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FOR THE HAYTERS S2E10 - Lyme, Mental Illness & Getting Well
00:15:25
Listen in to Adrienne, the founder of WellBe, talk about her path to becoming a patient advocate to empower people in their health journey. What lead her there and her personal life experiences with Lyme Disease. For more, visit - GetWellBe.com To...
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- [00:09]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
For the haters. For the haters. Come on to it now or later. It don't matter what your name is. Share your story. We'll be waiting.
- [00:31]
Becky
Season 2 All right, what's up guys and welcome back to for the Haters podcast. We're happy to have you guys here today. We have a special guest if you want to go ahead and introduce yourself.
- [00:45]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Sure. My name is Adrienne Nolan Smith and I am a board certified patient advocate speaker and the founder of something called Wellbe, which is getwellbe and I'll social channels and our website and wellbe is really focused on helping people to prevent chronic health issues and when they come up, heal them naturally and we help them do that by helping people implement wellness in their lives and also navigate the healthcare system when things come up. Because it's pretty hairy out there in the conventional system and in my experience, which we'll talk about, the integrative and functional medicine world was really, I think, the future of how healthcare should be practiced. And so because of that, I really help people to, as a board certified patient advocate, I can help people to get to those kinds of practitioners and doctors who I think will really help people to heal rather than just band aid or manage symptoms with pill for an L type stuff.
- [01:53]
Becky
Just if you guys are new listening, my name is Becky. I am the host. We also have Laura here who is the co founder for the Haters. You know, so when you came to us with your story, there was a lot of. It's interesting because for us we're doing this for a reason, right. There wasn't, you know, there was things that we went through that wanted us to start this and you know, that is relatable to your story as well. So you didn't just come about to wanting to care more about wellness and down that path. You know, there was a reason that brought you here.
- [02:28]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Oh yeah? Yeah, A few reasons. One was the most impactful. But I have a few life experiences and work experiences that got me here. Yeah.
- [02:37]
Becky
I think maybe if you want to start out by talking about maybe your childhood and you know, going through Lyme's disease.
- [02:46]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Sure. So yeah, my sort of journey with wellness and you know, hippie woo woo, integrative, holistic, whatever the hell it's. Can we curse? Yeah.
- [02:57]
Becky
Okay.
- [02:58]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Is that even a curse word? I don't know, whatever kind of medicine you want to call it, alternative, compliment, whatever. That all started with my diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease when I was 11. Chronic Lyme disease means that you've had it Long enough for the antibiotics to not really be effective anymore. And it's actually, unfortunately, most cases of Lyme that's the case, because people generally don't really even see the bullseye that you get. That shows you sort of have Lyme and you can treat it quickly with antibiotics. So my mom treated me, or rather sent me to a doctor who treated me with antibiotics. They didn't work. And basically that was the only option that we were given. It was either more or different antibiotics or antibiotics through an IV instead of, know, a pill or whatever. That was it. And my mom had had some, you know, kind of health issues herself, but had grown up like a Navy brat eating white bread and Spam. You know, she by no means was kind of raised to understand the world of natural medicine or holistic medicine. And yet, I think living in New York City and having, therefore, access and proximity to some of them and then feeling herself like, so not great, especially after having kids. I think she had a lot of gut and hormone issues. I know she did. So, you know, what generally happens is after pregnancy, if you have issues, they exacerbate. So she started to look into these different kinds of therapies and medicines. And so when she heard that there was nothing left to do except more and more of a treatment that didn't seem to be effective. And from what she could find, endless antibiotics kind of destroy your gut. And she was way ahead of her time. I mean, we didn't even talk about the microbiome or gut health until, you know, the microbiome project finished, which was only a couple of years ago. Now it's like you hear it constantly, like bone broth and, you know, at least I do. I'm in the wellness world. All that stuff. Collagen. Yeah. I mean, everyone's, you know, kimchi, whatever. So. But. But back then, it really was not talked about at all. And so she sort of said, well, why would I want to destroy this child's immune system and gut over and over and over. Like, she's going to be so susceptible to the Lyme either coming back or like another infection that's just going to wipe her out. So she said, no, thanks, and, you know, really started me down this path of these different natural therapies for two years. There were so many of them. I won't get into it.
- [05:38]
Becky
It was you and your brother, right?
- [05:40]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Yeah, me and my brother. Yep. He was actually the reason that I got diagnosed at all. He was much more, and I say much more sick. Cause his symptoms were so much More pronounced than mine. But that actually apparently doesn't mean it's worse. It just means that people have different symptoms. And, you know, the same way that, like, two people that have arthritis, one can have really bad joint pain and not much skin stuff. And another one, it's like all. All skin stuff and like a little bit of joint. So it's really hard to say. But, yeah, I had a lot of memory loss issues, like, short term memory. Like, I'd look at a piece of paper, I'd look at your face, you tell me your name. It's Becky. I'd look away. I'd be like, what? Like, who are you? Or not who are you, but what's your name? Like? Or, you know, I'd look at a number on a paper, look away. No idea what that was. Which is weird for a kid. You start to really like, am I going crazy? Like, what?
- [06:32]
Becky
It's interesting too, because I'm sure in New York City, that's not something that typically comes up, right? Lymes, you're not like, in the woods. You're not used to. You're not really susceptible to ticks being everywhere. Where I'm from, if someone was sick, it was like, is it Lymes? Cause there was just ticks everywhere.
- [06:51]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Yeah, well, that's really interesting because my family has a beach cottage in Lyme, Connecticut, where Lyme disease was first. So, yeah, so it's pretty prevalent out there. And it was really interesting. And it just shows the times, like, they just didn't have. They still have really bad testing, and there's just so few. There are so few Lyme literate doctors that even though we had, you know, we were exposed in a place with tons of Lyme disease. And New York City is surrounded by places with tons of Lyme. The Hamptons, New Jersey, every part of Connecticut is just infested. It was still like, oh, that's weird. You have joint pain. I mean, they told my mom over and over that my brother just had growing pains, even though he was buckled over, screaming, grabbing his knees, middle of the night, probably every week or every two weeks in the emergency room with debilitating joint pain. And the doctors just being like, we think it's joint pain. Take Advil. You know. Did you and your brother contract this around the same time? No, I was a couple of years after him, but it was. Yeah. So anyway, we were both being treated at the same time because it was discovered at the same time. But it was. It was a weird two years of my life and longer for him, he got better. Took a couple more years. But we both are fine today. And I feel extremely lucky because there are Lyme patients who are suffering for, like, decades. They just never get better. I mean, they're just attached to, like, a port. They're just kind of, like invalids. I mean, it's really. And then they'll get a little bit better and then relapse and a little bit better and relapse. Whereas I haven't had that experience, which has been great. And I really owe it to my mom being, like, such a ferocious researcher and fighter to not take no for an answer and try every weird thing.
- [08:44]
Becky
You went out and, like, traveled the country to go and find.
- [08:47]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Exactly. Yeah. We were in a tiny, tiny town in Minnesota for three weeks one summer. We were in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for like, another three weeks the second summer. I was still sick, chewing. These treatments, you know, doctors all over the place. You know, she followed every lead. Not all of them resulted in something effective. But that's the kind of interesting part about natural medicine in general and natural therapies is that they're really just supporting your immune system to finally get strong enough to overcome said whatever it is, which is actually finally now being used in, like, you know, conventional healthcare. Immunotherapy drugs for cancer is like the new hot thing in cancer. And that basically means drugs that then enable your immune system to figure out there's cancer in your body and then go attack it. So it's, like, brilliant in that sense. It's still pretty new, but that's basically where cancer treatments are going. And so the good part about that is that there's not really side effects the same way that drugs have. But the bad thing is that you have to do them kind of all in conjunction to really get your immune system strong enough to finally kick that thing. And so sometimes it's hard to know which one of those things really did it. Cause you kind of have to keep doing them all together. It's kind of like if you do a diet change, that heals something. It's like, was it just that I took out the gluten or the dairy or that I added more vegetables? Like, no, dude, it's all of the things together. Cause you have to support your immune system in, like, every which way. It's not usually one. So I'm not really sure which one of the therapies that I did was the most effective. But we were doing a lot, you know, in conjunction, and I was better after two years.
- [10:40]
Becky
Do you. Is that what you remember, like, prominently from your childhood. You know, trying to. I'm trying to think of what the word is, like, trying to get better from being sick.
- [10:54]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
You know, if you asked my brother that, he would say yes. That was his whole childhood. But it was two years out of, like, you know, 17 or 18 for me. So, yeah, no, like, health was. Definitely has been a large part of my life. I never thought I'd be working in health and wellness. Like, if you told me that even 10 years ago, I would have laughed at you. But it's always been a big part of my life. Been that friend that people go to for any kind of help that they come across with. Mostly related to integrative medicine stuff, but also any kind of wellness thing or just healthcare stuff in general. Because I've been through it a lot. Not just with my own health, but with my mom's, which we'll talk about, too. But, yeah, it didn't define it because, you know, I was a really healthy kid until I was, like, 10 or 11. But then, you know, when I look back at. I did. This is a bit of a tangent, but I did this emotional freedom technique thing, which was crazy. These six sessions last January with this practitioner over the phone. And one of the things that came out, it was so weird. I thought it was total. I thought she was a total quack. I was, like, ready to just throw in the towel. Like, I did not think that it was effective or whatever, but at the fourth session, I had this amazing release. I mean, I couldn't even breathe. I was crying so hard. And I'm really not a crier, and I didn't know what was going on. But basically what came out was that I. I have, like, a slight scoliosis, and I've always kind of had some back pain and stuff and never really thought that much about it. But basically, she figured out, like, this pain I'd held in my body and my back especially, was really linked to, like, being this age, being 11, and just starting to go through all this stuff with my health and, like, Lyme and then not getting to do all the things that my friends were gonna do. Cause I had to do all these treatments and kind of just getting frustrated with my mom for making me do all these things. Cause I thought it was all her, not me. You know, in hindsight, obviously, I thank God for her, but at the time, you're like an angsty tween. Like, mom, I just want to go like, everyone else is going to this whatever. I want to go there Like, I don't want to go to Minnesota, you know, stay in a Motel 6 with you and my annoying little brother for three weeks. So, yeah, I mean, I would say that that was surprising to me and really interesting because it's something I never thought of as being kind of this, like, unresolved childhood trauma that I held pain in my body for. For decades related to this time of feeling. Of feeling different, of, like, things kind of falling apart. Like, just a lot of, like, you know, my parents didn't end up having a great marriage, but that was also when I remember them, like, fighting a lot about our care and, like, you know, just a lot of stuff. And it does affect you more than you realize because clearly I'd been hanging on to it for a while. Yeah.
- [13:53]
Becky
And that's something. And that's why I asked the question, because I know that there's definitely people listening that are holding something on from their childhood, not realizing. Because people can, you know, hide something so well that they almost think that it's not real. And so people are holding on to this rather than, you know, dealing with it. And it's so important to release, you know.
- [14:17]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Oh, my gosh. Yes.
- [14:18]
Becky
Maybe unheard of anger that's, you know, lingering inside of you.
- [14:22]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
Yeah. I mean, I literally thought this woman was. I. If you had told me that she was gonna, like, pull this memory out of me and it was linked to my back pain, whatever, I would have been like, what are you talking? Like, that's so.
- [14:34]
Becky
That's so interesting.
- [14:35]
Adrienne Nolan Smith
I've had things in my life that, you know, you would think of as real traumas, not real traumas that you would think of as traumatic. Right. This didn't seem to me that traumatic. Right. And yet, you know, especially because around that time also, like, my mom and my relationship got not as close. Like, it was sort of this, like, you're like, you have to take your vitamins. You have to do this and that. And I was just. She was such a. Like, stop. You know, telling me what to do. Stop making me do all these therapies, like, you know, wanting to just be a normal kid. And I think.
- [15:09]
Becky
I think that is traumatizing, though. Thanks for tuning in. For the Haters is such a special part of my journey, and I'd love for you to hear the rest of this episode. Find us at for the Haters. Subscribe and join the conversation. Remember, you're not alone. Thank you for your continued support.