My Battle with Electromagnetic Sensitivity

About 14 years ago I first felt the pain of being electromagnetically sensitive. I was holding a cell phone to my ear to talk and experience sharp piercing pain stab me in the head. So sharp, that it caused me to reflexively pull the phone away from my head. I found that every time I put the phone near my head, especially on my right side I would re-experience this pain. The pain would consistently go away when I moved the phone away from my head so it was pretty easy to see the cause-effect.

This led me to learn more about this little known, but pervasive phenomenon. We switched our cordless landline phones back to the corded models. Yes, they were gnarly with the long cords that tangled! But I could talk on the phone without getting painfully zapped. I also found that any time I was near large electrical lines I would feel prickly pain in the top of my head.

It so happened that we were looking to move to a new area at this time. We needed to steer clear of homes near electrical lines because as soon as we were in those neighborhoods that prickly pain would appear making it hard to think clearly, and it would disappear when we left the “electrical zone.” Again, an obvious cause-effect situation.

Further evidence of my sensitivity was that I experienced pain and tingling in my arms at school when I was using a laptop near the smartboard in the classroom. Again, the pain would go away when I left the “hot electrical zone.”

It was not fun (and still isn’t for me) to be near areas of man-made electromagnetic activity. I assure you that EMF or electromagnetic hypersensitivity is real — very real. To be honest, I don’t like the name or label of hypersensitivity. I feel it is more accurately described without the word “hyper” added as a prefix. The 10% of us who feel the effects of electromagnetic fields means we are sensitive to them and able to detect their presence. To me, it does not mean that we are “hypersensitive.” It simply means that 90% of people are being “hit” by electromagnetic energy and not aware of any observable effects. In many ways, I see the sensitivity as a blessing. At least I know that I need to be aware and take precautions to protect myself from its effects.

What does concern me is that the vast majority of people are perhaps dealing with effects of electromagnetic energy, but they don’t realize or acknowledge it. I say this because we are all aware of the increase in use of electronics in our daily lives. The average American spends over 10 hours in front of an electronic screen each day. I regularly run across people saying their eyesight has declined in the last few months since we have been redirected to do our work remotely as much as possible. More and more are experiencing increased anxiety. Both are signs of potential electromagnetic stress.

Whether or not you feel the effects of EMF, it would be wise to consider taking some steps to minimize its negative impact on you.

Ways to Reduce EMF Effects

1. Turn off the Wi-Fi at night when going to bed.

2. Do not keep cell phones nearby when you go to bed at night. Charge them outside the bedroom or at least 6-8 feet from the bed.

3. Do not wear a cell phone (carry it in your pocket or shirt).

4. Look into diodes or harmonizers that mitigate EMF. There are many companies who make these. I have used various ones with success.

5. Limit screen time to what truly needs to be done electronically and stop engaging with electronics a couple hours prior to bed.

6. Invest in blue light blocking glasses to wear especially in the evening or later.

7. Consider having your home tested for the levels of EMF present in various areas. We had this done for our home. More about this will be shared in a future blog post. Once we saw the level of invisible EMF bombarding us, we were motivated to hard wire our home. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! There is such a peace in our home that wasn’t before. I am so thankful we did this. It was well worth the investment.

Blessings as you minimize your time being zapped by this invisible attack on your health and wellness. Reach out if you need more resources regarding EMFs.