Look At Facts

Give Yourself Some Credit We applaud your patience, caring, and desire to help. We know that your heart is in your throat sometimes, and breaking at others. Yet here you are, trying to figure out how to talk to your loved one about entering treatment. We hope that he takes up your suggestion, connects with a professional, and pursues help further. We also hope that you won't despair if he doesn't. Success has many faces. More than a movement, but not quite an army, crusaders gather together under one banner and are driven by a single vision. When you have Neptune in Aries, you have a propensity to get caught up in the zeal and appeal of a popular cause, and once enlisted you will fight to the finish. Hopefully, this is more a battle of ideas than a battle of fists because the latter can get bloody. Mars, ruler of Aries, was named after the Roman god of war, so there's an us-versus-them animosity streaming through this Neptune; Your crusade shouldn't be focused on fighting the good fight but on ennobling and improving the lives around you. Aries Neptune . Sensitizes: Aries Suns by making them honorable. Mystifies: Taurus and Pisces Suns when it offers to fall on its sword. Inspires: Gemini and Aquarius Suns to get involved. Deceives: Cancer and Capricorn Suns with assurances that the cream always rises to the top. These case studies that inform this current article are one form of research, and although not the gold standard of clinical trials, they are usually how new discoveries come into the field. The recommendations in this article come from observations gleaned from decades of clinical practice. Patty came in with a diagnosis of cognitive decline.

In her early seventies, she wanted to do everything she could to recover her previous mental acuity. When we looked at her diet, it was apparent her lifetime of eating poorly had a big effect. High sugar, high carbohydrate intake, a love of fried and processed foods--her diet was a formula for cognitive decline. Patty's inflammatory markers were high, her hemoglobin A1c was in the prediabetic range, and she'd had many rounds of antibiotics a few years before. While there was much to fix, Patty charged ahead and made all the recommended changes in her diet. She struggled at first with going ketogenic, but after three months, she was amazed at how good she felt. She thought she could remember better also. Your conversation may not lead directly to treatment, but it may start your loved one thinking more seriously about treatment than he has before. Even if regular sessions do not follow an initial consultation, he might have taken something important from the meeting that sooner rather than later lands him on a path of change. And if the conversation itself implodes, you know what to do: analyze what happened and plan how and when you will try again. You may need some time to feel sad, disappointed, or angry. Use your acceptance skills and take care of yourself. Change is often slower than anyone would like. As treatment providers, we're convinced of the potential for treatment to help in many cases, but at the same time we know the research shows that many, many people change eventually, without treatment. In any case, we--you, your loved one's friends and family and we treatment providers--can make a difference in how we invite people to change. Exercise: Preparing to Suggest Treatment Use this exercise to plan how you will invite your loved one to seek help. Glamorizes: Leo and Sagittarius Suns by magnifying their fabulousness. Is anyone's guess with: Virgo and Scorpio Suns because it mobilizes them. Sometimes good because it gets them to act before it's too late, sometimes bad when they adopt extreme and radical positions.

Opposes: Libra Suns. You see others as alarmists. When Neptune is opposite your Sun sign, you don't connect to its energy naturally, and you will always be misled until you do. The best way to engage this energy is to get to the bottom of things right away and then present the facts as evenly and as fair-mindedly as possible. But you can't just sound like Mr. You have to make your case in an equally compelling way. You need to be the sober voice of reason when that's the last thing anyone feels like listening to. After a year on the Healthy Brain Diet, Patty's inflammatory markers were way down. Her blood sugar level had also come down significantly, and she'd made good strides toward healing her gut and increasing her microbial diversity. Additionally, she'd become more social again, no longer afraid that others would see her as cognitively impaired. Indeed, as her quick-witted self returned, she thrived on social contact, which made her feel better about herself and reinforced her dedication to her diet. After two years, Patty felt twenty years younger. My mind is sharp again. I feel better than I have since I was forty or fifty. I was terrified I was losing everything. I'm so grateful to be getting my mind back! In previous articles this article has emphasized the importance of reducing inflammation, blood sugar levels, and neurotoxic exposure, and Appendix E continues this focus together with other nutritional strategies to prevent and reverse cognitive decline. Why might your loved one consider treatment? Write down at least one reason he might seek it. When do you think your loved one would be most receptive to the idea of treatment?

This could mean time of day, day of week, or time of month, and could accommodate his mood state--insofar as you can predict, what tends to put him in a good mood? What might make it easier for your loved one to say yes? If he has said no before, analyze that conversation and be as specific as you can about what didn't work and what, if anything, did. Is there anyone in a better position than you to suggest treatment? What treatment options will you suggest? Is someone ready to meet with your loved one more or less immediately after she says yes? What will you say, exactly? Like plants and animals, we all have a fate encrypted inside us. Call it a genetic code, hereditary traits, or a psychological inheritance that's been passed down through the generations. There is a deep, dark part of us that already knows the end of the story before it plays out. It's the part of us that knows that certain things were meant to be, that other things can't be helped, and that there are make-or-break times in life when it either all comes together or falls apart. If the Sun symbolizes the self in your horoscope--the person you're always growing into--then Pluto symbolizes the seed. And like a seed, Pluto carries the knowledge of everything that's come before. Pluto knows what shape you will take, the things you need to survive and thrive, and that you have to push through the darkness because if you don't you will surely perish. It's Pluto's job to get you through the rough passages. It does this at the beginning of life when you're squeezing through the birth canal. It does this with every crisis you face, every trauma you suffer, and every accident you walk away from. The role of hormonal imbalance will also be considered, with attention to other factors such as exercise and sleep. Go to Appendix E, The Physical Side of Cognitive Decline, to learn of powerful, natural ways to prevent and reverse cognitive decline, prevent amyloid plaque and tau build-up, and clear out excess amyloid and tau that have already accumulated. Preventing and reversing cognitive decline requires a whole brain approach--physical, emotional, mental, spiritual levels.

When the brain and self detox from their psychological and neurological toxins, and further, when both are healed and strengthened with optimal nourishment, cognition improves. This is true whether you begin in your thirties in relatively good shape or begin in your sixties or later, after decline has set in. Cognitive decline and Alzheimer's are now seen as lifestyle diseases. Repairing the brain, healing the self, engaging at all levels with the world is vivifying. Your mind wakes up. You see more, feel more, remember more, think lucidly, and experience the clarity that is the hallmark of cognitive health. Becoming and staying sharp is possible. Referring back to the elements of positive communication, write a script, including a plan B in the event that your loved one says no. Approach someone you trust and ask him or her to role-play with you. During Treatment He's finally talking to someone about his drinking! It is a big moment and an important development. And yet, it is one paving stone on a long, wide path. Families often have an end goal of getting someone into treatment, but it is not the end of the road. Your work is not yet done. More hopefully: it's not the first piece of change you've witnessed, and it won't be the last. Treatment is part of the process, not the destination. And it does this at the end of life, when it's time for your body, soul, and spirit to part company and go their separate ways. Pluto symbolizes the will to live that's greater than conscious choice, resolve, or hope: a will that's so indefatigable that it insists there's life after death--which is ironic given that the planet was named after the Roman god of the dead. Why not call it Pluto?