Two years of advocacy for informed choice, environmental-health recognition and the conditions every Soul needs to heal.
Today, this quiet Buddhist is tap dancing on a rainbow and breathing a huge sigh of relief. 🌈🙏
Prime Minister Mark Carney, I am deeply pleased by your government’s announcement that it plans to introduce legislation to indefinitely exclude mental illness as the sole underlying medical condition for medical assistance in dying.
After two years of petitioning, sharing my experience and bringing these concerns forward, this is a meaningful step.
Now we need to see that commitment become law.
My mother’s choice and the reason this mission matters
My advocacy was never against someone’s right to choose.
My mother chose medical assistance in dying on May 5, 2021. From my experience beside her, she was sick and tired of being dismissed.
She had been admitted to the Royal more than once and felt that her suffering was not believed.
I believed her.
We shared similar struggles and lived in the same mouldy military and low-income housing. My work in colleges and at the YMCA also became part of my concerns about environmental exposures.
My mother spent decades working at Agriculture Canada in the Sir John Carling Building. That workplace is a significant part of the environmental history.
The main building was demolished in 2014. The government’s stated reason was that it had reached the end of its life cycle and demolition was the most cost-effective option.
The remaining West Annex was later documented as containing asbestos, mould and phenol-containing water. Federal records state that it could not be incorporated into the new hospital development. Its demolition began in 2021.
Environmental contamination at the site required remediation. The federal government committed up to $11.8 million towards additional remediation costs associated with the new Civic hospital development.
These were documented building hazards. What they meant for my mother’s health during her working years remains a question that deserves investigation.
Our homes and workplaces belong in the story of our suffering.
My mother can no longer speak for herself. I am speaking as her daughter, carrying her story forward and asking that environmental histories be taken seriously.
This advocacy is for my mother and every soul who has been medically gaslit in their darkest hour.
When I could no longer see a way forward
In 2022, I also considered MAiD. My doctor told me I did not qualify at that time and referred to legislation that had not yet passed.
During renovations in my home, I experienced months of severe sleeplessness and a sensation that my brain was on fire.
Renovation dust and disturbed building materials became an important part of my investigation into my surroundings. I began asking what was being disturbed, what was entering the air and whether remaining in that environment was affecting me.
This mission is about understanding the root cause of suffering and having a genuine opportunity to address it.
Informed choice requires access to investigation, compassionate care and meaningful support.
My suffering was real, even when my labs were normal
Throughout my life, chronic symptoms were met with some version of:
“Your labs are normal. It must be in your head.”
From Jan. 2013 to Sept.2024, I underwent five colonoscopies, three endoscopies and repeated scans and investigations.
There was lifelong IBS, insomnia, severe pain in my spine and neck, food fears and a bloated belly even when I weighed 100 pounds.
I felt like I was dying inside. I could not understand why my body was suffering so much or what else to do.
Repeated dismissal left me questioning myself. If every investigation came back without an explanation, was there something wrong with me?
I lived with suicidal thoughts and made attempts to end my life. I wanted the suffering to stop. I needed answers, relief and someone willing to keep investigating.
I knew I was thinking clearly about the physical symptoms I was experiencing. Being told they were mental did not explain them or make them disappear.
I ate carefully, kept my surroundings clean and tried to live mindfully without causing harm. Yet my body remained unwell.
A Soul can be articulate, thoughtful and aware of what is happening in their body while also becoming overwhelmed by relentless pain and lack of support.
Physical symptoms deserve investigation. Emotional distress deserves compassionate care. Neither should erase the other.
Looking back from where I am today, I am grateful to still be here. At my lowest point, I could not see the relief that would eventually become possible.
No Soul should have to reach that point before their suffering is taken seriously.
The recovery that changed my life
Since 2013, I experienced symptoms that made me fear colon cancer. In September 2024, symptoms resembling early MS left me needing a cane for four months. I am describing those symptoms rather than claiming confirmed cancer or MS diagnoses.
On New Year’s Eve 2024, I put down that cane.
After reaching a safer environment and completing my DBM-5™ detox, my lifelong symptoms disappeared.
IBS symptoms. Insomnia. Arthritis symptoms. What I experienced as long COVID.
Gone.
For two years, I have been living the difference.
For me, it was never mental. It was environmental illness and a nervous system stuck in chronic survival stress — sympathetic stress mode.
That is my lived experience. It is the foundation of the work I share.
On November 18, I turn 60, with my original joints and natural teeth, including my wisdom teeth.
Why this shy Buddhist keeps speaking publicly
As a root cause Buddhist Biohacker and Primal Personal Trainer using autophagy lifestyle medicine since the ’80s, I have spent decades observing, learning and seeking answers.
For the last two years, I have been sharing that life’s work publicly through DBM-5™ and Mothering the Unmothered™.
My work also includes supporting other Souls and documenting the improvements they report. Their experiences matter alongside my own.
Quiet, trees and an animal companion are where this Soul feels most at home. The possibility of helping another Soul find relief is what keeps me speaking publicly.
No Soul should have to suffer as I did. I thought I was the only one until I started sharing.
This message is especially for the High Sensing Souls doing everything they know to age well. The first born, the stress born and the oops babies born with a compromised immune system, given antibiotics during your first 2 years of life.
The careful eaters. The stress cleaners. The Silent Observers. Those living mindfully and practising non-harm towards all sentient beings.
My own choices include avoiding alcohol, synthetic medications and drinks packaged in cans or plastics. They also include walking away from situations and relationships that do not protect my peace.
These choices are part of my personal history.
You can care deeply for your sacred Temple and still become ill.
Some of us hear, smell, feel and sense so much. Some live with misophonia, food sensitivities or lifelong trauma, including abusive relationships that began at home.
Persistent symptoms deserve investigation, even when routine labs look normal.
Environmental exposures deserve consideration alongside other possible causes.
MCAS, POTS, histamine overload, long COVID and concerns about CIRS or mould illness deserve careful assessment. Genetic findings involving HLA-DR or MTHFR need appropriate interpretation and cannot establish these diagnoses by themselves.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: listening to the whole story
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
For the last few years, I have been conducting my own independent inquiry, asking Souls about dental work and their wider health experiences after noticing patterns in the stories shared with me.
These conversations include root canals, tooth extractions, wisdom teeth removal and other extensive dental work, alongside recurring ear infections, chronic heart issues or breast cancer.
Recurring ear infections have come up particularly in my conversations with men.
Some women have told me their breast concerns occurred on the same side as their dental work.
These are observations from accounts shared with me. They deserve accurate documentation and thoughtful questions. They do not establish that dental procedures caused those conditions. Current evidence does not show that root canals cause breast cancer, it is when we look deeper and see the environments they live in, the toxins they eat, drink and breathe and living in survival sympathetic stress we can start connecting the dots.
Our cells can not heal in the cell danger response, only in parasympathetic peace mode, I like to say.
If you would like to contribute your experience, message me on LinkedIn or reply directly to any Substack email.
Experiences that differ from these observations are equally welcome. Understanding the whole picture requires listening beyond the patterns we first notice.
Our environment and our nervous system belong in the same conversation
Monday, October 5 marked World Habitat Day and World Architecture Day, bringing attention to adequate housing and housing as a human right.
Some of us live and work in damp buildings with poor ventilation and windows that cannot be opened.
“Airtight toxic containers” is how those environments have felt to me.
Housing insecurity. Food insecurity. Unsafe relationships. Damp buildings. Fragrance exposure. Financial strain. The exhausting struggle to be believed.
These burdens can keep us on alert and make rest, nourishment and recovery harder to access.
How do we rest when home does not feel safe?
How do we nourish our sacred Temple when there is barely enough money for food?
Since September 2024, I have lived on $100 a month or less for food while struggling to obtain a diagnosis and disability support.
These circumstances belong in conversations about health and recovery.
“We can’t heal in the same environment that is making us sick.”
— Dee Anne Berry
The way buildings are designed, constructed and maintained matters.
Safe housing must include attention to water intrusion, dampness and ventilation. A home should offer dignity, shelter and conditions that support well being.
Three connected advocacy goals
🌿 Preventing MAiD expansion to mental illness alone, while respecting choice and supporting informed decisions, compassionate care and genuine opportunities for relief.
🌿 Securing better disability recognition, accessible investigation and support for environmental illnesses, including mould illness and sick building syndrome.
🌿 Advocating for a no-scent law. To me, involuntary fragrance exposure is the new second-hand smoke. Shared air should be accessible air.
While out dancing at the Barley Mow, I experienced a severe reaction after a woman sprayed perfume in the bathroom.
That experience has left me feeling unable to return to dancing there without meaningful scent protections.
Dancing, social connection and enjoying life should be accessible to Souls whose health is affected by fragrance.
Coming this weekend: the buildings around us
My next deep dive will explore buildings and workplaces where mould exposure can be a concern, who may be most vulnerable and symptoms that warrant investigation.
It will also consider practical questions about the spaces where we live and work.
Our sacred Temple exists within an environment. Both deserve care.
Root cause wellness considers the whole picture:
Physical • Mental • Emotional • Spiritual • Environmental.
It’s not one thing. It’s everything.
“You deserve to know the root of your suffering. You deserve a chance to heal.”
— Dee Anne Berry
You are not alone.
Free tools and gentle practices are available here at Dee’s Dharma and through Soul Peace TV™ on YouTube:
@DeStresswithDeeSOS
Mothering the Unmothered™.
Peace on Earth begins within. 💜
Sending loving kindness from Canada’s Capital,
Dee 🙏
Sources for the building history
Government notice announcing the July 2014 implosion
Federal assessment documenting West Annex hazards
The Ottawa Hospital’s announcement of West Annex demolition
Federal announcement documenting environmental remediation funding
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/carney-government-won-t-allow-mental-illness-as-sole-reason-for-medically-assisted-death/article_dbe26066-3424-4ef7-b339-ea3ddd07bbd4.html
