Your Dysregulated Nervous System Could be More Than Just Your “personality”

Since early high school, anxiety became a part of my life—and really, a part of my personality. I can’t remember the exact time it set in, or what specifically created it. I just remember that the active, outgoing, adventurous, and confident girl I had always been was still there, but felt diminished.

Despite knowing deep down that the anxiety wasn’t me, the reality of it being so present was undeniable. I found myself in a doctor’s office during my junior year of high school, checking boxes on an intake form: how often I felt anxiety, doom, or tightness in my chest. One sheet later and a 15-minute consultation with a doctor who didn’t know the first thing about me, and I was prescribed an anti-anxiety medication.

Lo and behold, that didn’t last long. What once was anxiety quickly turned into two weeks of nonstop tears - something I hadn’t struggled with before.

It was then that I decided I was going to take these feelings into my own hands. I wasn’t going to depend on a doctor’s prescription: I started reading books about the mind, freeing your spirit, detachment, faith, God, and anxiety. I went to yoga with my mom and noticed that it lifted a weight off those feelings, too. Slowly, each of these pieces led me into a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection—and how our physical decisions create mental implications.

I became intrigued by how the foods I ate, the movement I engaged in, and the supplements I took impacted my brain health and emotional well-being.

Over the next few years, I became incredibly in tune with my body. I built out routines, supplements, and nutritional guidelines that helped support my mental and physical health—but the anxiety still lingered. I started noticing that in particular it would fluctuate depending on my environment.

In college, I ended up living in multiple houses, all of which were infested with mold to some degree. That’s when a clear pattern started to emerge. Every time I was exposed to mold, it felt like my entire personality shifted. The energetic, active part of me faded. I felt fatigued, anxious, and completely out of touch. My digestion would change, my skin would break out, and I didn’t feel like me anymore. I vividly remember those times being so unsettling—like I had no control over how I felt, even when I was doing “everything right.”

It seemed like I could keep my anxiety at bay until a house with mold, a glass of wine, or some other “exposure” would set me off again. And each time, it got worse. Once calling my mom with tears, trying to describe the feeling: “This isn’t emotional. It feels chemical.” And years later, I’d come to find out—I was right.

Europe & a Return to Home - a Turning Point

Fast forward to the summer after college. I was traveling through Europe and ended up in Copenhagen for a job interview—living out a long-awaited dream of working for a holistic health company abroad. I rented a cute Airbnb for the week, but within two days, my skin started reacting—almost instantly breaking out and becoming inflamed. My face was flushed, my anxiety spiked, and I started having panic attacks—something I’d never really experienced before.

At the time, I figured maybe it was the stress of a potential move or being far from home. But deep down, it didn’t make sense. This was a dream I had felt so called to—and I’ve always thrived on new experiences and travel. The fear and anxiety I was experiencing didn’t align with who I knew myself to be. Dots began to connect again, even if I didn’t realize it fully at the time.

As deeply as I felt that I had been set on moving, it felt like my bucket was full. I couldn’t handle another ounce of stress, pressure, or fear. I needed the comfort of home and family—so I packed my bags, said no to the job, and went home. That decision made out of angst at the time, was the turning point in my journey back to my baseline—and away from the anxiety I’d believed was just “part of my personality.”

Getting Answers

Within a month of being home, I started seeing a bio-resonance doctor (which, if you’re not familiar with how they work, is a whole other blog I’ll write!). Within a couple hours of my first appointment, the doctor looked at me and said:

“You have an insane allergy to mold—and it’s lodged in your nervous system. Your reservoir is so full that any little stressor or stimulation in life is tipping your bucket over.”

She went on to show me a graph. First, how a typical person detoxes mold. Then, how someone like me—with a specific gene and predisposition to autoimmune disease—doesn’t. Mold exposure, again and again, for someone who doesn’t detox properly, meant it had just been circulating in my bloodstream and nervous system for years, with no way out. It not only had made sense why I had felt this way for so long - but those “random” bouts of anxiety and reactivity (like the one in Copenhagen, and especially all through college) suddenly became clearly tied to something bigger than just the way my nervous system was wired.

Through muscle testing, energetic work, and a mold detox, I remember the feeling of leaving my second appointment. In tears, I called my mom again, but this time happy tears, as I said, “I feel like my seventh-grade self again.” That heavy, lingering weight on my personality—on my light—was beginning to lift. I stopped overanalyzing the future and started being in the present. Right here, right now. Exactly where I always knew God had designed me to be, but I hadn’t quite been able to access.

Healing

It took more time and unraveling over the next few months, but I can confidently say I am not the same person I was when I stepped off that plane from Europe.

I share this because if you’ve been walking around thinking your constant anxiety, fatigue, and dysregulation is just your personality—there might be more to your story. Sometimes it’s not just who we are, it’s what we’ve been exposed to. What our body’s holding onto. How our body is protecting us.

I knew, deep down, that the anxiety I felt wasn’t me. My body had been trying to tell me something—and I only discovered the truth through diving into the mind-body connection.

Full Circle

As hard as it was at times, the anxiety I experienced is what led me to my passion for health. It gave me a holistic perspective from a young age. Anxiety often forces people to go inward—and become deeply introspective about their life, body, faith, and actions. I feel like I grew up faster. My mind became sharper. Because I had no choice but to try and understand myself better—and to learn how to use my emotions as a catalyst for growth. And now I see that introspection made me exactly who I am today - and I note that God was refining me in ways that would propel me later on.

I wish I could go back and hug my younger self—the one who felt overwhelmed far too often—and tell her that, in a divine way, there was purpose behind all of it. A discovery that would not only free her, but one day lead her to her passion, her work, and her why.