COURTNEY SNYDER MD - HOLISTIC PSYCHIATRIST
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Undermethylation & Strengthening the Right Brain in a Left Brain World

7/30/2019

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“Mary Poppins Goes To the Beach” -Made by combining pieces from 3 collages in my Impermanent Art Series.
By Courtney Snyder, MD

​Half of my work day is spent honing in on details. For each person I evaluate and treat, I’m considering multiple symptoms, lab data, contributing factors, and treatment interventions. Left unchecked, this amount of detail hurts my brain - figuratively and literally. This type of work might be considered “left brain“ and appealing to someone who is “undermethylated,” which I am.


The other half of my work day is involved with addressing how, from a spiritual perspective, we:
  • lower our stress by learning to let go and stop grasping for outcomes
  • learn to feel at home in our body
  • learn to connect with others
  • find peace in this world
  • find purpose and meaning in this life
  • live in the present
  • feel part of something larger than ourselves

By spiritual, I mean our inner life. My writing and teaching about the intersection between neuroplasticity and spirituality is essentially about how we exercise those parts of the brain that relate to that inner work. Instead of honing in on details, this is about pulling back and looking at the bigger picture of our lives and our humanity. This right brain work feels good.
​

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Mold Toxicity - Depression, Anxiety, Fatigue, Brain Fog & Inattention

5/16/2019

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"Light Showers on Tidy Town" paper, acrylic on 24 x 48" canvas "Inspired by the coastal towns of Ireland."
By Courtney Snyder
​
One of the challenges of writing blog posts that explore root causes of brain related symptoms is that what we are learning is constantly evolving.  There's so much we still and will never know.  Another challenge - everything is interconnected. The best I can do is to write about these root causes separately. While some contributing factors can occur in parallel, one condition is often leading to other downstream conditions that themselves contribute to things like depressed mood, anxiety, mood swings, brain fog/inattention and so forth.  

Mold toxicity is a perfect example.  It can contribute to Pyrrole Disorder due the stress it puts on the body.  It can lead to elevated copper by overwhelming one of the antioxidants in the body that regulates copper.  Because it interferes with the immune system, it can lead to a susceptibility to candida/yeast, Lyme and its co-infections.  It also frequently worsens mast cell activation (see last post).  I consider it a root of the roots.  In my daily work, I find mold toxicity to be very common.  Here’s why - ​

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Purpose and 'Our Fleeting Moment Here on Earth'

2/4/2016

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Courtney Snyder, MD

Purpose, Healing and Happiness

Whatever language, symbolism or religious framework we use or try not to use, many of us believe there's a reason each of us are here ...at this time, in this place and with these people.  Though I think a lot about the details of health, I fall short on the bigger picture of healing if I forget that our wellbeing depends on much more, not the least of which is having a deep sense of purpose in our lives.

Purpose can energize us. It is a reason to do the hard work; to get out of bed.  It lowers stress and it’s associated physiologic responses. Futility is stressful.  So is incongruence - the mismatch between our natural abilities and passions and what we’re actually doing. With purpose comes a clarity about what and with whom we want to spend our time. ​

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Reclaiming Inner Authority in a Hierarchical World

7/28/2015

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Courtney Snyder, MD

In these next couple weeks, as we help our children collect needed supplies for school and other activities, let us remember to have inner authority high on the list.  (I wrote this post for my other blog a few years ago. I hope it is still useful now).

Reclaiming Inner Authority in a Hierarchical World Gone Mad
(November 10, 2011) by Courtney Snyder, MD

Last week I saw a clip from the Jimmy Kimmel Show in which he asked parents to post videos to Youtube of children’s reaction after they (the parents) tell them they've eaten all their Halloween candy.  From an overwhelming number of videos posted, Kimmel shared a few.  Why were those parents so up for a task in which they inflict emotional pain on their children, video tape it and share it with the world?   Who was so insensitive to them when they were children? 

“It was just a joke,” “Where’s your sense of humor,” “You’re no fun,” is how some might respond.

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    Courtney Snyder, MD

    I'm a conventionally trained child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist.  My current approach to health is both holistic (pertaining to the whole person) and functional (addressing the root causes of illness). I write this blog to share what I've learned.

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