Functional Medicine Saved Me From Myself

by Sarah Matuszak-Schneider

Sarah reached out to us wanting to share her amazing journey to better health and how Dr. Cole helped her achieve that. Here we showcase her inspiring story.

There I sat, on my bed with my beautiful 18 month old child napping peacefully beside me. Sunlight cascaded through the window, but it was the darkest time I have ever known. The date was December 2015 and I had spent the last 365 days attempting to alleviate my depression and PTSD symptoms with conventional medicine. I was two weeks from graduating with the degree of my dreams, I had two wonderful children, and one amazing and supportive boyfriend. Unfortunately, I had spent two years responding to 911 calls as a critical care paramedic in a major Midwestern metropolitan area. In those two years, I took care of over 2,000 people on the worst days of their lives – some of whom did not survive. Fires, gunshot wounds, car accidents, drownings, stabbings, suicides, complications of chronic illness – I had seen them all. And every single one of them stayed with me. In some cases, they haunted me.

In May of 2015 I saw a cognitive psychiatrist who diagnosed me with PTSD. I then saw a Nurse Practitioner who prescribed sertraline once a day to alleviate my distress. Sertraline is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor – basically, it helps one’s brain retain the hormone that elevates one’s mood. Sertraline worsened my insomnia and made it even harder to relax due to an incessant jittery feeling. I was 21 years old and doomed to take pills for the rest of my life – pills that didn’t work. Fast forward seven months and PTSD had taken my sleep, my smile, my peace. My own family didn’t recognize me anymore. I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I wanted to destroy the being that I was. Suicide crossed my mind constantly. As I sat on my bed on that day in December, I was convinced that suicide would be the only way out.