-9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2006.093773
Disclaimer: These and other articles on our website are intended for educational purposes only. They do not constitute a patient-provider relationship and should not replace your current medical provider’s guidance. You are responsible for your healthcare decisions in collaboration with a trusted provider.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Dr. Eric Potter graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and then went on to specialize in internal medicine (adult) and pediatric care, spending significant time and effort in growing his medical understanding while caring for patients from all walks of life.
