College Student Mental Health - Consider Mold Toxicity - Courtney Snyder MD

College Student Mental Health - Consider Mold Toxicity

8/10/2020

I start this episode with briefly discussing the startling statistics on student mental health and the stories our culture tells for why students are receiving more psychiatric diagnoses and even dropping out of college. Mainly I focus on the rarely considered - but, I argue - very common root cause to mental health issues in college students - mold toxicity from dorms. I explain how physiologically someone can go to college thriving and having great hope for the future to living in a dorm with mold (seen or unseen) and then go on to become diagnosed with depression, anxiety, ADHD or even bipolar disorder...or simply loose motivation and energy for school and drop out. I also discuss other potential symptoms, how one can acquire testing for mold toxicity without a physician and what treatment for mold toxicity can look like.
For more information on mold toxicity, please see my blog post, Mold Toxicity - Depression, Anxiety, Fatigue, Brain Fog & Inattention

Claudia

12/9/2020 03:59:35 pm

Thank you for this, Dr. Snyder. I believe this was my situation 4 years ago at a dorm with 900 residents in humid Georgia. I also lost my menstrual cycle for 8 months afterwards. The next fall, they completely reconstructed the entire building-- I wonder why.

Courtney Snyder link

12/9/2020 06:00:18 pm

You're welcome, Claudia. I'm really sorry you had that experience. Sadly, I think it is very common, but people just don't realize. Thank you for commenting. Courtney

Rhonda Neal

2/15/2021 06:33:13 am

My 24yr old asthmatic daughter moved into an apartment that should have been condemned. This place smelled like a flooded basement. The night I had seen it, I cried myself to sleep knowing she'd be sick. It took about a month until her asthma kicked in, her heart rate went bananas, she didn't eat and couldn't sleep. Then came the sleeping meds. She couldn't work and her mental health crashed, hard. I was certain this was due to the mold (you could see a dirty line that went up the wall about 6" from the floor) and possibly her new birth control implant. She/we saw many doctors & voiced my opinion of the mold presence and could not get anyone to take it seriously. I tried to get her into a functional medicine doctor. Filled out a bouncy of questionnaires to see if they wanted to take her on but was rejected. In the end she tried to OD on the cocktail of sleeping pills she was prescribed. Thankfully she told me what her plan was, the when and the where so he'd dad was able not to stop her but to get help to her in time. She spent 12 days in psych hospital then came back home to live. She was still dangerously miserable but working and eating and getting more capable of coping. As long as she stayed off of Ambien, which should be banned btw. A new stable boyfriend came into her life who had turned things around for her completely. So she's safe for now. My daughter has always had mental health & cooing issues that she would never allow to be diagnosed or treated for any meaningful length of time. Then mold, lots of visible mold that we could not get proof was causing any of her mental of physical illness. After hearing your podcast I worry for her future and what may be lingering.

Courtney Snyder, MD link

2/15/2021 07:24:38 am

Hi Rhonda,
I'm glad things have improved. As I mentioned, there is much we don't know. When we do feel safe, and our autonomic nervous system is functioning well, our detoxification and immune systems would be expected to function better. There are always a number of variables at play. I do believe there are many roads to healing. Separately, so you're aware - mycotoxin testing doesn't require a doctor's order (it is a urine test done at home). My preferred lab is RealTime. People can order the test directly from RealTime or a website called DirectLabs. I also have a blogpost on this topic -https://www.courtneysnydermd.com/blog/mold-toxicity-depression-anxiety-fatigue-brain-fog-inattention
(and a recent one on the autonomic nervous system with vagus nerve in the title). Thank you for your comment, Courtney

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In these podcasts, I use a common cultural reference - such as something from the news, the arts, media, or politics, as a starting place before delving into the fascinating and less known roots to our brain related symptoms and mental wellbeing. Along the way, I discuss new and evolving treatment options that address these root causes. Her hope is to challenge us to look at ourselves, our families, our lives, our culture and even our humanity through a different lens - a lens that offers more possibility and more hope.