One day last April, as I left the elementary school where I work, I suddenly couldn’t breathe. I ripped my purse open and grabbed my mask, clutching it to my face as I made my way towards the exit in a panic. As I turned the corner, I saw the janitor cleaning the floors.
She wasn’t supposed to be there right then. I knew her schedule, because I planned my life around it. My ability to breathe depended on her being nowhere near me. I was furious! Why was she there in that hallway when she wasn’t supposed to be? Why did she use chemicals so harsh that it made it impossible for me to breathe? Why did no one else care that this was happening? Why was I the only one impacted so severely? What made me different from my co-workers, who walked by those chemicals without reacting?
As upsetting as this was, unfortunately, dealing with severe health problems was nothing new to me. I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease when I was 13, and spent most of my teen years bedridden and in a wheelchair. Then in college I was exposed to toxic black mold and spiraled downhill once more. After dropping out of grad school and working with a mold specialist, I finally reached a place where I was mostly better, except for two big symptoms: severe food and chemical sensitivities.
For four years, ever since starting mold treatment, food had made me very sick. At the worst, for about a year straight, I had only eight foods I could eat. Food caused many grueling symptoms, including violent nausea, breathing problems, stomach spasms, and burning skin. I was diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and was told to cut out all foods that made me sick. That was a long list.
As my food problems worsened, so did my sensitivity to chemicals. Initially, when I was exposed to cleaning products at work, I would feel only slight discomfort. In time, however, I started having severe body-wide reactions. The skin on my face, neck, and arms would feel like they were on fire, lasting hours after the exposure. I’d come home from work each day and place ice packs all over myself, often going to bed with them on. We bought cooling towels, and I would cover as much of my body with them as possible to lessen the burning so I could fall asleep.
My hands would burn bright red, and I found that wrapping them in cooling towels really helped lessen the pain. I got in the routine of wrapping them immediately upon returning home from work.
Just a whiff of a Clorox wipe (used often in elementary classrooms) could trigger a searing headache and set my skin on fire. Merely walking by one of the restrooms—with its fumes of sanitizing chemicals spilling out into the hallway—would provoke such fatigue and weakness that I had to hold onto the wall for support. If I was going to keep being able to do my job, something was going to have to change, quick.
As exposure to cleaning products made me sicker and sicker, I realized that outside help wasn’t coming. No one was going to solve this problem for me at work or anywhere else. Any change would have to come from me and me alone. That made me lose hope, because how could I fix any of this by myself…?
And then I learned about DNRS—Dynamic Neural Retraining Systems—and suddenly, there was light at the end of the tunnel!
DNRS sees problems like food and chemical sensitivities as limbic system impairments. The limbic system is an area of the brain that supports a variety of functions, such as emotion, behavior, learning, and long-term memory. It plays a big role in the autonomic nervous system.
According to DNRS, my problems were not from the food and chemicals per se—rather, they arose from the fact that my brain was misinterpreting the signals it was receiving. The DNRS program is designed to help you actually retrain your brain to respond differently in these situations. It sounded hard to believe—and yet it offered me a way out of chemical sensitivity hell. I decided to go for it.
I sent away for the DNRS videos and followed the program as best I could. Every single day I did exercises designed to form new neural pathways, and to disrupt the old, dysfunctional ones that were sending false signals to my brain. To my amazement, I saw progress within the first week. I was in the middle of a conversation at work, when suddenly I realized we were standing just feet away from the bathrooms. I had no trouble breathing, my face wasn’t burning—I wasn’t reacting in any way! I saw more improvement as the weeks went on. And as I worked my way through the program, I eventually experienced a profound shift in how my brain functions around chemicals and fragrances.
I set up my home office to be my DNRS space. Every day I do my hour of brain retraining in there, and when the sign is posted my husband knows not to come in.
DNRS uses the power of association to change the way your body reacts to certain stimuli. For example, if you eat a cookie and immediately throw up, even for reasons completely unrelated to the cookie, your brain may make a new association:
That specific cookie + you = not good.
In the future, if you see that cookie, smell that cookie, or even think about that cookie, you might very well start feeling nauseous. That’s because your brain is trying to protect you. While you were busy throwing up, it made a mental note (pun intended) that you should avoid such cookies in the future.
It’s the same with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). With MCS, your body is constantly on the lookout for that cookie. Even if you’re nowhere near food of any sort, it’s still trying to protect you and keep you safe. In fact, just to be extra safe, your brain might start to check other desserts off the list, anything resembling that cookie, even a little. Thus, people with MCS don’t just have a couple of fragrances that bother them. The list grows, and grows, and in many cases doesn’t stop growing.
DNRS uses the limbic system’s amazing ability to make associations, but this time, it uses it to our advantage. The program teaches you steps to form new connections in your brain, using the power of happy memories, paired with things that at one point triggered you, such as walking by the chemical aisle at the grocery store, but reframing it in your mind to now be no issue at all.
DNRS has steps laid out to follow every day. Each session of brain retraining (called a “round”) lasts about 15 minutes, which you do four times throughout the day. It’s important to be consistent and practice every day due to the nature of creating new pathways in the brain.
One day, I audio-recorded my DNRS session, and went back in and added in the sound effects that I was envisioning. This is not my whole DNRS round, but just the back to back memory parts, starting with a real past memory, and going into a fictitious, but realistic, “future memory” where I could be around chemicals and feel perfectly fine.
There is only audio in this recording.
By following the program, and training your brain for an hour a day for at least six months, you can form long-lasting, healthy neural pathways in your brain, and prune away the old pathways which generated the negative symptoms. Pre-DNRS, when I walked into a room with a plug-in air freshener, my brain’s old, broken neural pathways would send an immediate “GET THE HECK OUT OF THERE” message. But now, after DNRS, a new pathway labels the fragrance as nonthreatening—not anything I have to worry about.
Our brains are aware of so many things at all times. My brain knows that the room I’m sitting in right now has a wood floor, that my dog is asleep to my left, that my TV is in front of me, but turned off, and that I hear a bird chirping outside. But because none of those things are a threat, it sorts those messages out as being not important at this time. Instead, I’m aware only of the computer keys against my fingers as I type this, and the words appearing on the screen. With DNRS, the smell of “ocean breeze” or “birthday cake” coming from the plug-in air freshener also becomes one of those background stimuli that doesn’t need your immediate attention.
After a month and a half of practicing DNRS on my own, I was lucky to be able to attend a five-day in-person DNRS workshop in Canada. The techniques I learned there helped me up my game considerably.
When I got back from the in-person DNRS seminar, I made this DNRS Rap. 🙂
I started DNRS specifically to target my severe MCS, but I knew some people used DNRS to overcome food sensitivities. With DNRS, I saw the miraculous changes in how I could handle being around chemicals at work. Although my main goal was to eradicate my chemical sensitivity, I decided to start training around food as well, and in less than two months I was able to add in every single food I hadn’t been able to eat for years. All of a sudden, I could eat dairy, gluten, citrus, fruits, foods that had given me such severe reactions that I had never even cared to try them again… I could eat everything. With no reaction. (Even things that maybe aren’t so good for me from a nutrition standpoint!)
To be honest, it was so unexpected that at first it really threw me for a loop. I felt as if I had just gotten out of jail after being told I was serving a life sentence—everything in my world had changed. At the beginning, I couldn’t stop from bursting into tears. My husband kept saying, “but these are happy tears, right? You can eat now!” And I didn’t even know. When every single thing you’ve known to be true is no longer true…what do you know anymore…? But each day, I grew more accustomed to my new, amazing life. I could now go out to a restaurant with friends, and actually eat the food being served. I could eat all the fruits and vegetables that I used to react to. I no longer had to eat a strict low-histamine diet, or try to solve my problems by avoidance. I could eat anything I wanted.
In DNRS, you come up with what they call your proclamation. It’s supposed to be a short, powerful statement about how you want your life to be. While I was in Canada for the in-person DNRS seminar, I came up with this one: I can go anywhere, eat anything, and feel fantastic. I figured, if I had to fit everything I wanted in life into one statement, then I might as well touch on everything. Go big or go home. I can go anywhere (chemicals) eat anything (food) and feel fantastic (#lifegoals).
Filmed this video after a month and a half of doing DNRS with the DVDs.
DNRS has given me my entire world back. Six months ago today, I started this amazing journey, having no idea just how much of a spectacular ride I was in for. The program states you need to consistently do DNRS for 6+ months, and after thinking long about it, I’ve decided to keep going with my practice. I’ve seen so much progress in these 6 months, but I know there’s still a little bit more to fix. So I am going to continue retraining my brain.
In a message I sent to a DNRS friend, I expressed that for six months I was working towards my 6-month mark…towards being done. And now that I’m continuing past six months, I said I didn’t know now what specifically I’m working towards. She said, “You’re working towards complete healing, Rachel.” And she’s right. That’s exactly what I’m doing. And it’s exactly what I’m going to get.
I am most active on my Instagram account, ResilientlyRachel. I post a lot about my day to day experiences with DNRS, and the ups and downs that come with it! Follow me there to see the next part of my journey! 🙂
To learn more about Dynamic Neural Retraining Systems, click here
Resiliently Rachel 
Thank you for sharing this information. So happy you have had a good response.
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Would you recommend this for a 14 yr old with Lyme who’s still very sick and we just got out of a house with mold. At the very beginning stages of recovery. I thought Lyme was overwhelming, which it is, but I’m now moving and walking away from everything. She’s only able to do like 5 hrs a week of school on homebound. It’s been pretty overwhelming on every front and I’m not sure if right now this would only add more stress to force her to do this when already her brain isn’t clear. Thoughts?
Congratulations. YOU are an inspiration! I’m just the mom and don’t have Lyme and there are days I feel like I just can’t do this anymore. Thank you for sharing this info, it’s goimg in my list of references ☺️
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I would recommend taking the cue from her. Tell her about it, and see if she’s open to the idea. With this type of program, it HAS to come from the person who is doing it. If she doesn’t want to do it, then it’s not going to work. So if she’s into it, and she’s down to try it, then totally! But if she’s not into it right now, then I definitely wouldn’t force the issue. It’s gotta come from her. Back when I was 14 and really sick with Lyme, there’s no way I would have done this. It just wasn’t the right time for me. And if now isn’t the right time for your daughter either, then keep it in your back pocket for her, and when it is, she can go for it!
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Rachel..Thank you for this, it made me laugh and cry, yes happy tears!! I am 7 months in and have come a loooong way with chemicals. I also have MCAS..seems to go hand in hand with chem sensitivity. Still working on food. Do you have any videos of your food training? I am still unable to travel to a live seminar because of my it’s. I did sign up for your blog. You ARE awesome!!!
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That’s great that you’ve been doing DNRS for 7 months!! And that it’s helped you with chemicals! 🙂 As for the food…I don’t think I have any videos with my food training. For me, most of what worked was just visualizing myself eating the food while doing my rounds. And then once I became able to eat those foods, I would eat a little of a food that triggered ITs, and then immediately do a round. That worked really well for me. To do a round WHILE I was experiencing ITs…. And then it got to the point where I didn’t experience them with food anymore. 🙂
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Hey Rachael,
My son, 25 has had Bartonella for 5 years. His joint pain, headaches, stiff neck went away with abx but he can’t shake his mental fatigue and brain fog. Physically he is strong and runs 5 miles a day to help with anxiety. All abx make him herx and at this point it all seems like a brain thing. Do you think DNRS would help him? Also did you look into neurofeedback compared to DNRS and what’s the difference?
Did it help you with brain fog and fatigue? Thanks.
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Hello! I bet your son could really benefit from DNRS! Many people find it helps them with their anxiety, as well as fatigue and brain fog. I don’t really know much about neurofeedback, so I can’t speak to similarities and differences between that and DNRS, but I definitely recommend looking into DNRS to see if it would be a good fit for your son. Here’s a link to different success story videos on the DNRS website, maybe one of them will be similar to him. 🙂 https://retrainingthebrain.com/success-stories/
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Rachel,
I am recovering from mold toxin illness and recently moved out of my moldy home. It’s been a few months, and my anxiety and sleep issues are better, but I have developed chemical sensitivity that doesn’t want to go away. Not really bad symptoms, but enough to be irritating. Do you think this would work for me? BTW, your videos are so cute!!
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Oh, absolutely! Chemical sensitivity are one of the main things DNRS helps with!! Especially if it hasn’t spun out of control yet, I would definitely recommend looking into DNRS!! You could stop that bad boy right in its tracks and get on with your life, free from chemical issues!! DNRS has been amazing for me. Definitely look into it!! 💚
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I too have lyme and friends..mold, graves, food sensitivities and chemical ones. I am.very interested in ur cds..
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I would definitely look into DNRS! You can learn more about how to get the program or go to an in-person DNRS seminar on their website, https://retrainingthebrain.com
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Hello. My 24 year old daughter is not able to walk or initiate movement since January, 2019. It became progressively worse. Labs verify AE and Lyme among other things new to us. This has been a devastating change from who my daughter is (ASU Summa Cum Laude graduate with a B.S. in Integrative Health that was applying for her Master’s Degree in Genetic Counseling, Karate Black Belt, Volunteer etc.) She has very severe pain all over. I saw a video of you getting out of your wheelchair which encouraged us. I’m wondering how long that took, what helped and what advise can you give us to help our daughter. I just signed up to follow your blog. Thank you!
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I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter’s health! So a LOT of thing sled to me getting out of that wheelchair, but a huge change was me seeing a chiropractor who specializes in the upper cervical (C1) spine. When the C1 vertebra is out of alignment it makes communication with the body and the brain harder, and I soon learned that my Lyme symptoms got worse when my C1 was out. So although I had done 3 years of intensive mold treatment, it was actually me finally getting treated by a specialized chiropractor that is what got me out of the wheelchair. It opened up the pathway between my brain and body again. Also, looking into it you have mold was very big in my health journey. When I treated the Lyme and mold together by a mold specialist who also specializes in Lyme, that’s when I saw a huge shift as well.
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hi Rachel, can you share your mold/lyme doct
ors name?
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Here is their website: http://medicaloptionsforwellness.net/
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Hi there, Can you tell me what the physical exercises are? I am bedbound with M.E/cfids and crash all the time if I do too much physically. Hardly anything is too much, I can’t stand for more than a few minutes or sit either. I am very weak so am a bit concerned about the physical aspect. I am not worried about the mental aspect. Could you tell me specifically what I would have to do physically? thankyou so much
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Hey! So usually, the typical way they teach you to do it is to stand up and step in a circle to physically move your body through the steps of DNRS. You lay them on the floor and step from one to another to another while saying things out loud for your brain retraining. But we had a girl at my seminar who was very physically limited, and they just had her do the whole thing sitting, and that was fine. You just need to mentally envision yourself stepping on each thing on the floor. And for me, although I was doing well physically, I didn’t want to have to stand for the whole thing (it ends up being 15 minutes, four times a day) so I would stand for the first minute, where you’re going through a bunch of the steps, but once I got to the memory parts, which take longer, I would sit on my couch. So I was only ever standing for a minute or so. And then I sat. And that worked great for me. 🙂
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Hi Rachel
I am so pleased that you are well and in good health. I have SIBO small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Do you think DNRS would help with this on its own or would I also need supplements. I am not sure if this was caused be rising anxiety of it the SIBO pushed my anxiety in to free fall.
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Well I’m not a doctor, so I can’t say if you should be doing supplements or DNRS for SIBO. But what I do know is that DNRS will help anything that’s limbic related. So if your SIBO symptoms are at all stemming from a larger limbic system impairment issue, then it might very well get helped by DNRS. But I would definitely consult your doctor.
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Hi Rachel. Thanks for sharing your experience. I have been sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for almost 30 years following a traumatic birth. Do you think this program could help me?
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Yes! Many people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are helped by DNRS! I would definitely look into it. On their website they have a bunch of success story testimonial videos, and you can look through them and find people with similar issues to yours. Definitely recommend looking into DNRS!
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Question for you: I am doing the Gupta program which seems very similar. I, too, do an hour of training in the AM and catch negative thoughts throughout the day. I deal with MCAS, SIBO, autoimmunity, blood sugar issues, and other things. I eat very few foods. Life usually feels like it’s not worth living. How, please, did you specifically train to tolerate more foods? Thank you in advance. I find your story very inspirational.
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So I’m not sure of the specifics with Gupta, but with DNRS we do something called incremental training, and that’s where you introduce very small amounts of a trigger at a time, while doing your brain rewiring session. For foods I started small, and for the first month and a half just imagined me eating the foods and feeling healthy and fantastic while doing so. Then I began adding in real foods, where I would eat a bite, or a piece and then immediately do my brain rewiring practice. Some people go slower, and need to just smell the food, or have it in the room, before they can tolerate it. But then as your brain learns that it’s not a threat, you begin to gain more and more foods that way. So that’s how I gained back all my foods. 💚
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Please, Rachel: Is the incremental training separate and apart from the one-hour of rounds in the AM and pops throughout the day, or did you include the food imagining and/or taking a bite in that one hour of rounds?
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The incremental training is part of the one-hour per day of DNRS. Does Gupta have any resources for having a session with a coach? I know DNRS has coaching sessions and online video support group meetings that can be really helpful to get support from others who are doing it. I would definitely recommend looking into any support the Gupta program has to offer.
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Yes. I start my online seminars later this month. And one can pay for coaching if needed. (Having been unable to work for so long and taking oodles of expensive supplements, I can’t quite afford that or to keep searching for practitioners who might be able to help). I actually was sick once before and healed through Gupta retraining! But I love watching your posts and videos as I can see the joy emanate from you – the kind that only comes from experiencing freedom after being imprisoned for far too long – and it keeps up my faith. Thank you!
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One more question: do you think DNRS would’ve healed you without specific mold treatment? I likely deal with that as well. Thank you.
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It’s very hard to know, since I’ll never be able to go back and try DNRS without having already done so much Lyme and mold treatment…but I firmly believe that if you’ve been around a large amount of mold, then your body most likely needs to detox from it and definitely be away from it. Knowing what I know now, if I found myself living in a moldy situation in the future, and having issues because of it again, I would do three things: I would immediately get out of the moldy environment, I would start working with a mold specialist to help support my body, and I would start doing DNRS hard core to support my limbic system throughout the situation.
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Did you deal with MCAS? Or histamine intolerance? If so, was it DNRS that helped with this or a physician/specialist?
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Yes, I was diagnosed with MCAS and had all sorts of histamine issues. While working with my doctor, we tried everything from pills to strict low histamine diets. But nothing worked, and in fact, I only lost more and more foods the more I restricted my diet. DNRS was the only thing that helped me, and gave me the ability to eat anything I wanted, with no histamine issues at all. It was life changing.
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Question for you: I know you attended the in-person seminar. I’ve seen quite a few people who had a lot of momentum in healing from doing so. I also know there aren’t in-person seminars happening right now. And it would be out of my price range at this time. Can you tell me: were there new techniques taught there not in the dvds? Is there anything you could share?
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No, the seminar just taught what was on the DVDs. The main thing that set it apart was the environment it created, with a bunch of people going through the same healing process together, and being able to support one another. Also, having the instructors living with you for a week allows for all questions to be answered right away. I found it very beneficial to get my questions answered, so that I knew I was doing everything right and to the best of my ability. They don’t do the in-person seminar now, but they do have the Living DNRS online support group that meets weekly via video chat, which I would definitely sign up for if I was starting DNRS now. I know many people who have signed up for that support group and it was very beneficial for them.
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