My Journey With Rheumatoid Arthritis
I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was only 19 years old. If you are reading this because you have this condition or another chronic condition, what I share below may interest you.
I was told it was an incurable autoimmune condition that I would have for the rest of my life. At that time, I didn't know there could be another way. I didn't know that years later I would recover my health, or that my illness would completely transform my understanding of what it means to be healthy — and ultimately transform my whole life.
Because in order to improve my health, I had to go through a much deeper healing journey than simply treating Rheumatoid Arthritis. I actually had to heal my whole self and my whole life.
Rheumatoid Arthritis was my diagnosis, but joint pain was far from my only symptom. I had digestive problems, difficulty sleeping and problems with my periods. I was very thin and struggled to gain weight. I felt weak and extremely tired. I was also quite emotionally unbalanced, with intense bursts of emotion and anger.
I often needed to sleep in the afternoon just to have enough energy to make it through the day.
When I discovered Ayurveda, I began to understand that perhaps I shouldn't be looking at all these symptoms separately. Instead of asking only, “How do I treat my Rheumatoid Arthritis?”, I began asking:
“What does my whole being need in order to become healthier?”
And this took me much deeper.
I began to understand my health through the Ayurvedic concepts of Vata and Pitta. I had to work through anger I carried towards my mother, which, through an Ayurvedic lens, I understood as connected to my Pitta imbalance — the fire energy associated with heat, inflammation and autoimmune conditions. I also had to work through deep fears and insecurities of not being good enough, while learning to calm my Vata — the air energy that, when imbalanced, could make me feel ungrounded and affect my sleep, digestion and ability to cope with stress.
As I became more grounded and emotionally balanced, I was able to sleep better, digest better and handle stress differently.
I realised that I couldn't work on my body without also working on my whole self.
Ayurveda became an important part of my healing, but it wasn't enough on its own. My journey took me deeper into psychotherapy, ayahuasca, traditional forms of medicine, energy healing, ancestral medicine and spirituality.
Over time, I came to understand healing as something that can involve many different aspects of ourselves: physical, emotional, energetic, ancestral and spiritual.
You may recognise this when looking at your own chronic condition.
Perhaps you also have a collection of symptoms that go beyond your diagnosis — digestive problems, poor sleep, exhaustion, hormonal or menstrual problems, anxiety, difficulty coping with stress or feeling emotionally out of balance.
Sometimes we need to look at the whole picture rather than focusing exclusively on the diagnosis.
I'm now asymptomatic from Rheumatoid Arthritis and have not needed to take medication for over 15 years.*
But my greatest learning was not simply becoming free from symptoms.
My own healing journey completely changed my understanding of health. It eventually led me to leave my career in finance, become a medical doctor, train as an integrative psychotherapist and continue studying Ayurveda and other healing traditions.
And it became the foundation of the way I work with my patients today.
I don't want to look only at the condition. I want to understand the person experiencing it.
How are you sleeping? How are you digesting? What is happening emotionally? How are you coping with stress? What patterns keep repeating in your life? What have you lived through? What is happening in your relationships? Do you feel connected to yourself?
Because sometimes our diagnosis is only one part of a much bigger picture.
My own healing journey taught me that becoming healthy was not simply about making my symptoms disappear. It was about bringing my whole being back into balance.
And ultimately, it became a journey of coming back home to myself. It was a long journey but I can genuinely say that I have never felt healthier in my life. I believe illnesses are many times a wake up call to look for something deeper within ourselves. They can actually become one of our greatest teachers.
With much love,
Dr Vanessa Leon-Sulca
*This article describes my personal experience and the Ayurvedic framework through which I understood aspects of my health. It should not be interpreted as evidence that emotions, Ayurveda or the other approaches described cause, cure or treat Rheumatoid Arthritis. Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic autoimmune condition requiring appropriate medical care.
Dr Vanessa Leon,
Gnosis Clinic Founder
Dr Vanessa León is a medical doctor trained at Barts and The London School of Medicine, of Peruvian Andean Quechua lineage. She holds a Master's in Humanistic Psychotherapy from the Galene Institute in Madrid and is a qualified Ayurvedic Practitioner. She has explored the shamanic medicine of her homeland, and trained in microdosing therapy.
She works with her patients on both the physical and emotional roots of illness, bringing modern medicine and traditional wisdom together in one integrative, heart-led approach.
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