Living Through a Contaminated Building

Finding out that your home, workplace, or another building in your life may be affecting you can bring answers, but it can also begin an entirely different journey.

By the time many people reach this point, they have already been through months or even years of questions. They may have visited doctors, changed medications, altered their diet, stopped sleeping well, struggled to concentrate, missed work, or simply known that something was wrong without knowing why. Then the building enters the picture.

Suddenly, there are inspections, testing, lab results, contractors, remediation decisions, belongings to consider and expenses nobody planned for. Sometimes there is temporary housing. Sometimes family members disagree about what is happening. One person may be experiencing significant symptoms while another person living under the same roof feels perfectly fine.

That does not make the experience any less real. People can respond differently to the same environment, and recognized health authorities acknowledge that the effects of indoor mold and other environmental exposures vary according to the contaminant, the amount and duration of exposure, and the individual.

When the Building Is Only Part of the Journey

Correcting the environment is important, but it does not mean that everyone immediately feels better.

Over the years, we have listened to many people describe what happened after they left a contaminated environment, had their building remediated, or began treatment with their healthcare provider. Some told us they began noticing improvements relatively quickly. Others described a much longer road.

Their doctors were treating them. We were not. But we were often standing in their homes hearing their stories.

Some people described periods of exhaustion, headaches, difficulty concentrating, digestive problems, disrupted sleep, body aches, increased sensitivity, or simply feeling worse for a period when they expected to be feeling better. Symptoms associated with environmental exposures can vary considerably between individuals, and recognized effects of damp and moldy environments include respiratory and allergic symptoms, irritation and, in some research, cognitive and other effects.

People sometimes refer to part of their treatment or recovery process as “detox.” Depending on the healthcare practitioner and the individual, treatment plans can look very different. We have heard people talk about binders, medications, supplements, dietary changes and various cleansing protocols.

We cannot tell you which of those approaches is appropriate for you. That conversation belongs between you and the healthcare professionals you trust. Research supporting many commercially promoted detoxes and cleanses is limited, and some approaches can carry risks.

What we can tell you is what people have told us: recovery does not always feel like a straight line.

A difficult day does not necessarily mean you are going backward, just as feeling worse should not automatically be taken as proof that a treatment is working. If symptoms change or become concerning during treatment, that is something to discuss with the healthcare professional managing your care.

There Is No Stopwatch on Recovery

There is no responsible way to tell everyone how long recovery will take.

We have heard stories of people noticing changes within days or weeks. We have also met people whose journey lasted months or considerably longer. The type of exposure, length of exposure, individual susceptibility, underlying health and whether exposure is continuing can all make one person’s experience very different from another’s.

This is also why dealing with the environment matters. Your healthcare professionals can work with you on your health. The environmental side requires its own attention: finding the source, correcting the conditions that allowed the problem to develop and properly addressing contamination. In the case of indoor mold, for example, public-health guidance consistently emphasizes correcting moisture problems and removing indoor mold growth.

Those are different jobs, but for someone trying to recover, they can be parts of the same journey.

Getting Your Life Back

There may eventually come a day when you realize you haven’t thought about contamination since breakfast.

Then perhaps an entire afternoon.

Normal life can begin returning in small pieces. Sleeping in your own bed. Going back to work. Spending time with friends. Bringing the belongings you were able to save back into your home. Cooking dinner without thinking about the air around you. Walking into a room without immediately wondering what might be hiding behind the wall.

For someone who has lived through serious contamination and illness, those seemingly ordinary moments can mean a great deal.

Your experience may not look like somebody else’s. Your timeline may be shorter or longer. Your healthcare needs are yours, and the decisions about your health belong between you and the professionals caring for you.

But please do not lose sight of something we have also been privileged to witness over the years.

For many, many people, there is hope. There is healing. There is life after a contaminated building.

The goal was never simply to give you your building back. The hope is that, little by little, you get your life back too.

There is hope. There is healing. And we are with you on the journey.

Protection From What You Can’t See.

The Deepest Level of Clean.

For a deeper discussion about recovery, treatment, environmental exposure and what people have experienced along the way, read the accompanying article.