Toxic Exposure and Brain Injury

The first time our biofeedback psychologist examined us, I was surprised to learn how normal our symptoms are. Anxiety, fits of rage, depression, memory loss, attention disorders. All normal.

He has seen hundreds of mold-exposed patients since the early '90s and when he described what poison does to the brain my jaw fell. Literally. "The symptoms for mold exposure are so wide-ranging they don't fit into the 'box' established by doctors," he said. "So you become the problem."

He also said that his mold-exposed patients are the most traumatized group of people he's ever treated.

Toxins get right to the frontal part of the brain. This means an attack of the executive function. The conductor of the orchestra disappears. Multi-tasking becomes difficult. Anxiety increases.

I saw this on my daughter Shannon's brain map. High frequency brain waves were dominant. Both with her eyes closed as well as open. Hyper-reactive brain means increased anxiety. Across the board, I have seen this with my children. Afraid of things they weren't afraid of before, nervous about school, increased dependence on me. Looking back, this was a big clue to something happening environmentally.

An irritable cortex can also explain why someone may have difficulty falling asleep following a toxic exposure. If the high frequencies dominate it becomes difficult for the brain to transition to the calmer alpha rhythms needed for sleep. (Production of melatonin is also slowed which causes sleep disturbance.)

Our son Brandon has shown signs of attention deficit disorder. The mycotoxins actually create noise in the brain. Pretty distracting to a child.

The bottom line is toxic exposure makes your brain look like it took a hit. Trauma without the fall.

"You've basically been hit by a house," he said.

The pieces of the puzzle of our lives continue to fall into place.