My Personal Health Journey – Part 1

My Journey from Trauma to Wellness

My hope is that sharing my personal health journey will help at least one person better understand what they are experiencing and that normal results do not necessarily mean an individual is healthy. In 2005, trauma struck when my father unexpectedly passed away from a brain aneurysm while in our backyard. At the time, I was 15 years old and at home. Hearing my mother yell his name from inside our house, I rushed outside and found him lying on the ground. Little did I know how profoundly different my life would become from that moment forward.

While in college from 2007 until 2011, I began to binge eat to cope with stress and
anxiety. I would eat excessive amounts of food to create a sense of comfort within
myself. My food choices during this time were unhealthy; I binge ate processed meals
and snacked constantly. I struggled with excessive acid reflux that would wake me up in the middle of the night and would frequently cause me to regurgitate acid. After
graduating from college, this health issue seemed to resolve itself as I did not
experience the reflux symptoms any longer. However, I still struggled with binge eating.
Looking back, I think the stress of keeping up with a double major in Biology and Health Sciences, undergoing independent research, writing a thesis, completing an internship, and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life all while trying to live on my own and maintain a social life was the primary reason for my binge eating episodes. I was also uppressing emotional trauma from my father’s passing and was very tight-lipped about this experience. I would soon find out that this would only be the beginning of a long physical, emotional, and mental health struggle. Symptoms would arise that would lead me to more questions than answers. Stay tuned for my next article where I move into 2019 and beyond on my personal health journey.

Amanda Taylor has been a resident of the Lake Norman area since 2001. She graduated from Guilford College in Greensboro with a B.S. in Biology and Health Sciences. After college, Amanda worked for a local nutraceutical/pharmaceutical company as a Chemist, Validation Specialist, and Engineer. After ten years of climbing the corporate ladder, Amanda and her husband, Justin, decided to leave corporate life behind and become local business owners. Amanda is currently the owner of Serenity Now Massage Therapy and a co-owner of Waves Entertainment. Amanda has had an interest in holistic health for many years, but this passion increased after dealing with her own health issues which came to a head at the beginning of 2023. Amanda is a current student in the Health Coaching program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is excited to discuss the importance of focusing on health and wellness in an effort to help others lead a long, joy-filled, high-quality life.