Medical Mimics: The Book I Didn’t Plan to Write (and why we need a framework)

Camille McDaniel (00:28)
Welcome back to another episode of Christ in Private Practice. From the title of this episode, you probably have already guessed that we are going to be talking about a book,

Camille McDaniel (00:40)
titled Medical Mimics, a guide to distinguishing physiological from psychological symptoms.

Camille McDaniel (00:46)
Yes. This episode, I want to share with you exciting news about the fact that the proofs for the book that I wrote came in just this last weekend. And I’m going to tell you.

it has been really really hard holding in this information because I actually started writing this book like the third quarter of of 2025 and so actually holding in the fact that I’m finding out this information this could be really helpful do you know how to do this do you know about that I’m just

because it obviously had to be structured. So I couldn’t just throw things out piecemeal without them connecting and making sense. But I was really excited about everything and how things were coming together and just, my goodness, how they just came together right on time. Things would happen right on time. The right person would cross my path. It was just, it was really awesome. So the thing about this is that I didn’t even set out to write a book.

Right? So like many of you who are listening, who have done things and you’re like, my goal wasn’t even, wasn’t even to do this in the first place. Like I really didn’t think that at the time I had the ability to, ⁓ to write a book on this topic. Like I wasn’t setting out to try to write a book and inform other people. I literally at the time, you know, that this even came up for me, which was way before last year, way before.

I was just trying to stay on top of what I was seeing in my counseling practice with my clients. And as soon as I would get understanding about one medical issue that could present psychologically, something new was being thrown at me. And so the gap, basically the gap between our understanding of medical and mental.

is what really led me to actually putting this knowledge into a book. Because we have, some of us in the field have training because we are doing mental health as like a second career. And so some are coming from a medical background, but even medical professionals are not even always aware.

of the interactions between medical and mental health. And so this actually, this book is the culmination of an awareness for me that started about 10 or 15 years ago in my clinical practice actually. This was not something where I just said last year, know what, I wanna create a book. This really is like a sucker punch straight to all of the medical issues that have plagued my clients.

that have infiltrated my counseling room, that have caused us to spin in circles, that have left clients feeling like they weren’t doing enough and that they were really losing their minds and that they were never gonna get better. This is like a punch in the gut to all of the medical issues that thought they were going to sneak in and kind of cause problems without being detected.

And since I was able to get a better understanding, a solid understanding, and even create like a protocol, I am now in my mind feeling like these medical issues will not be able to hide the way that they were hiding before. Because, you know, we are trained in a lot of biopsychosocial models. I mean, we understand, first of all, upon intake.

that there are things that we need to ask in order to understand better the medical side of our clients and what might be presenting for them that they are coming into the room with. We know all of the different modalities and treatment as far as psychology is concerned and how to use those, but we’re really not trained in how to operate with biological factors that might present as we move along throughout our time in therapy.

because everyone doesn’t come in just knowing their levels, hormonal, nutrient or otherwise, they don’t always know. And sometimes people are coming in and they have had testing, they know what’s going on initially, but a year from now, if you all are still working together and some things start popping up that look really interesting, our minds might not go back to medical. So today,

Today I want to talk about how this book actually started, ⁓ what shifted midstream while I was writing the book, ⁓ what I see happening in mental health spaces right now and then just why the structure matters a lot, matters a lot that we have a structure, a protocol in place versus just each of us coming with our own bits of information ⁓ that vary.

from person to person. So if you have ever felt like something was maybe missing, something you couldn’t put your finger on, or you didn’t necessarily feel like you had a framework in order to catch these things or even know that they could be a potential issue, this episode is for you and for anyone else that you might know, which would be any mental health professional, graduate student, all the way up to very seasoned.

I’ve been in this field for a little over 20 years and so I feel as though if I had known some of these things way in the beginning, I probably could have helped even more people than I’ve already been able to assist. So with all of that being said, let’s jump right in and start with what I started to notice over the last 10 to 15 years or so.

And what, what started as ⁓ really asking a person about blood work, then led me down this whole entire path. And I’ll tell that story in a quick hot minute. But ⁓ what I started noticing 15 years or so ago was that there were certain times where clients actually were not improving, even though the model of treatment was ⁓ standard researched.

and known to work in most cases, and I know nothing is 100%, but this should be working with all of the information that I had. But the symptoms, the symptoms weren’t getting better. And in some people I noticed symptoms weren’t also matching like the life stressor that they were presenting with.

And I know that in some cases, like I was noticing that some people’s fatigue and lack of motivation and inability to concentrate or focus or even get out of the bed or eat or all of those things, they didn’t seem psychological. They really started to feel like they were coming from a physiological base. I was noticing that mood instability kind of possibly was

kind of connecting more with hormone imbalances versus actually being psychological in nature and same thing for anxiety. And when I really started in this field, I honestly was only aware of a couple of things that I could even educate clients on when it came to advocating for themselves with mental health professionals, or excuse me, with medical professionals. So.

you know, we would talk about the fact that the clients were, you know, feeling lethargic and feeling super tired and not able to get themselves going, even struggling to make it through the workday. And I’d say, you know, when’s the last time that you had maybe a physical with blood work involved? And they would share when that was. And I would, ⁓ you know, encourage them to consider reaching out to their physician again and ⁓

asking them if there were any tests that they could do to maybe even check and see if they had any deficits as far as know nutrients like vitamins or hormones and things like that but even then I realized fast forward to today that even the way that I was speaking to them regarding how to advocate with their physicians could have been much

much broader, could have been much clearer, ⁓ could have maybe, you know, ⁓ backed away from certain things. And I realized that we, again, didn’t have a protocol, not in my graduate training, not even in training regarding CEUs that are available. So that’s then what got me kind of really thinking like, man, what else is out here? Because I was pretty comfortable thinking

that there were probably just a couple of deficits that mimicked psychological issues and disorders. I knew that the thyroid could create medical issues that mimicked psychological issues. I knew that certain vitamin deficiencies could, I knew that iron could. And I really thought that’s, those are pretty much the things that could cause issues and boy, was I mistaken. Boy, was I mistaken, right?

And what happened eventually was I asked a client one day, this was long, long ago, but there was a client who was experiencing certain symptoms that were creating a lot of discomfort in their life. And they were really convinced that they needed some, ⁓ some medication. They were just like, I just don’t, I just don’t know where else to go with this. And I just need a referral so that I can get meds.

and right before giving them the referral, I said, well, you know, you had mentioned to me that you have not had a physical since the last time you gave birth. And I said, would you be open to going and seeing your physician to get a blood work and get a physical so that we can just make sure in that area everything is okay? And

Lo and behold, some of you may have heard this this story before, but for many of you, you’ve never heard it. The physician’s office called me. I have never had this ever happen in my practice history. And up until now, it has never happened again. And so, so the physician’s office called me and they wanted to know what labs I was ordering. Okay, how many of us already know we cannot step into?

We cannot, there’s absolutely no way we can step into that area. I am not trained as a physician, as a medical physician. I am not trained in the area of labs testing. Again, I’m not a medical physician. So I’m not a medical personnel of any type that would allow me to be qualified to tell them which labs I was ordering and, and I just didn’t know, I had no idea, I had no clue.

So I shared that with the person on the other end and I said well I actually am not able to tell you what labs to order. I actually don’t even know ⁓ and I’m just hoping that maybe the test results will show something. I can tell you what I’m seeing and yes I did have a release of information in order to speak with the person on the other end. And so I said here’s what I’m seeing.

from my client in the counseling office? Is there a test that might be able to let you know and I know if there might be something going on medically that then could be resulting in these symptoms? And fast forward, this is one of the times where I just added something to my noggin, just added something to what I already thought.

would be possibilities because here was one more, all right? Turns out, client comes back and says, well, I got my test results. Turns out I’m pregnant. I said, my goodness, okay. Well, that was not on the table because in this particular case, as many people who might be listening who deal with couples who are struggling to conceive,

this individual and their spouse thought that it wasn’t possible for her to get pregnant.

But thankfully for the testing, the changes that she was seeing was largely related to the fact that she was in her first trimester of pregnancy. And I share that story because I know that sometimes we might be thinking that we know, ⁓ it’s more than likely this type of deficiency or it’s more than likely

that type of deficiency, right? Because that’s what we have heard about most or that has to do with a lot of research that we ⁓ have read or heard about. And this leads me to my next point. What I see happening in some mental health spaces and what I see happening is that we are trying

I mean, I can see therapists are like, yes, I recommend, you know, that my clients get blood work. It’s, it’s in my intake. It’s definitely something I ask about. I see some therapists who are saying, you know, I wish I could just suggest that my client take this vitamin or take this supplement, like

I wish I could suggest that they take vitamin D or that they take magnesium. And then some even saying, yes, you know, I just let them know, hey, research suggests that, you know, vitamin D can be very helpful in this area or magnesium could be very helpful in this area. Then you have individuals who are very into natural health and they’re recommending things, whether it’s like,

beetroot juice or some other things, sea moss or magnesium blends or other types of things to help ashwagandha and all these these things but here is the very dangerous thing that I want you to remember about the example I gave when the client came back pregnant. That the first trimester of pregnancy can cause you to be depleted. Fatigue abounds, okay?

For some people, it’s really bad. I can remember even for myself, I had no inner, I’m talking about could lay in the same spot for over an hour and feel no more rested than when I first laid in that same spot. For other people, it could be a deficiency of a vitamin. For others, it could be something hormonal. There are so many possibilities, we don’t want to suggest a thing.

because people are coming with symptoms, but the root of the symptom could be a multitude of things that blood work will end of your analysis can then help give more direction. See, one thing that we don’t have as mental health professionals is a medical baseline. We don’t have a baseline.

So you don’t want to suggest vitamin D supplements or magnesium because you don’t know if someone is like borderline low or severely low. And a supplement can cause that person to go into a surplus, which we oftentimes in mental health talk about all the deficits, but we don’t really talk about the surplus.

And so we want to stay far away as mental health professionals about recommending something specific

We don’t know if the issue has to do with a lack of nutrients or a surplus. We don’t know if the issue happens to be related to a hormonal surplus or deficiency. You’d be surprised at how each one can then look like a psychological issue. So if you do not know the baseline labs, you cannot assume deficiency.

You cannot assume severity and you cannot then know the safety behind what you are suggesting. I’ll give an example. Too much vitamin D can actually create mood symptoms. Too much magnesium can cause a person to be lethargic and have some cognitive slowing.

a surplus can destabilize just as much as a deficiency. So we want to start with blood work and urinalysis before we go any further at all. And then we want to keep in mind

that this may not even be something that we only mention once. It honestly depends on our client and the situation that is presented in our counseling spaces. So this is how the book started. All of these things that I’m mentioning are all different things that I have experienced in my time providing mental health care to the clients who have walked into

our doors or onto my screen. It really began with just a collection of different patterns that were presenting themselves. Like I was originally heavily focused even in this book, this book, this right here is the book for everybody who is watching on YouTube and as you can see it’s a proof so it says right across not for sale but I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so excited. All right

back to being controlled but this is why I created this because of all of the times that I actually saw these patterns and when I first initially wrote this book manuscript, I was heavily focused on deficiencies, heavily focused on like low ferritin, low b12, low thyroid, low estrogen. There was a shift though.

there was a shift. my goodness, I’m so grateful as I start to even talk about this shift, I’m so grateful for my clients who shared their stories, who allowed me to suggest going to their physician for blood work in urinalysis when really, really what they wanted was relief right then and there. They were at the end of their rope.

and to then have to go and schedule an appointment to get blood work and urinalysis was just one more thing but they did it. And in many of the cases, not all of the cases, not every single case, but in many of the cases, enough cases that I know this book is valuable, in enough of the cases clients came back with things that were going on and one of the clients that changed the trajectory of this book

had been dealing with symptoms for a while. These symptoms were feeling like they were going in circles. There was a lot of different things going on that were attacking their mind and body with with regards to the symptoms. And they just said, I think I need a referral.

I think I need a referral to a psychiatrist.

and they they shared some other things that led us into a conversation where eventually I said I’d really like for you to wait see what the blood work says and if the blood work comes back everything is fine. I have referrals, I can give you referrals but I would really ask that you wait

there’s no amount of counseling that will help this particular hormonal imbalance.

to heal and there is no counseling or psychotropic medication that could assist with this hormone and and there’s no psychotropic medication that is going to help if these other things might be at play because they are rooted in a physiological issue and when they came back it turned out

they had a surplus, a very high surplus of a particular thing and then a surplus in some other areas and

that helped change the trajectory of the book so that we look at the fact that values can come in not only low but also high and how a surplus in certain hormones and certain vitamins can cause problems. And and I went in and reshaped one of the chapters and

and made sure to include additional information that we would need to definitely consider. So even in writing a book,

you may have a thought about how this book needs to move forward. You may be absolutely convinced that you have everything that you need to have, but be open to going against your own initial thought. Be open to changing the trajectory if you know that it is going to be beneficial to the individuals who are going to obtain what you have written. So I didn’t want

because this is, didn’t want, I didn’t want, I didn’t want to be a therapist who was improvising. I don’t want you to be a therapist who’s improvising. I wanted a framework. I felt like this is something that was missed that needed to be taught across all graduate school disciplines for mental health. And when I found out,

all of the things that mimicked psychological disorders. I was like how could we have not had a framework? This is really important. But I came up with a framework of notice, ask, act in a then document. Notice, ask, act, document. It was it’s a structure.

It just replaces people’s thoughts and opinions and what they read in research and all that. It replaces all of that so that everybody knows how to move forward, stay in their scope of practice, which allows us to stay ethical and to move forward, empowering our clients. I’ve had clients who have said, well, what do I say to my doctor when I go in? What am I supposed to say? We, yeah, we go over a few things.

in the advocacy section of the book. ⁓ advocacy section of the book will start to talk about how you actually can have conversations with the medical professional, our clients can, and how we can collaborate with medical professionals that are on our clients’ team.

When I wrote this book, so just like to also put this out there for anybody who is seeking to write the book. ⁓ my goodness for those authors out there. I mean, bless you with everything I can offer. Just may the Lord bless you and keep you because writing a book is no joke. And when I first wrote this, as far as researching,

I have to tell you, transparently, I probably did not research whether someone else had written these types of books as well as I could have. I did a search on Amazon. I found a book written on more like psychiatric medical mimics, but it seemed to have a real heavy

psychiatric component to it as far as like meds and and things in the psychiatry world but either way that’s the book I found and it was written in 1986. So I knew I could provide information that would be a bit more updated because they there were no other additions for that book.

And there were even some things that weren’t even being tested for in 1986 on blood work. you know, and then there are other things fast forward as far as considerations for the framework of, you know, notice, ask, act. And then after that, you know, document, there were things that weren’t even in place like telehealth, you know, back in 1986. So after I finished,

like checking and seeing where I’m going to be filling in the gap with this book, I then discovered after I had already gotten this, then I discovered ⁓ there are two other books. Okay well thankfully those two other books were different in scope and in structure.

But you want to do your research early. You want to make sure that there’s not something already out there. That way you can just get it yourself and start looking through it versus creating or reinventing the wheel. You don’t want to do that. Now thankfully with these other two books that I did find one of them was heavy in listing out all

medical diagnoses. I mean, they had everything from like Alzheimer’s disease and Lyme disease and ⁓ all the diseases like any disease that you could possibly think of except for I don’t think they had one of them that’s in this book because it’s not well, it’s not really well known because there’s not many people who have it but it just so happens in our practice we have two people who have it. So, so either way.

I put that in the book, just kind of a nod. The client doesn’t even know that they inspired that part, you know, but I put that in there and that was definitely not something that was in one of those other two books. That book was like over 600 pages long and I remember

just as a clinician who’s in private practice, I thought, ⁓ my goodness, that felt overwhelming. So it was really not something I felt I could go through and then be ready with a framework and a structure of how to ask and how to act and how to collaborate and how to help my client advocate. That wasn’t the purpose of that book. And then there was another book, but it seemed like it went in a bit of a different direction.

with regards to letting people know about medical mimics again. So I was thankful that after looking at those three, I realized, ⁓ none of them are providing like, this is not going into framework. This is not going into how to think about it as a mental health professional in ways that you’re going to then ask questions. And what do you do if lab results come back showing there’s a problem? And then what do you do if lab results show that there’s no problem? And how do you help your

clients advocate and what to say and how to say it and you know role play it and then how to collaborate. So I was really happy about that, really happy about that. There were a lot of additions to it, the manuscript, over time.

And I was really thankful for the people who looked at it. Like I was able to have a medical professional look at it and endorse it. A mental health professional read it and endorse it. I am next door to a doctor’s office in this new office that I’ve been in for the last three years. And I shared this on another episode about medical mimics.

the nurse practitioner over there was nice enough to take some time during their lunch to explain some things for me. This was like over a year or two ago, maybe about two and a half years ago.

because I was seeing again more things pop up in my practice and I’m like okay I am I’m trying to stay in my my psychology lane but that is not that’s not the best way you have to have an integrative approach but how do I have the integrative approach right you know what what is going on here and and so I shared with them the story about

know the doctor’s office calling asking for the labs and and I said to them by the way what labs are included in in just basic blood work because I had then since found that there’s a lot of different blood work type of tests.

And so I said, so if I send my client to get just a regular blood work panel, what am I sending them to get? And then they explained, like, this is what’s on a basic panel. They actually pulled their lab form to show where they actually order different labs. And they say, she circled it for me. These are the ones we actually we test for. And this is what they do. ⁓

great. So at least I knew that if I was sending somebody, you know, then ⁓ I knew that I was kind of sending them to to get what they needed and that it wasn’t going to miss really critical areas. Now there are some areas of specialization

where they might need more testing ⁓ but that’s where you help your client to advocate with their medical professional and then the medical professional can possibly send them to a specialist and and again even if their doctor doesn’t catch something but you continuously see something show up that cannot be addressed even if the person has been to more than one mental health professional and mental health treatments are not helping we can still look at well is there a different type of

specialists, is there a different type of doctor you might need to consider? You know, some people are maybe needing an internist. And so you again, you can ask them to ask and talk with their mental or excuse me, physical health. So medical professional about what their needs might be. If they are talking about having stomach issues, you can let them know, hey,

maybe you might want to address this with your doctor and ask is there a specialist which there is it’s a gastroenterologist but here’s the thing you don’t have to worry about knowing about a gastroenterologist all you’re going to do is talk with your clients so that they can be very specific about their symptoms and and other things that are going along with those symptoms so that their medical professional might be able to then better understand the full scope of what’s going on and then refer

them to have is whoever is needed. Yeah. When writing the book, it just so happens that I didn’t work with a publishing company. So there were a lot of things that I had to learn. And I’m going to tell you, I give it up to publishing companies and all of the individuals who work. I mean, if you can just go the route of getting a company,

go that route. I know and and I just didn’t want to be held back by this because I know that you have to then like submit your manuscript, you have to wait for them to you know contact you back, there’s certain ways that they would like to do certain things or suggest certain things, they work with your manuscript, they you know they might massage it and all and and so so while it wasn’t necessarily the path I chose but I definitely see why it’s valuable because there is a lot to like formatting of

formatting the cover, making sure that you’re getting the numbers on the pages like you know formatted correctly, all of that, making sure that you get your ISB in and things that you’ll need for sales and it’s just, it can be a lot, it’s a learning curve. I used ChatGPT which I am now hearing or seeing online, I guess there’s like this big thing between ChatGPT and Claude.

I’d have to look into it more. I had ChatchibiTea teach me. So I said, like, how do I get the numbers on my pages to do this particular thing? And I told it what system I’m operating off of. And it would say, ⁓ you know, according to your system, you’re going to just go here, here, here, here, set this, set this, set this. So it taught me, you know, it gave me the technical instructions for how to do things even.

I’m post, going to, ⁓ you know, take a look at the proofs. And then if there’s any changes, I’ll make them and make sure that it’s all good to go. But I’m doing it on Amazon KDP. And Amazon KDP gives you a template for the cover of your book.

And then I just asked chat GPT like okay now how might I be able to use this as it relates to the cover of the book and it just gave me a lot of instructions. So that was really nice. It made things a lot easier and I realized ⁓ I would not be able to have done this by myself. So for those who want to write a book

here’s just some practical advice. Start with what you feel passionate about because that is going to take you the whole leg of the journey because it may be a long journey and and if you are passionate about something that’s academic, do the research to see has it already been presented or

is what you’re present wanting to present, something that is going to fill a gap, fill a need. If you have a desire to write something that’s more on the creative side, again you you may want to see has that same thing been put out there already exactly how you’re wanting to write it but if it’s not exactly how you’re wanting to write it, put it on out there right? You know you want to also

Make sure again if you’re writing something of a clinical nature, make sure to stay within your scope. So you don’t want to go too far out suggesting things and writing on things that don’t align with your scope of practice without collaborating with individuals who are in that particular field and it is within their scope of practice to know about this, to talk about this. That’s why I asked a medical professional to read my book.

That’s why I also then had others who were in the mental health field just review it but I wanted to make sure that I had medical professionals looking or telling me information that I could then go research and and double check and say yes I see, I understand and I see how this fits into a psychological counseling framework. So ⁓

The other thing I’d say if you’re wanting to write a book, like I mentioned earlier, be willing to pivot. If you start down one road and you’re absolutely dead set on it going this way, but you find information that is valuable, that could be really great for the community that you want to serve, allow yourself to change direction. It’s not going to hurt anything. It won’t. And it may be exactly what your book needs.

Give yourself more time to complete the book than you think you might need. Allow yourself to be patient in the process, which is hard for me. I do sometimes struggle with like, all right, I mean, I had to laugh at myself because I was like at the end, I was at the like final end of the journey. And there was one little thing that wasn’t going right with trying to get the proofs. And I’m just like, well, maybe I just can go ahead and just get it published. I don’t need the proofs.

And it’s like, you’re right at the end. You just did all of this. Slow down, slow down and breathe. You’re fine. You know, so just give yourself the time and you know what? Don’t underestimate what it takes to format a book properly and the logistics behind publishing. Do your homework so that you can get this out in the right way. You know,

when I started with this book, it also comes from a place that is talked about in scripture because in first Corinthians it does talk about how our body is a temple and caring for our body and helping our clients to care for their body. It honors the Lord.

So after I finish,

with the proof. I did make one or two changes after I got the proof, nothing big actually, ⁓ just a little bit of formatting and just one blurb that I wanted to just acknowledge regarding like telehealth consideration. Then I will have a release date coming soon. The release date is probably going to come within the next two weeks and ideally what I would like to be able to offer

from this would then be ⁓ trainings, ⁓ CEU trainings, so that we can definitely have more structure, more information, and more support. So it’s coming, it’s coming. This is the first part, but it is coming. So with all of that. ⁓

I thank you so much. I encourage you to tap into what you’re passionate about if it happens to be surrounding a book, even if it happens to be surrounding anything that you feel is on your heart to do. Do not let fear stop you. I am just an individual.

I am no super extra special unicorn. We are all wonderfully made and we all have gifts and talents to share with the world. Do not be afraid to let your gifts and talents shine. You’ve been given them because somebody needs them and I’m really excited to see what you all come up with because I do know that some of you all are already doing books, some are trainings, some are doing other specialties and other things so

Let’s just get out there and be great, honestly. If this episode has helped you, then allow it to help someone else and please pass it along. Please share it. I greatly appreciate it because you are definitely a part of Christ in Private Practice growing. And this information in today’s episode is not related to necessarily the idea that only people of faith can use this. This is actually for

all of us in the mental health spaces so that we can just have a structured approach to addressing physiological issues that might present themselves as psychological issues, which is why the full name of the book is Medical Mimics, a Guide to Distinguishing Physiological from Psychological Symptoms.

So until we meet again, I hope you are diving into things that you’re passionate about, that you are creating or at least thinking about creating, and may the Lord bless you.