Resolving Depression Without Medication: Full Transcript

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I tried supplements. I tried therapy. I tried everything I could think of. And I think I was just in such a bad spot. Like nothing was helping. Hold therapy has been my stabilizer and my rock that I know I can kind of lean on and depend on. When I was nine, I was diagnosed with anxiety, OCD, and Tourette's syndrome. And those have been things that, you

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interrupted by the feeling he got in the cold water. This is Matt Kyper from Desert Plunge and better known as Cold Plunge Cam on Instagram. and Edgars Trmanis who has uh flown here from Latvia. They're here because they all practice cold plunge therapy and they each have a story that is going to reveal a pattern about how cold plunge therapy can be used in um in a way that resolves mental health

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had a panic attack. And I'd never had a panic attack before. Um, but I remember we were going from uh Arizona to Florida and I cried the entire plane ride. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever experienced in my life and I didn't know why. Um, and then that just kind of led we we ended up we were we ended up going to Ecuador. So we were in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Um, so very out of my comfort zone and um, through that

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Um, and I did my first cold plunge in Morasco. um funny enough. And um I did two that day and I remember driving home and like that that fog, that cloud, that darkness that was kind of just hovering over me like I could see it like it was gone. It wasn't there anymore. Um and I had a sense of humor again. I remember coming home and I was actually smiling and laughing. Um and it was shocking how

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on. But um you know just faith um you know trusting trusting in God and trusting the process that this is uh the right this was the right decision. Like you said I mean I I had it pretty comfortable where I was at. Um and we're kind of wouldn't say coasting but I kind of knew what the future looked like and that to me that's very comfortable. I like that knowing. Um but yeah, so this has been kind of a

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It can be like flipping a switch. at least in that moment and you reflect on yourself. How how can it be so easy for me to feel like a different person? It sounds like you had one of those experiences on your first go. Yeah, definitely. Um it was immediate and that's what I tell people. I mean I might be an extreme case but I think at a minimum you're going to experience the benefits

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before I found the cold exposure um you know I tried everything. I mean I was still on medication and um I tried therapy. I I tried fixing my diet. I tried um a lot more exercise. Um you know neuro feedback. I've tried all sorts of things. And I got to a point where in 2021 my friend reached out. I had a buddy come to visit and he he saw I lived, you know, yards away from the

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Um, I haven't found it yet, but this I know at least when I'm in there, um, I I at least know what it's going to feel like in the hours after, and I know that that it feels really good. Um, and that winter was, you know, I get emotional talking about it cuz that winter was really, really hard. Um, but I told myself, I was like, I'm going all winter, you know, I'm not stopping. it's going to be this three, four, five days

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to the products and there's a lot of money to be made. There's a lot of market share to gain, right? But these are the types of events that that are the most impactful and and are going to be the most meaningful for folks who who want to try and implement something like this in the future. and to figure out what works best for them. And so, uh, just really grateful to to be here and to be a part of this and

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getting in an ice bath. And and it was almost like just this this uh this thing. I just wanted to get people to to see it as a little bit more approachable. And then from then it was I'm just going to start sharing the mental health side of it and not necessarily from a scientific point of view, but from just how it's affected me and just the struggles that I continue to have uh on a dayto-day. and let's

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just just savor it just enjoy these types of things um fully because of your history as a child. um you have more familiarity and experience with the conventional medicine these institutions of medicine than that or I at some point you must have gone to your doctor or your psychologist and said you know um I think I figured something out uh I found something that's working for me what was their reaction

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to to learn how to hold a real strict routine that's going to benefit their health. Um, and implementing cold as one of those things for it. But you posted, I think recently, that you are now five weeks off all your meds, uh, off of clonopin. So the benzoazipene I'm I'm still on I've worked a little bit more than halfway off of my SSRI. I've been on SSRI since I was nine uh since the time of diagnosis. So 24

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Yeah. The first I mean couple things I'd say just to preface. First, I'm not a doctor, right? Not a medical professional. Um and and two, I would say that this isn't a conversation that only applies to a few people in the room. Um someone you know is on an anti-depressant and their relationship with that can be good

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um 90% of the time is way too fast. And the doctors who are prescribing the medication know nearly nothing about proper taper protocol off of this medication because they prescribe it in a a doctor's visit that lasts on average less than 15 minutes in this country but then the process of trying to come off that medication should take months if not a year or more. Um, and so it's really

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the same thing it's trying different things right you get so desperate you try everything therapy running six times a week you eat better you cut out every carb there is on this planet of earth but I want to start this really saying that I'm lucky Like I'm really lucky because I have not gone to war. Um, no one in my family has any terminal diseases. Everyone is happy. Like I'm loved like every day. Everyone texted me

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work as much as I can but let's visit every professional we can to understand is it a gut problem is it some is it blood work so we proceed to go through this list of everything uh in therapy. Maybe we resolve some relationship problems I had. But they and then she sent me to psychiatrist and psychiatrist puts me in SSRI that I take for one 1. 5 years. I switched to different ones. I had some sedatives because I kept

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uh I have a suicide note and my plan is to either other overdose headache pills or drown myself and so I told my parents like go for a jog normal not no one suspect anything. So, my plan was to run as far as away I can and just drown myself. And that was the second lucky moment when my dad noticed the suicide note in my bed. And he's like, "Let me run with you." And I'm like, "Ah, shit." You

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day that you know the Latin winter starts and the moment I dipped in I'm like a door opens in my head I'm like what what am I It's I felt so ashamed of like I don't want to die. Like I want to survive, you know? It's like you get that survival feeling and like I tell my dad like I'm so sorry. Like I didn't want to do that. And you're like, "It's okay. Like we'll come back here

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through an adventure. And I'm very happy to say that now 2 years later I'm finally free of medication. I've tapered off. I'm I'm really wishing Cameron the same because uh it is indeed tough and not a lot of people know how to do it like properly. The knowledge is just not that freely accessible. And so like I don't mean to turn like after I like similar to Matt I like I couldn't just go back to my regular job

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sort of cheering because they can relate to your story. How do we reach the people who probably aren't watching and should be? So the number one thing I love about nature swims is there's always another person on the beach looking at you. And one of the cool things actually that I do love to brag about is uh whenever me and my dad and my mom now we go into the cold water there like three kids on the

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of how to come off because you're right, Cam, doctors, they don't know. Most doctors tell you you can get on an SSRI and you can stop it anytime you want to and that could kill people. Um, and I also want to say, I mean, there can be a time and place for for medications. I think it there's a time and a place where people may need it. Um, but for me it just I couldn't stand it because of the side effects. But, um, that kind of

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com comfort zone a little bit, we think something's wrong, right? So, we become so soft, I think, unfortunately. And I think that's also a great segue like what I hear in both of your speeches about relapses like many people like they say right ice bathing helped them but we oftent times keep it silent that we had these relapses even after these breakthrough moments and but what I found really

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just helps to to have tools like the cold water to help you learn the self-awareness piece of what it's like to um you know, just connect more with your body. So, and I like how you also you intuit intuitively find this consistency, right, that it works for you. And I love how you know there's this back to nature like going back to nature. It's like I remember that going through this like I

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myself into the ice bath every freaking day because I was so afraid. Well, now I don't have a prostate problem. So, uh, sometimes people will come at me, you know, I'm a faculty member at ASU. I teach in engineering and I'm a scientist. And I'll go on Instagram or whatever. I'll start talking about the science and they'll say he's just trying to sell more ice baths. He's not credible. He's conflicted. It's true. I

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there wasn't really anybody talking about it. And so I'm trying to think about what's kind of changed. I mean, you know, the past two years you got people like that really believe in it and know why they're doing it and then you have people just doing it because they think it's cool, right? Um, so and then a lot of the other things that kind of bother me too is just there's so many companies like Tom said that are not

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established incumbents to kind of own the space, if that makes sense. But Kim, what about some of those accounts? Some of them are big and they'll say, uh, cold plunge is the dumbest thing you can do. Or they say, that guy is going to burn out his adrenals and he's going to look like he's 60 years old before he turns 40. And like they do they ever come after you on social media like that?

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know there's research coming out right that's suggesting uh certain amounts of time certain temperatures that are beneficial for whether it's a metabolic boost or it's a um you know mental health dopamine increase right I I think ultimately it comes down to the person um and and it's just just the need to to really learn their their ability