After 13 fruitless months of treatment, I had all but given up hope of helping Sharon, a 43-year-old, house-bound (nearly bed-bound), anxious, irritable, and severely depressed woman. She had come to me using 10 medications, including a pair each of antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, stimulants, and antihypertensives plus insulin.
I thought that her nearly complete failure to carry out my recommendations indicated she was actively resistant to implementing a functional medicine protocol. My significant frustration was likely dwarfed by hers, and together, these feelings were corrosive to the development of a trusting and healing relationship. Despite my best intentions, I had gradually begun to think of her as her as a help-rejecting complainer, with a borderline personality organization.