95 | How Long Does Mold Recovery Take? Why Your Healing Can Be Much Shorter Than You’ve Been Told

Aubree Felderhoff: No matter how long you've been sick, no matter how sick you are, no matter if you're at the beginning or the middle or the end, if you're five years old or a hundred and five years old, healing is possible. And it literally takes just one moment for the body to start moving in the direction of healing. So can you feel like yourself again? Absolutely, you can. And I'm living proof. But the next question is well, how long does that take? Welcome back to Mold Free Mom. I am so happy that you are here. My name is Aubree, Felderhoff and I am your host. I have been through mold illness now three times and healed, and it is my honor to come alongside you and spread truth hope and just the comfort of knowing that you're not alone. Today's episode is something that I feel really speaks to the heart of what's behind the fear when we are going through possibly this mystery illness if we don't even know it's mold, or even when we're dealing with mold. I know that this was something I was worried about a lot. And it was, how long is it going to take for me to actually heal? And better yet, will I ever feel like myself again? I hear that all the time. And guys, I understand my heart goes out to you because I remember being trapped in that cycle of thinking this is what it's going to be like for the rest of my life. I had so many things wrong with myself. And it seemed like every number was off, every lab was off. I continued to. Go down and get more and more diagnoses. I collected them like I had my own collection. And it was so frustrating. As soon as I felt like I fixed one thing over here, something else would start to fail. And I thought, This is too messy of a situation for me to ever be able to untangle it all and get well. And I had started to believe that I was going to have to make the best of my mediocre. feelings, my mediocre health, to make do. And I hope that today's episode brings you hope that that simply isn't true. No matter how long you've been sick, no matter how sick you are, no matter if you're at the beginning or the middle or the end, if you're five years old or a hundred and five years old, healing is possible. And it literally takes just one moment for the body to start moving in the direction of healing. So can you feel like yourself again? Absolutely, you can. And I'm living proof. Multiple times I'm living proof. But the next question that I know everyone is thinking is well, how long does that take? Because when we feel awful, the last thing we want to do is be told by a doctor that it's going to take three to five years. I remember the day that I heard that. I felt like I was on my deathbed. I was so incredibly sick. And seven years in, I finally got my answer. And that doctor that gave me the diagnosis of SERS and mold toxicity told me it would be a really long path, that it would take anywhere from three to five years for me to unwind it all, for me to build back my brain, for me to feel better. And I believed it. And so I started on his protocol. And year one, I didn't feel better. Year two, I didn't feel better. And I eventually got off of it and I did the right things in the right order. And I got well. And when I got well, it took months. Now I'm not saying that as soon as you do the right things in the right order, it'll take months for you because I do believe that everything I was doing in the background led me to that really quick recovery. But I also want to point out. That the body is designed to heal. And so if we can give it the right tools, if we can really provide the right tools in a supportive, correct order, it will heal. And it doesn't have to take years and years and years. But it is going to vary. So let's talk a little bit about why it varies and what you can expect. Well, there's no single number that I can give you as far as how many months or years it's going to take to heal, because it really depends on your individual situation. And I know that you probably know that. But If you are someone that grew up in a moldy home and moved to a moldy apartment and then went to a moldy house and you were exposed your entire life and you slept in a room, perhaps that had mold, you're going to have a much heavier exposure than someone that was exposed for just a few simple months or weeks. And so, of course, the exposure time, the exposure level, all come into play. We also want to think about if you are in a current healthy state when you get exposed, or if you're already struggling, if your detox pathways are already clogged, if your bucket is already overflowing from a lot of other toxins or triggers. For myself, when I first started having symptoms from mold, it was immediately following the birth of my second son. Obviously, my body was under a significant stress. My son, who was born at that time, came out very, very sick. Also, his body was under a significant amount of stress, although I didn't know it at the time. And so I already had a very heavy load. My body was in a traumatic transition. I was already stressed, I was already sleep deprived, I was not eating well, I was trying to breastfeed, I was living in toxins, of course I didn't know it at the time, and so was my baby. And so that for me was a trigger that kind of tipped over the bucket and began the symptoms of mold illness. So let's talk a little bit more about if there's no single number, then what does recovery actually look like? Because I think, and I was guilty of this myself, when we consider recovery and when we picture it in our minds, we look at it in the spectrum of I'm going to end up recovered and being just like I was before. Well, just like you're not the same person you were when you were 18. Even if you didn't have mold. The same is true with mold. when we've gone through something such as a significant illness, chronic illness, mold, possibly leaving our homes, that's gonna change us a little bit for the better or for the worse, depending on how you wanna look at it, right? And so we've gotta remember that recovery. Doesn't necessarily look like the picture of who we were in the past because we're not the same person. We've gone through a lot of transitions and a lot of changes. For most of us, we are incredibly wise now. And we've done so much in the name of changing our health and changing our toxic bucket load and changing our nervous system. And so we're going to look different in our recovery. I want you to remember too that as you're moving through recovery, and this is something I really struggled with, it's not a straight line. And I think in the beginning, I really viewed recovery as, okay, I'll know when I start recovering. And then every day is gonna build and I'm just gonna feel better and better and better until I get right back where I was before. Well, guys, I was a collegiate national champion gymnast. I owned a boot camp and personal training business for a decade. I was a master trainer. I was very, very active. And to be honest, I was a bit neurotic. I worked out seven days a week. I never gave myself a break. I was way too extreme. And I do believe that my lifestyle in the past probably led to me breaking down and not being able to handle the stress of mold much quicker than what it would had I already had the skill set and the knowledge of how to truly be healthy before going into that first mold house. So remember, as you are moving through recovery, you're gonna have some good days, you're gonna have some bad days. On the bad days, remind yourself that that is part of recovery. Okay. We have to move up a little bit and then move back down and then move up and move back down. Just like if you are working out in a gym and you're trying to build muscle, you don't immediately get stronger, right? You're gonna get sore. You're not gonna feel like working out. It's gonna feel like you're not making progress. There's an ebb and flow to this. And so Remember that recovery is not a straight line. There are gonna be good days, there are gonna be hard days, and both have to happen for our bodies to rebound and recover. Now, some things you might wanna look out for as you are beginning to recovery are those early wins. So looking at your sleep, are you sleeping more soundly? I remember in the very beginning of when I knew I was actually recovering, the very first thing I realized is that I had had a dream and it had probably been close to a decade. Since I remembered having a dream. And that told me my body finally was able to do some deep sleeping because I really struggled with insomnia throughout my entire sickness, which for me was about 12 years. once I woke up and recognized, my gosh, I had a dream. I forgot what it was like to dream. I realized I was making great strides. I also noticed I started to have a little bit more energy, not on every days, but on some of the days I started to notice just a little bit more energy. There were certain days where I woke up and that extreme vertigo and brain fog felt slightly lifted, where I could remember a thought for more than 12 seconds. I could think of a word and actually speak it out loud. It didn't always last, but those were the beginning signs for me. So start to look for those. Are there are there small wins? They're not always going to last. Like I said, it will go up and down, but are there small wins that you have that you can now recognize and begin to hold on to as, hey, look at me now compared to just last year or last month? Those are wins. That's that's the start of recovery. And if you're not having that and you feel like you're doing all of the right things, I've been there too. And typically when I see that with clients, it means that they are doing all the right things, that they are working harder than anyone else out there. I get that. You are working hard. You're doing all the right things. But you might be doing the right things not in the right order. And there's a lot of nuances that come with that. The main thing I see when people have done everything right and yet they're not budging the needle on their recovery is that there's still exposure because your body really truly can't fully heal if it is still breathing in the thing that made it sick. And I know it's hard. Believe me, I know it's hard. We lost our first home to mold and we've remediated this second home three different times. But in order to truly heal, you've got to stop bringing that toxin into your body. And so that would be the first thing I would suggest you look at. Number two, and I see this often too, and I've done this as well. I learned everything through doing everything wrong. But doing too much, too aggressively at once, your 100 supplements a day, and you're doing all of the binders and doing all the sauna and getting outside and sweating, and we're doing so many aggressive things and we're feeling like poop. That's a great sign, guys. That maybe you are doing the right things, but your body is not set up to handle it, and you've got to slow down. And number three, and I see this almost as often, quitting whenever you start to feel that you're going backwards. And hey, like I said, I've done all of these, so no shame there. But sometimes, like we said at the beginning, recovery isn't up and down. And so sometimes just because we have a symptom that comes back. Or just because we move to a new stage of the protocol and we start to feel a regression, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're doing something wrong or that it's not working. In fact, that's how healing works. It works in layers. And so sometimes it requires pushing through that, maybe gently, maybe considering, okay, have we really touched all of the different steps of the protocol before moving into that next step? But making sure that we're not quitting just because we've had a slight regression that actually is a part of the recovery. So to summarize today, your timeline on your healing, it really is dependent, but it shouldn't take years. for my clients and for myself, once I finally did the right protocol and supported my body in the right order, you'll be able to get there in a year or less. Six months to a year is really the amount of time that you need to at least heal a large amount of what's going on, to start functioning again, to start feeling joy again, to start feeling energy again. Your body is not meant to be trapped in the endless cycles of symptoms for years before you start to feel relief. And if that's you right now, you're missing something. You're missing something. Our bodies are not designed to stay sick for that long. And so I would encourage you, if that's you right now, To take a step back and make sure that you're on a clear path. Instead of just guessing, instead of just playing whack-a-mole with your health make sure that you're on the right path, that you're supporting your body in the right order so that you're not wasting time, precious time off your life guessing like I did for so long. And if that's something that you at this point don't know what to do, and honestly, Who would? We aren't trained to handle mold illness. for most of us. We don't know mold illness is a thing until it happens to us. And that was me. I had no clue. Doctors are typically not trained in mold illness. And if that's you right now, you feel like you're spinning circles, you feel like you're playing whack-a-mole with your symptoms, you're taking the advice of this group support over here on Facebook, and you're trying this iron protocol over here, and you're just tired. You're tired and you're sick, and you're sick and tired of watching your life slip by while you try endless protocols and another practitioner. Who has a very expensive long-term solution that is promising you to get well in years, like I did for so long, I wanna invite you to book a free discovery call with me. And let's see if working together to get you on a clear path to healing is the right fit. All right, friends, remember that your body can heal. And real healing has an end date. Hard days do not mean that you are not healing. So keep going. We'll see you next time on Mold Free Mom. Thanks for listening to Mold Free Mom. If this episode has helped you make sense of some of your symptoms, diagnoses, or why nothing has worked in the past, please make sure to follow the show and leave a quick review so others who are struggling can find it quicker. If this episode brought someone struggling with unexplained sickness or mold to mind, please share it so they don't have to waste years of their life chasing the wrong answers like I did. Remember, you're not broken. You can get your life back. You just need to be shown how.