Episode 131: Breaking Free From Depression with Anna Marie Frank

Jul 27

Depression is not a cause or an illness in itself, but a symptom of something much deeper. And when it comes to more conventional medicine, there’s a missing piece!

Anna Marie Frank is a doctor of naturopathy and a certified brain health practitioner. In addition to talking about her relationship with alcohol, she and Karolina dive into the topic of depression and postpartum depression.

Today she opens about the supportive, holistic modalities that helped her heal, along with impactful mindset changes, supplements, and physical hacks you won’t want to miss.

We hope this episode offers you some relief and encouragement on your mental health journey.

A path to holistic healing and overcoming depression

Anna Marie Frank is a doctor of traditional naturopathic medicine and a certified brain health practitioner. She cares about the foundational health of her patients and helps them to improve their mental health, physical health and their energy field.

But… she didn’t always approach health this way. In fact, it was through her own struggles with major depression that she came to discover the beauty of holistic healing.

Working with a wide array of clients, many of them have emotional struggles in tandem with physical ailments or they’re struggling with digestion and gut health. The majority of them come to her after a negative experience with Western medicine, and they want to find a more holistic approach to support their health.

As a teen, Anna Marie was perceived as athletic, smart, social, and flourishing, but the truth is she was struggling with depression behind closed doors. This continued throughout college, and during her early 20’s she hit her lowest point. Growing up with Western medicine, it made sense for her to go to an MD for help. After a brief assessment, she was prescribed three different medications.

Not only did they not help, but she felt worse, ultimately having intrusive negative thoughts. Returning to her doctor, she still found no relief, and during a moment of self-reckoning, she decided to take a completely different route for her healing.

This is not to say that medication doesn’t work for some people (because it absolutely can!), but it can’t be a blanket approach.

Anna Marie’s healing journey took a long time, but it is precisely her own healing that led her to the work she does today. Now she helps others find relief using some of the same modalities that offered her freedom from depression.

Any physical ailment actually manifests in the body from some type of emotional blockage, either inherited through lineage or developed over time. She works closely with her clients to help them experience healing in all aspects of self.

Alcohol, parenting, and challenging the highlight real

As an athlete in high school, Anna Marie didn’t often drink. Instead she would binge drink occasionally. Increasing her alcohol intake at college, her emotional state would be noticeably worse after a night out, and it became a vicious cycle.

Anna Marie had her son at age 27, after which she suffered from severe postpartum depression. She now understands how her history of depression, combined with the brain damaging effects of heavy drinking, left her crippled during a crucial time in her life.

Eventually she realized how detrimental alcohol was for her mental health and made the decision to ditch alcohol. And guess what happened? Anna Marie began to experience less depression!

She started eating differently, exercising for joy and not punishment, and incorporating supplements into her daily routine. With the birth of her second child, she still experienced postpartum, but less severe. She attributes ditching alcohol and caring for her physical and emotional health to making all the difference.

The alcohol industry does an incredible job of marketing alcohol to mothers.

Raising children is messy, challenging, and hard. Anna Marie knows this first hand, and she also knows that true self-care isn’t having a bottle of wine. It’s taking a hot shower and putting on clean clothes!

The social media highlight reels of moms carrying their child while drinking wine is a misrepresentation of reality, and it’s these messages that prevent honest conversations about the struggles of being a parent. Ditching alcohol will give you more bandwidth and drastically improve your mental health.

Healing from all angles: physical, mental, energetic

There isn’t one magic pill that will offer you a cure for your struggles, so you have to approach healing from all different angles.

The biggest impact for Anna Marie was changing her mindset. She began intentionally looking for the good in each day and setting boundaries around who she let into her life. Taking back her power, she stopped looking outside herself for happiness and freed herself from perfectionism and expectations.

What if we all chose differently?

What if we all took back our power and released shame about our past?

What would your life be like if you chose to stand in your truth and own who you are?

Anna Marie also integrates transformative physical tools, shifting how she nourishes her body and incorporating supplements into her daily routine. She even created her own line of supplements to support individuals experiencing mental health struggles.

Anna Marie also learned about the power of red light therapy and sauna therapy which allow you to essentially hack your biology. Red light therapy has been shown to increase serotonin in the brain and supports mitochondria functions, while saunas boost serotonin and dopamine, increase the flow of your vascular system, and detox your body.

The third piece to the holistic puzzle has been Anna Marie’s incorporation of energetics into healing. From mental to physical to energetic support, Anna Marie truly believes in the power of a holistic approach to healing and living.

“I started to really pay attention to what I was choosing. I was choosing to look for the negative, right? So I would find the negative. But then once I started to choose to look for what was good and working in my life, that started to arrive for me, and it was there for me every single time.” - Anna Marie

LINKS/RESOURCES MENTIONED

Learn more about Anna Marie and her holistic practice through her website, where you can also purchase her supplements. Don’t forget to follow her on Instagram for more hacks and support!

If you're a new alcohol-free or sober coach, learn how to attract clients, to market yourself effectively, grow on social media, and break past mindset blocks with Karolina’s Business Coaching.

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