in the sun . Journaling . Swimming in the ocean . What else was there ? Obviously , no caffeine - I cut out caffeine . Meditation and massage .
And you also felt supported by the psychologist ?
Yeah . So the psychologist didn ' t tell me to get into the ocean , but the psychologist told me to meditate . The psychologist told me to do things that relaxed me , that distracted me , that fulfilled me . But I guess the naturopath gave me the most comprehensive list of practical support .
You said there were teas initially for insomnia and then a herbal tincture . What about for anxiety ? Did your naturopath treat your anxiety ?
The insomnia treatment was mainly teas , and then magnesium . And I think , it was chamomile , then a special sleep tea that had passionflower in it , and then valerian . And when I was talking to her about anxiety and I wasn ' t pregnant , she made me a tincture .
So you were able to take that when you weren ' t pregnant , but then you did become pregnant . Apart from the lifestyle advice , is there anything else that your naturopath has prescribed to manage your anxiety ?
Now that I ’ m pregnant again , I haven ' t needed that support . So I ’ ve been taking a lot of probiotics , prebiotics , fish oils , etc . for general well-being . But I wouldn ' t say any of it is specifically targeted at mental health .
Now looking back on it , do you feel that you were well supported by that combination of health professionals ? You needed all three ?
My care was so supportive . At the time , some of my personal support network work were not around but I really needed to speak to someone . I needed to speak to a health professional basically every day or every second day when it was really bad . And I did feel pretty supported . I can email my naturopath and she will get back to me without charge . And I get just as much advice , she doesn ' t wait for the appointment , which is really , really great . And so often , if I need something urgently out of appointment time , she ' ll get that , like the tincture wasn ' t made after an appointment . It was made after our email exchange . I ' ll get it sent to a shop to buy it . That ’ s a pretty special level of care , I ' d say .
You had to manage all this yourself - as you say , each of your practitioners knows about the other , but they don ' t actually speak to each other . Would there be any advantage for you if they did ?
I guess it felt like people were looking out for me . I would have loved it to all be taken out of my hands because I was so unwell . It was pretty difficult and intense to need to reach out all the time . I was desperate for care and desperate to speak to people and desperate to be reassured . Potentially , if they all spoke to each other , it could have been a comprehensive plan they came up with to help me the best , as opposed to me piecing it all together , so that might have been beneficial . You know that a holistic plan would have been quite nice , but I was just grabbing whatever I could get because I was so desperate .
Are there any other comments you want to make ?
I guess our focus is on the naturopathic approaches . The natural medicine approaches to mental health . I would be interested to know if there were naturopaths who specialise in mental health issues . My naturopath very much specialises in women ' s fertility . That ' s a specialty . That ' s why I went to see her for initially . So , for example , when I had a diagnosis of gestational diabetes she was all over that .
She ’ s been very good at caring for both my children . I wonder if there ' s a naturopath who specialises in helping with mental health . I would be interested to know what extra support I could have got if the naturopath had a huge wealth of experience in dealing with people with acute anxiety . I certainly got sufficient help . But I ' d be interested to know what the possibilities were with someone who had lots more experience because she was very upfront , and told me she didn ’ t have that much experience with acute anxiety . I would have been good to know how to find a naturopath who specialised in acute anxiety .
Like a website that you could look up ?
Yeah . It was expensive seeing all three practitioners , but at that point , because it was so bad , I was just throwing anything at it . I didn ' t care . I was having to see my psychologist and GP multiple times a week . It was costing me $ 1,000 a week sometimes just to get through those real crisis periods , you know . If you couldn ’ t get any support , and then you turn up at hospital and they turn you away ... I was very lucky to have those ongoing relationships . The demand for mental health practitioners , psychologists , is really long . During COVID when my main psychologist went on maternity leave , I was on a waiting list for 8 or 9 months before they called me . You can go to a pretty bad place in 8 or 9 months without psychological support .
What about now ? How often do you see your practitioners ?
I probably see my psychologist ( or I would like to , but I can ' t really afford to ) the most , so ideally , I ' d see my psychologist every week . But I can ' t afford it and you only get 10 subsidised sessions now . I had used all mine up by April , so its $ 220 a session . I see her fortnightly at the moment but I ' m probably going to have to drop that back . I see the GP . I saw her quite a bit during early pregnancy , but I wouldn ' t have seen her if it hadn ' t been for that . And then the naturopath - I think I see her every 2 or 3 months . And then , as my pregnancy progresses , I ' m going to see her more frequently . She ' s very , very popular and she books out well in advance . It ’ s costly as there ' s no Medicare subsidy for seeing a naturopath .
The transcript of this interview is published with the kind permission of the client .
208 | vol29 | no4 | JATMS