GAPS and the Gift of a Normal Life

This post was written at the end of 26.5 months on GAPS for our whole family.

Today I took my girls with me to the store. I had a couple of things to pick up. It was a beautiful day and we just had a great time together. Then my eldest had some money burning a hole in her pocket so we spent time in the toy department figuring out what she wanted to spend it on. She calmly compared and considered and finally chose. Then we went to the front of the store and she paid for doll and I paid for my stuff and we went home.

Normal, boring, you have now tuned me out and are wondering why I am writing such a senseless blog post. You are also wondering if I plan more like this in the future so that you can know to avoid me. This isn’t supposed to be a diary.

What was remarkable to me was what was missing from this scenario. There was no arguing. No crying. No screaming. No whining for this or that. The trip to and from the car was completely unremarkable as well. She didn’t run off and hide. There was no drama associated with getting into her car seat. She even shared her new doll relatively well with her sister since we got home. When I gave her some school work to do she calmly got to work and didn’t argue that it was too difficult and she actually did it, all alone in her bedroom. She wasn’t distracted by all the things in her room and unable to get anything done. I was reminded of two short years ago when every suggestion was met with opposition and I walked on egg shells many days trying to keep a peaceful home. Schooling was such a struggle for her then too. Between her distractability and her difficulty with visual learning it often took hours to just do a page or two of work and that was only if I was there to keep her on task and make the instructions clear for each piece. These days when she is trying to do something difficult she may complain a bit but she tackles it. In the past there would have been tears and/or defiance and often a complete melt down. No work gets done when the student melts down. She was also very unpredictable. She would suddenly dart across the street or simply run off with no warning. I usually could count on her to stay very close to me when we were in public but I always had to be on my guard that she might run off. I never knew when that urge would hit. She was also very moody. At times very depressed (it is very unnerving to hear those sorts of things come out of your young child). Sometimes maniacal in her happiness and energy. I haven’t seen any of that in a long time since we started GAPS. When we first took her to a psychologist our family Dr was afraid that we would be pressured to put her on medication for bipolar disorder. We haven’t felt the need to see her psychologist since last summer.

We still have our days here, everyone does I know, when we argue all day long and mom, can do nothing right. We have just come through a round of die off and thankfully the biggest symptoms for her was an increase in pickiness at the dinner table (she hates fat when she is in die off for some reason). There was some whining and the eczema spot on her chin is looking worse than it had been but that is about it. Thankfully these days we have to look hard for the symptoms of detox. When we first began GAPS it was the symptoms of healing that were hard to find. More detox and the symptoms that go with it is to be expected as we push the detox through supplementing methylfolate and others to circumvent the broken MTHFR gene that the 4 of us have. (You can read about that here MTHFR Part 1).

I was just struck today by how unremarkable the day was and how thrilled I was to have an unremarkable day. I have GAPS to thank for that. GAPS brings us boring days and unremarkable evenings and I am thrilled by it. (Go tell that to my teenage self, “Boring days can be thrilling.” I won’t believe you.)

Some of you reading this blog have children with behavior that you don’t know how to handle. My wish is that is that you will have boring days and peaceful nights.

Perhaps it is you who is unable to control your emotions. You find yourself arguing with your family or co-workers for no good reason and it seems out of your control. I wish for you the ability to walk away and find the good. This is something that GAPS can heal. It isn’t a character flaw.

GAPS heals so many different issues but the healing that it brings to relationships is one of the greatest gifts. Days like today make me so glad that we have done GAPS and found this healing. I look forward to even more healing and better days. Our whole family is healing in our ability to relate to each other and that is so beautiful and good.

Has your family seen healing of your relationships on GAPS? Are you thinking about GAPS but worried that you don’t have enough extra energy after dealing with your challenging child all day long? Do you worry that the restrictions and the stress will harm your family dynamics? Or perhaps it is your own behavior that is the issue and you don’t think you can change. You aren’t alone. Share here in the comments and you will see just how common those fears are. Hopefully some will also share how they have over come them and gone on to find healing.

Shared on Read Food Whole Health Fresh Bites Friday 2/24/12