The Basics of Toxic Mold (Pt 1 of Navigating Health & Healing While Living in a Toxic Home)
Could your environment be making your sick? Learn what Toxic Mold is, symptoms to watch for, and how it impacted my health in this first post of my mold series!
It’s funny how things often seem to come in waves.
Just as I was gearing up to launch this new Simply Rooted series on toxic mold, I ended up having THREE separate conversations just this past week with friends who suspect mold in their homes.
So even if it feels like this topic is a little out of left field, I promise — it's unfortunately way more common than you might think.
Toxic mold can quietly thrive in the corners of our homes if the conditions are right (think: damp, humid, undisturbed), and it doesn’t take much for it to start messing with your body, energy, and overall well-being!
If you missed it, I’ve already started chatting about this over on Instagram — so before we dive in, here’s a quick recap for my fellow visual learners:
👉🏼 What are Mold & Mycotoxins?
👉🏼 Signs, Symptoms, & My Story in a Nutshell
But without further ado…
🌿 Welcome to the Toxic Mold Series
This post will kick us off into a new multi-part series where I’ll be unpacking:
What toxic mold actually is — and why it’s not just some dingy basement thing.
The symptoms to watch for — many of which you might not even suspect come from mold exposure.
What it does to your body — like disrupting the nervous system, immune function, detox pathways, hormonal balance, and more…
How to combat it — including how to test for it, next steps to take if you have mold expsoure (for your home & body), and more!
My personal journey of getting sick in my own home and what healing looked like.
What do you say? Let’s get started!
🦠 So... What Is Toxic Mold, Anyway?
Mold is a type of fungus that loves damp, dark, humid places. You’ve probably seen it in back parts of the basement, on old fruit, or creeping around the edge of the shower if it hasn’t been cleaned in a while. Gross, yes. But not all mold is toxic.
The trouble comes when mold species produce mycotoxins — poisonous compounds (gas) that can mess with your immune system, brain, gut, hormones, and detox pathways.
These are what you need to truly be thinking about.
One of the most well-known is Stachybotrys chartarum (aka black mold), but there are others on the list, too.
You can’t always see or smell toxic mold — which is what makes it extra sneaky. It can be hiding behind walls, under floors, in attics, HVAC systems, or anywhere with water damage or high humidity. 😵
And unlike a typical allergy or sinus infection that clears up in a few days, toxic mold exposure can turn into a long-term health concern. Especially if you’re already battling other ailments impacting your immune function, or are genetically predisposed to not clear biotoxins well (👋🏼 hi, it’s me).
🤧 What Are the Symptoms of Toxic Mold Exposure?
Honestly? They can be all over the place... And down-right confusing.
Mold exposure doesn’t look the same for everyone, which is part of why it took me so long to figure out what was going on when I was battling it 3 years ago.
Here are some symptoms to watch for:
It’s important to note: not all symptoms show up right away, or even at all!
And some people in the same household may feel totally fine, while others (especially women and kids) can seemingly be falling apart. If you’re nodding along thinking wow, this sounds familiar, it might be time to take a closer look. 👀
🏡 My Story in a Nutshell —
I won’t get too long-winded here because the full story trulllly deserves its own deep dive.
But here’s a quick overview:
A few years ago, I started feeling… well, off.
I had moved into my townhome in the summer of 2021, was newly diagnosed with Lyme Disease and slowly starting to heal… but then came worsening neurological symptoms — intense brain fog, anxiousness, lightheadedness, and extreme sensitivity to fragrances (to the point of passing out!).
These symptoms weren’t like what I had with Lyme disease, and my tests were actually showing a lot of improvement — so it was pretty clear that this sudden wave of new symptoms wasn’t coming from the Lyme I was already battling.
No matter how “healthy” I was living — clean food, good supplements, movement, rest — these new symptoms just didn’t improve.
It wasn’t until I found water in the basement after a spring thaw that I decided to test my home for mold…
Looking back now, all the puzzle pieces make sense — but at the time, it was extremely frustrating and even more so, confusing.
Healing from mold exposure wasn’t fast or easy. It required a LOT of support (lymph, drainage, binders, detox pathways, nervous system regulation, home remediation…) but little by little, I started to notice a big shift in my health.
If you’re in a place where you’re dealing with lingering, unexplained symptoms that don’t add up — exposure to toxic mold might be a piece of the puzzle.
My hope is that through this short series I’m able to provide you insight, awareness, and tools that supported me in my toxic mold healing journey — and might just help you on your own.
Have questions? Drop them in the comments or send me a message — I’d love to hear from you!
Until next time —
Thank you for this post. I look forward to finding out how you recovered. I am sure that I am dealing with mold in my master bathroom. I have been so discouraged. Brain fog is the worst! It makes it difficult to think clearly and figure out what to do.