The Bumpy Road of DNRS

I'm here to tell you loud and clear that while DNRS was life-changingly amazing for me (and could very well be for you too), it was not smooth sailing. As expected.

No growth and change--much less healing--comes easy, and retraining your brain is no exception. In fact, taking time and having "ups and downs" is actually expected when it comes to retraining your brain.

Think about it: if your brain has been stuck in fight or flight mode, a limbic system impairment, cross-wired misconnections--whatever you want to call it--when you first defy those old, familiar (yet miserable) pathways, your brain is most likely going to go, "What the heck are you doing?!" That truly just makes sense. Just like the first time you try to go for a run after not running for years, or if you were to take a new road to work. Your brain will certainly pay attention and note the change, but it will also be a bit confused as to why we're doing something new or different after so long.

New symptoms

And that surprise, confusion, and unfamiliarity, in my experience, can lead to some temporary new symptoms. In my brain, it truly felt like I was preventing it from "misbehaving" in its old familiar ways, so, like the toddler that the limbic system is, it pitched some fits and found new ways to act out. These subsided as time went on.

Dips in progress

Just as no growth comes easily, including healing with DNRS, no healing is linear. Ups and downs aren't just a possible experience with healing--they are normal and understandable. You may obviously improve for a couple weeks or a month and then feel like you've gone downhill. And this may happen over and over. I've heard such a dip referred to as a "healing crisis," but don't let that phrasing alarm you--it is simply your brain acclimating to the new pathways you are introducing to it and encouraging it in. 

I remember a few weeks in, after I'd had obvious improvements, I felt like it had stopped. Like I'd plateaued. I cried about it, talked to my husband, talked to a friend... And then I realized what had happened. I was used to being sick (obviously) when I began DNRS. After a few exciting weeks of less symptoms, I became used to that new state. And while it felt at first like I was "worse," my brain had actually gotten used to the improved version of me and was recognizing that we had further to go toward health. I had acclimated to my new state of improved health and felt where I was still lacking--and that somehow felt like a setback when it was, in reality, a boost to keep going! So I did.

When you experience the inevitable "dips" in progress, there are two key things to remember:

Keep going. Any changes at all are proof that change is, in fact, happening. Don't stop now!

Seize the opportunity. Remember that every dip is not a setback but a new opportunity to retrain your brain. Milk it!

All of this to say, dips are truly just part of the process. Don't think of them as road blocks (because they are absolutely not) but more like speed bumps on the path to victory. And who lets a speed bump hold them back from that?

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More to see:

My DNRS FAQs | all my DNRS posts | the DNRS website

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or medical professional, and nothing I say is to be taken as medical advice. I speak only of my personal experience.

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