Mike used the Dynamic Neural Retraining System to recover from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Electric Hypersensitivity Syndrome.
Mike first began to notice symptoms associated with limbic system impairment just over two years ago. “My challenges started with a chemical exposure in late 2016, and then symptoms developed over the course of 2017.”
It was shortly after Mike’s symptoms began to develop that he found the DNRS program through an online search. “I feel very grateful, however, that I found DNRS relatively early in the process… I was doing a random Google search and stumbled across the blog of some guy in Arizona who had gotten better with DNRS – it was the first I had heard of a possible solution to the challenges I had been experiencing and was a tremendous moment of hope in my life!”
Mike describes feeling 90% improved by the 6-month point, however he chose to continue to extend his practice for the next two years, and experienced even deeper benefits.
Mike shared his experience in our Global Community Forum. Below are excerpts from his post and the tips and wisdom he suggests to help others achieve similar fundamental improvements in quality of life.
Hello everyone!
After two years of my DNRS practice and the wonder of experiencing a full recovery I recently decided to ramp down from my full practice schedule to more of what I consider a daily wellness plan.
As part of that transition I thought it might be useful and interesting to put together a final post to summarize my experience with DNRS.
Introduction
After first finding the program and reading more success stories, I went to the DNRS site and read up on the program at the source.
The idea that I was dealing with a chronic stress response that needed to be ramped down made sense – because from that perspective the hyper-environmental awareness that came with the avoidance mentality could be seen (correctly) as giving sugar to a diabetic. Not only was it not helpful, but it was really the precise wrong thing to be doing and would probably only make things worse! And this was exactly what I had been experiencing.
In the end, I did 655 straight days of implementing the DNRS program. Then after this I ramped down to a half hour of rounds a day for the next week, and then on the following Sunday, for the first time since I started the program two years ago, I actually took a day off from the practice.
So with that said, what were the results? What did all this work get me?
Health Results
So first, the health results. And, well, the bottom line is that DNRS worked. I got better!
In fact, I consider myself 100% functionally recovered, and am back to living my normal life without any issues, fears, or constraints. And that is a beautiful, miraculous thing!
(A quick caveat to the community – in the name of full disclosure I would actually say to insiders that I am 99.5% recovered, as there are still very occasional small things that come up – but they are now so few and far between, so minor, and so easily corrected that in practice they in no way constrain my life or really even register as problems.)
So really by now those challenging times back in 2017 are nothing but a distant memory.
And now I just live my normal life, which is again a beautiful, beautiful thing.
And now I can once again devote my life energy to all the things I want to do to build a better life – improve my fitness, do creative work, travel, see family, etc. – you know, the good stuff. 🙂
Life Perspective Results
In addition to the straight-up health results detailed above, I also wanted to take a moment to discuss a wonderful unexpected benefit I have gotten from DNRS, more in the category of personal growth. Meaning, I feel that going through the program has fundamentally changed my life perspective in a positive manner. In fact, I feel in some ways the process has been like what you hear about Tommy John’s surgery for baseball pitchers, where for folks who undergo the surgery they almost come out stronger than before.
I feel this way because I feel that DNRS did not just get me back to a healthy baseline in terms of physical symptoms (although it most certainly did that) but it in fact has left me living a better life.
And that too has been a beautiful (and amazing and surprising!) gift!
So what do I mean by that specifically? I mean that doing the process of DNRS the past two years has improved my life mindset in fundamental ways. In fact, looking back to my pre-DNRS life I am sorry to say that I had a lot of fear, anger, and perfectionism in my life.
And in this process, I actually changed the way I thought. Who knew? This means that now I get frustrated and angry MUCH less. And I almost never catastrophize. And wow, is that a better way to live!
Ramp-Down Plan
So where was I at after the minimum 6 months of practice?
Looking back I would say at that point I probably felt 90% better (which was wonderful!). So I had major and meaningful cessation of symptoms, and really in broad strokes felt my life had been pulled back from the brink of things getting significantly challenging in terms of maintaining my existing job/life/etc. But I still had some reactions and fears, so I continued with my full practice regimen.
At the 1-year mark I would say I felt 95% better. And it was at this point that I had my first thoughts about possibly ramping down my practice. But in the end, despite being close to really where I wanted to be, I felt as though I wanted to run through the finish line so I continued my full practice schedule at that point as well.
Then finally this summer as I neared the 2-year mark I just really felt fine and felt it was time to move on to other projects. I went from my full-on daily hour of DNRS practice to a Monday-Saturday 1/2 hour of daily rounds. And then Sunday I just took the day off.
And it’s been wonderful! I still feel like I’m capturing the wellness benefits of my DNRS work but I also gotten a significant amount of time back for other life projects. And maybe at some point down the road I’ll ramp down further to one round a day – or none. But for now I feel perfectly happy right where I am :).
Lessons
So first, what lessons do I draw from this whole process that may be relevant to a DNRS newcomer?
My number one lesson is simple – do the work!
The best program in the world means nothing if you don’t implement it.
And that means you need to commit to doing your daily DNRS exercises, and in general fully committing to everything behind neural retraining.
It’s just like if you want to get in shape – you can get a great workout and diet plan but if you don’t actually go to the gym and don’t actually eat healthier foods nothing will change.
And the best practical mantra to actually implement this? It was something that Annie Hopper, the founder of DNRS, said – “Fit your life around your practice, don’t try to fit your practice around your life.”
And that’s exactly what I did. If you have that mindset you will succeed.
Additionally, I would suggest focusing on process over outcome. Meaning, the cessation of symptoms takes time and there are fits and starts. Personally I never had a ‘miracle moment’ where a given symptom improved all at once (good for you if you do experience this – enjoy such a moment). In fact, I never really felt any sense of progress day-to-day or even week-to-week.
It was only every few months where something would happen that made me realize I had clearly been making further improvements in the background while doing my work, even if I didn’t notice the progress on a day-by-day basis.
In the interim I stayed motivated by focusing on what I COULD control – which was doing the work. So I simply made sure to work the plan every day. Then I trusted that rewiring was happening and positive results would follow.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, it has been a heck of a ride!
I am so, so grateful for the journey of these past two years, and I hope some of my words here can maybe help or inspire the next generation. To anyone who may be reading this as they start their recovery journey I wish you so much strength, healing and joy. Reclaim your life – you can do it!
Peace and love to all,
Mike
To someone who is still suffering, Mike’s message is, “Limbic system challenges can be immensely hard. Looking back I was confused and honestly quite terrified about what might become of my life given the path I seemed to be on. So to anyone in that situation now I would send them strength, love, and the knowledge that things CAN and – if they commit to DNRS – WILL get better. DNRS is the way out. Have faith, do the work, and reclaim your life!”
