In July, we talked with two social media stars! And each has a handle that’s as catchy as their content … Mr. NoStressMS himself, Damian Washington, and Faith Ashenden of That Healing Feeling. Interestingly, both take a committed, natural approach to coping with their health issues.
Episodes Featured:
Episode 130: NoStressMS creator Damian Washington
It’s no surprise that Damian had what it took to win the 2020 WEGO Health Award for Best in Show: YouTube. A graduate of the NYC Fame school (LaGuardia Performing Arts), and now an LA-based actor who has appeared in over 30 commercials, Damian is a natural on his weekly YouTube channel, NoStressMS.
Urged by his wife several years ago to go get checked out because she just felt he was moving differently, Damian accepted his MS diagnosis with a mixture of dismay — and relief. Bringing home to us once again how a diagnosis has a silvery lining … because, now you know.
When he’s not filming, and on days he has the energy, Damian is committed to sharing his health journey and interacting with the MS community. When he first came out to LA, an actress friend warned him, “Damian, if you don’t have some sort of practice out here, you will lose your mind.” So he took her lead and got into meditation. Nothing comes between him and his mindfulness these days. It keeps him grounded — for work and for his daily life as an MS patient.
Episode 131: Faith Ashenden, That Healing Feeling
In college, Faith Ashenden was prescribed Adderall — and she is still not sure why. Self-described as “zoned-in and focused”, she doesn’t believe she had ADHD then…or now. But the ADHD drug enabled her to fly through her studies, and after she graduated and entered the business world, she kept on taking it. No longer.
She kicked that addiction, got another diagnosis (Graves’ disease), and after navigating the health care system, took a whole new path. As founder and CEO of That Healing Feeling, she is a patient empowerment mentor, master mindset coach, and biohacking expert who helps women hack the system and get their health back holistically — through 1-1 coaching, online courses, a podcast, and social media accounts with over 40k+ followers.
“I ended up seeing a functional medicine doctor — and that was the start of my journey to healing,” Faith explains. “It was amazing the transformation that occurred, and it all started with the doctor saying, ‘I believe you. I don’t really care what all this other blood work says; it just means we haven’t found the root cause yet. Let’s keep digging.’ We kept digging and digging … but we got there in the end.
“I think the biggest reason for misdiagnosis is the ‘Symptom Band-Aid Approach’ that too many of us have experienced. To put a Band-Aid on something — rather than prevent it from happening in the first place, or trying to understand what causes the problem. The food you’re eating, the products you’re using, the air you’re breathing, the water you’re drinking, your mental health … everything really comes together in your body to cause the symptoms, which are warning signs of something unbalanced.”
In your search for answers, in your daily life with invisible and/or chronic illness, here’s Damian Washington’s advice: “Whatever the hell you want is on the other side of that thing you don’t want to do. Wade through it, crunch through it, and keep going!”
