I recently took part in a truffle ceremony in Schiedam in the hope of making progress in my life-long struggle against depression and anxiety. Although the former has always been relatively mild, the latter is acute and has caused me plenty of disruption and suffering all my life.
A few weeks prior to the ceremony, I stopped taking my medication (paroxetine), following the my doctor’s instructions. As a result, in the days prior to the ceremony, depression/anxiety symptoms had returned. Now, a week later, I can clearly see significant improvements (substantial enough for me to rule out mere placebo effect). As far as the depression is concerned, I still feel some melancholy at certain times of the day, but I am OK most of the time, which is a great relief. The most noticeable change, though, was in the anxiety symptoms. Most of them persist, but to a much lesser degree. A few disappeared completely. I am also sleeping remarkably better.
I can hardly overstate my gratitude to Marcel and Janneke, whose professionalism and kind support highly impressed me. Also impressive was the setting of the ceremony. Every single detail is carefully planned to create an amazing, meaningful experience.