Would you ever take anti anxiety medication?

[MentalGiant]

And I do not have to wear an ostomy bag for the rest of my life because pharmaceutical drugs and the fucktards who called themselves 'doctors' failed to bring my condition under control while creating unbearable side effects in the process. Naturopathic medicine put my condition into long term remission without surgery. I do not really give a flying fuck whether it was the tinctures of some herbs and roots with 0 side effects or the placebo effect. At the end of the day, I did not have to have life altering surgery in the name of refusing something that wasn't backed by "double blind studies" and governmental bureaucracy.

I sincerely hope you are never faced with a situation where pharmaceutical drugs fail to help you since you are unwilling to open your mind to other options that have never undergone "properly controlled double blind studies"".

Tell us your condition and give us the names of the natural remedies and then let us judge for ourselves.

From the onset of symptoms, it took nearly a year to receive a referral to and be seen by a gastroenterologist. In that time, I was seen by 6 doctors, kept being given pregnancy tests despite never being pregnant, given prescription after prescription and all kinds of OTC suggests ranging from anti-nausea/diarrhea medicines that barely touched my symptoms and antacids that did nothing at all to anxiety meds and at one point even a small amount of vicodin for the pain (which I reacted violently to). I went from a healthy 130lbs at 5'6 to hovering around 100. I think the worst part I got referred to a fucking psychiatrist before I was referred to a GI specialist. I was eventually referred to a specialist and given appropriate testing (a colonoscopy and endoscopy) which turned up Crohn's disease. And after about 6 months of not responding to treatments, the final straw was the side effects from prednisone and a new immunosuppressant I took twice that I reacted to by feeling like I was on fire from the inside out (azothiprine I believe it was called or something of that nature). When surgery was put on the table, I began seeking alternatives (that or to just let nature take it's course if it came to that). 

I am coming to the realization some states and other countries do not require meaningful schooling or licensing for naturopathic doctors. The state I lived in did. The NMD I saw was a state licensed physician who went to medical school, did a residency program and specialized in naturopathic care instead of some other area of medicine. He wasn't a witch doctor or a crystal healer type quack, he was an actual doctor. He was understanding of the fact I did not want to continue pharmaceutical medications. I was put on a primarily liquid diet with an emphasis on cultured and fermented foods before transitioning back to solid foods again, in which I was gradually able to add back foods I had previously been unable to eat because the exacerbated the symptoms. I was also put on vitamin injections for a while since I was not properly absorbing oral vitamins and was severely deficient. I was given specific pre and probiotics along with digestive enzymes. I also took over about a years period (not all at the same time) several herbal extracts and tinctures to treat specific issues (some of the ones I remember were astragalus, allicin, kava, valerian, licorice, slippery elm, aloe vera and I'm probably forgetting a couple others). It took several weeks to begin to notice anything happening positively, though unlike with pharmaceuticals I was not having an increase in symptoms nor the unbearable side effects. It took several months to really begin noticing a significant reduction in symptoms. It took about a year for my digestion to return to normal and to gain back some of the weight I lost. I have been symptom free for about 7 years now. I currently only take B12 and vitamin D supplements, as I am a vegan and I live in a rainy climate where I don't get as much sun as I used to, but those are completely unrelated to the Crohns. I have not taken so much as a tylenol in the way of conventional medicine since the reaction to the immunosuppressant.  I am in 'perfect' health now, rarely get sick and no longer experience any digestive symptoms. I have never gained back all the weight I lost and my teeth were damaged from the vomiting.

I have actually heard in the time since I was diagnosed, conventional medicine is really beginning to recognize the importance of gut flora in digestive health. Restoring the balance of my gut flora was certainly the strongest focus of the treatment I was receiving under the care of the naturopath and my personal opinion, the biggest reason I was able to heal and remain symptom free for so long (and I still at many cultured, fermented and enzyme rich foods to this day, I just no longer supplement). There does seem to be a bit of a shift in allopathic medicine in recent years to actually start taking note of some aspects of naturopathic care because of the overwhelming amounts of positive 'anecdotal' reports.