Episode 322 — Don’t Hand Over Your AUTHORITY
Guest: Dr. Cammy Benton • Date: August 31, 2026
Episode Overview
Dr. Cammy Benton returns to share a deeply personal story that changed how she practices medicine forever. This conversation explores why parents must stay grounded in their own discernment instead of automatically surrendering authority to systems, labels, or experts.
About Dr. Cammy Benton
Dr. Cammy Benton, MD is a functional medicine physician, IFM-certified and currently completing a longevity fellowship with A4M. Since 2016, she has owned Benton Integrative, a holistic concierge practice in Huntersville, North Carolina. A graduate of medical school in 2000 and Family Medicine residency in 2004, she has spent over two decades studying integrative modalities including nutrition, homeopathy, Ayurveda, sexual health, functional medicine, and psychedelic medicine. She is a Founding Director of Physicians for Informed Consent, advocating for truly informed medical choice, and is also a student of ancient healing traditions.
https://www.bentonintegrative.com/
You’ll Discover
Why fear can cause you to doubt your own instincts (14:11)
How fear can cloud your ability to make good decisions (34:31)
Why curiosity and humility lead to better healthcare decisions (26:39)
Why you shouldn’t outsource your discernment to anyone (32:04)
Why regulating yourself helps your child thrive (36:14)
Full Transcript
Dr. Cammy Benton 0:00
Who do we trust? What's real? What's not real? And that is part of our human journey. And parenting is great at bringing that stuff to a head to decide. All right, what's real? What's not real? And we're like we're full on in the matrix here, y'all. Like it's we have to figure out what's real, what's propaganda, what is, and is very confusing to people. It's overwhelming to know, and that's when I tell people, I was like, just sit there in prayer, meditation, silence, whatever you want to call it. Sit there. What does your gut tell you? And and if your nervous system is dysregulated, you might not be able to trust your gut. Like what you do with people that your clients that you work with. If you work on your nervous system regulation, then you can get to that truth a lot easier. If your nervous system is always in fear, you can't make any healthy decision out of fear.
Len Arcuri 0:53
If you're a parent of a child with autism, you are being called to rise with love, courage, and clarity. This journey isn't easy, and most parents aren't equipped, but you can be. This podcast is your invitation to rise higher, because how you navigate matters. I'm Len, and this is Autism Parenting Secrets, where you become the parent your child needs now. Hello, and welcome. If you've ever felt like the standard medical system is more focused on managing symptoms than truly helping your child thrive, this episode is for you. So this week I'm joined once again by Dr. Cami Benton, founder of Ben Integrative Medicine, and she's a practitioner who spent years helping families look beyond the standard of care and uncovering the deeper root causes. And what I appreciate most about Dr. Benton is her willingness to ask better questions and to think independently. And she empowers parents to trust themselves and to lead their child's journey courageously, because sometimes the missing ingredient isn't another therapy or protocol. Sometimes it's the courage to think differently and to take aligned action. So we're going to cover a number of topics today, but ultimately it's really about discernment, critical thinking, and just a better way of navigating the health challenges that your child may be dealing with. So the secret this week is, don't hand over your authority. Dr. Benton, welcome.
Dr. Cammy Benton 2:29
Thank you so much for having me again, and I appreciate all the good work you're doing for people across the country, maybe probably around the world, knowing you. So I'm I'm thankful to have your approach to health as well, like it takes the whole village, right? So thank you so much again for having me.
Len Arcuri 2:45
No, it's absolutely a pleasure to have you back. And I know you were on a couple years ago, and we talked about how it was important to go beyond the standard of care, right? Because that's a term that you hear, and there's so much even within that phrase. But and related to it is we're we're gonna kind of you know what's gonna anchor this discussion, which is a lot of it does come down to decision making, and particularly for a parent of a child with a complex challenge like autism, pans, pandas, ADHD. I mean, there's a lot of conditions out there, but if a parent's dealing with that, it's very easy, even if it's unintentionally or unconsciously, to slowly hand away your authority and your decision making, or to be overly influenced by quote unquote experts. So I know you and I are very aligned on this concept, and I would love to get your take, you know, from your perspective of what you've seen, and and again, for parents who are listening, what would be useful for them to know even more clearly as they're trying to make great decisions for their child?
Dr. Cammy Benton 3:50
Oh gosh, I I think we're all sort of conditioned. I don't know if it's like this in all cultures, but I feel like definitely in our culture we're conditioned to follow the rules to conform. We sit in our desk in rows, and you know you have to answer a question a certain way to make the teacher happy, and maybe a little bit more these days than maybe even in the past. It's times our our current system is set up for us to follow the rules, and I think some of us naturally just don't follow rules as well. I'm one because when things just don't make sense, I just so I do think that some people just naturally can do that. I think that there are a lot of people who are kind of geared towards following the rules. There's no judgment there. It's just it's a safe place to be, and and when when people like my my husband's an engineer and scientist, so he typically feels more comfortable and he knows what's expected, what's going to happen, and I'm a little bit like I I don't need to know the plan. So understanding that we all have kind of different ways that we show up in the world that we're born into, so disrespecting that. As well, but I started. I was gifted by God a series of medical misadventures, and the fact that I grew up without going to a doctor. We grew up without much money. You know, we didn't go to the doctors growing up or to the dentist. And so, for me, when I decided to go to medical school, I went in with a kind of this idea of what medicine was supposed to be, and then pretty early on, I'm like, "This is interesting, you know. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it just didn't feel good. And you know, there are plenty of experiences to go about there. But when I got out into medicine, I I realized as like I started as started practicing just like everyone else, and then when my kids started having issues, that's when I really had to dig in, and and even then, as like I didn't trust myself because of everything I was trained to believe. You know, there are certain things that's drilled into your head like almost mantras, really, in in in your training, and maybe it's that way in everywhere. I don't know if it's that way in other professions, but definitely medicine. It feels like there's quite frankly some ideology that's kind of trained along. I don't I don't know. So when my I tell the story about one of my daughters because I feel like all three have their own individual interesting story, and maybe we'll get to those. But my my one that really made me question my sanity most was my youngest child. By the time I got to Izzy, Izzy is my third one. We had already. I started already realizing issues with my oldest kids. One child was having neurologic issues. One kid was having autoimmune issues, and so that it made me actually pause when it came to vaccinating Izzy because the other ones had significant reactions, and and that was sort of when I I started learning functional medicine and nutrition and things like that. So I learned about methylation issues, and so I found out that Izzy had two copies of MTHFR of the c6 717. My oldest one was two copies of 1298, and my middle one was compound heterozygous. I was like, oh, I had the whole like variety, the
Len Arcuri 7:25
whole thing covered. Yeah,
Dr. Cammy Benton 7:26
yeah, and it was actually interesting. Their reactions match sort of the stereotype of what would be expected. So Izzy had the kind that was actually more correlated to significant autism, and so she started with she had GI issues, belly bloating. She was, and I again. I'm telling more in retrospect. At the time, I was like, I just didn't realize what was going on, you know. But in retrospect, I realized. But she was eating like paper, toilet paper, books. Like she had pica, where where pika is for those of you don't know is where you start eating inanimate, like just objects or things that are non non nutritional, so she was mainly
Len Arcuri 8:02
metals, right?
Dr. Cammy Benton 8:03
Yeah, or like something. So she was my goat. We called her the goat because she was just eating whatever she could find, and she was a great eater. And there was otherwise she seemed fine. She was developing fine, but she, I stopped vaccinating her about six months because I don't know something was on me. Like, and actually, then we started avoiding the pediatrician. Even though I'm a doctor, it's like I think, and also there was some stressful things going on my life that I was kind of distracted to. I was working 50 some hours a week at my corporate job, and you know, stressful marriage, and and then trying to figure out, oh my gosh, why are my kids all sick with all these various things? So I, I kind of went into a little bit of a freeze response, honestly, and the we just avoided the pediatrician because I just didn't feel like judgment. Because when I was asking questions about the oldest ones, it was it was not met with curiosity, as you can imagine, for the vaccines, and and so we just kind of ignored it. Not proud to say that, but that just was the case. I just I froze and I just worked. So about 12 months of age, we went to Colombia, South America. Their dad is Colombian, and she's crawling around on the ground, and you know everything that's fine. But when we got back, I was like, she's awfully skinny. And so we, I finally's like, okay, I'll go for a checkup. And she had lost a lot of weight, and I don't even know from what time, from six months to the year. And because when they people, when kids will lose weight in front of you, you don't always notice it when it's just in small increments, but when I look at pictures, I'm like, "What was I thinking? Like it definitely makes me. I was in a period of high stress at that time, so I was like, "Well, maybe it's parasites because we were in like we were in not the more developed areas of Colombia, but we were in more underdeveloped areas of Colombia, beautiful country." And so I saw the pediatrician, and she's like, "Oh dear, like you need to. She needs some more nutrition. I'm like, she eats all the time, you know. And Mike's husband was like, "I told you she needs to eat more gluten, you know. Stop, stop, you know, because I'd already taken her off of gluten and dairy due to the older ones having issues. And so start to feed. He started feed her Cheerios, even though it's officially gluten free, but not really. He gave her Cheerios, and then she started to have massive diarrhea, and that was sort of the beginning of the end for this phase that taught me a lot. And so she started with massive diarrhea because he was trying to fatten her up with all this gluten, and she, and so we already knew she couldn't do dairy. Clearly, she couldn't do gluten. But then, even when we stopped, she just kept on. It started this spiral. So I started going week to week to the pediatrician for weight checks, and she kept losing weight. So she went from 50th percentile at six months to zero percentile to below the chart, I'm like, oh gosh! Like, so going for these weekly checks, the pediatrician is not really offering any other solutions at that time. I had no significant integrative training. I had some. I was starting to learn nutrition and some homeopathy due to the older ones, but at this point, I had not really dove into functional medicine tons. And but the interesting thing is that no matter how much I went back to the pediatrician, she she kept losing weight. Yet nothing was being done, and I was starting to see food in her stool, like whole food. She was have a massive diarrhea. It was like on the walls, the crib, in her hair, like with her onesies. Like it was pretty significant diarrhea. So finally, the pediatrician wasn't doing anything. So I took her to the emergency room. Like, here I am. I'm a doctor. Like, I I didn't feel like anyone was hearing anything I was saying. So I went to the ER, and that doctor was very nice.
Dr. Cammy Benton 11:54
And he did an X-ray and found an ileus where the intestines kind of get big that are just not moving like they should. So then he wanted to do a CT scan. So he did the CT scan and found constipation. Like constipation, like she have a massive diarrhea everywhere with like food. She's have a malabsorption. He's like, nope, it's it's constipation. She must. It must be in caprices, which is where you have severe constipation and you you'll have runny stool around it, but it's not in these massive quantities. And so he's like, she needs a clean out, do a Miralax cleanout. And I'm like, okay. So I got her home. I'm like, I guess I'll do that because I here I am a doctor, but I was like, clearly I don't know how to take care of my own kid. So I did a dose of Miralax, and she ended up vomiting and having diarrhea. So I took her into the pediatrician the next day, like told him what happened, and that doctor was like, "Well, you know, don't worry about it. Just do a clean out, and she'll be fine. I'm like, "She's losing weight. I'm seeing food in her stool, massive diarrhea, and you want me to clean her out more? Yep, it's definitely constipation. I'm like, I'm crazy. I guess I'm crazy. I took her home. Actually, I took her back home. I went back to work, came back, and she was like laying there with her little bottle, like you know, like weak. And I'm like, all right. So when she started vomiting again, I took her to. I actually called that night to the children's hospital, and this is where I got to use my doctor privilege. I'm like, "Hello, this is Dr. Benton. I've got a pediatric transfer. I'd like to talk to the doctor. And so I talked to the doctor. I'm like, "Listen, I've got a kid sick. She's been sick for weeks, getting worse. You're going to put her in the hospital. I don't care what you have to do, make it happen. I'm on my way. So I got there, and they took her straight back. I got a little extra privilege of being the doctor. So the doctor sees her, and it's just interesting watching my little girl that time. Her belly was sticking out. It's kind of like the little babies in starving countries. Her ribs were very present. I could see her spine. This is not normal for a 13-month-old baby, and so then he comes in. He's like, "Yeah, looks like she's got constipation. We're going to admit her for a cleanout. And I'm like, "Did you hear the history? Like she was in Columbia a month ago. Maybe it's a parasite. I don't know what it is, but she's having massive diarrhea. Please help. So then the pediatrician comes in. Hey, really nice guy. Hey, we're gonna admit her for a cleanout, Miralax cleanout. And I'm like, again, I'm like repeating my story. He's like, yeah, yeah. It's just, it's just way it seems. But you know, well, the CT shows she has constipation. So you know, like, all right, I'm, I'm literally, I'm just crazy. I'm insane. Like, I just thought I lost my mind. So I was like, I don't want to harm my child. I'm going to follow the directions of the doctors at the Children's Hospital, who are experts. Right? They must know more than me, even though I'm a family physician. So the next day, the. GI doctor came in. This is where it gets really fun. So she is. She was a GI. It says GI nutrition on her little label. She went to Harvard. I'm like, oh wow. So, like, great. We got the best of the best. Harvard train GI nutrition. I can't get much better than this, but she comes in, and she-I'll never forget. She's just used the little phone, man. Yeah, and then she's like, "So I hear you're starving your kid, and I'm like, "Whoa, what? She's like, "Yeah, I hear you're starving your kid. She's losing weight, and I'm like, "Well, she's not starving her. She eats all the time. Like she's like literally eating every one to two hours because she's so hungry, and she's pooping out her food. And she's like, "Well, she clearly needs more meat or more protein.
Dr. Cammy Benton 15:54
And I'm like, "Well, I'm giving her bacon, eggs, grass-fed beef, and she's like, "Oh, well, grass-fed beef doesn't have enough fat in it, and I'm like, well, I'm cooking it in coconut oil. Grass-fed beef doesn't have much as much fat, but I'm cooking it in coconut oil. We're using our greens in the back in the garden. That's organic and mixing it in with the spaghetti sauce, trying to optimize the iron absorption. And then she's like, she's like, oh, you look kind of skinny. Do you have an eating disorder? No, at that time I was probably like five, six, and 135 pounds. That's not like I love food, by the way. For the record, I love food. So I was like, no, I no, I'm fine. And and and I'm sitting here like, is there a candid camera going on around here? Like I was literally feeling like I was losing my mind, and I was like, "No, I was like, "So she's like, oh, so are you one of those Whole Foods moms giving your kids all the grains and beans and things, like causing your kids bloated belly? Because that's probably what it is. I was like, "I was just like really taken aback. I'm like, so are you gonna do any more testing, or do we do a colonoscopy? I don't know because my kid is having all this massive diarrhea. There's actual food in her stool. She's eating one to two hours, you know, a meal. Like, you know, she's eating a bowl of food, like her like five year old sister, not like little tiny. She was eating food. She was hungry, and she's like, "Oh no, I need her to eat that formula over there. And I was like, "Well, she's been off a formula. She's eating real food, like a lot of food. And I was like, "And you want? And she's like, "Oh, well, we could put Hershey's chocolate syrup in there. And I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. So I'm, I, you don't want me to give my child whole food, but you want to give my child Hershey's chocolate syrup in formula for my 13 month old. And by the way, during this time, they're giving, they're serving my daughter hamburgers, pizza, my 13 month old daughter. That's what they serve for food. So I had to have my best friend bring. She's Indian, so she brought some kitchadi for her. So she's bringing me kitchadi from outside because they're bringing me pizza and hot dog and hamburgers things for my 13 month old child. So she left, and I'm like, okay, I got to do something. I was like, she's fired. Like I, what? It took me a while to process that. So the next day, I told the pediatrician, I was like, get me out of here. She's got good stool output, but meanwhile, she's having just watery stool. Just there was like no stool. It was like water because she was having so much cleanout. So the doctor was like, okay, fine. But they, I told them about my experience, so they set me up with another doctor the next day, outpatient. That doctor was very nice. He listened to me for two hours, still felt like compassionate. But when I read the notes, mother's perceptions of food sensitivities, you know, basically made me sound like a like a paranoid mom. But at least he actually told me he's like, "Oh, it turns out your kid really wasn't constipated. It was rapid transit diarrhea. There was it was so fast that there was sludge, and it showed up as constipation. But then when I looked back at the notes, the doctor said, "Good stool output. That doctor never once checked her diapers. He went completely on my report, so he wasn't checking the diapers. No one was checking the diapers. I was in charge of it myself. So that's when I was like, I've had enough. So I found a functional medicine doctor, like in Asheville, North Carolina. Within a week, with the treatments, she stopped with diarrhea. She gained two shoe sizes in two months. Within six months, we were able to reintroduce foods that she couldn't eat before, and she was fine, and she's incredible. So about a year later, I was like, it took me literally a year to like find my ground there.
Dr. Cammy Benton 19:52
So I finally wrote a letter, and and like I want everyone to see this. It's like I'm not going to sue you. I'm not going to go after you. I want you to learn from. This experience, so and he acknowledged the receipt, but I was like, like you guys were acting like I was starving my kid, and had I been potentially of another socioeconomic level, then y'all y'all would have reported me to child protective services. You know, they acted like I was harming my child when in reality they were harming my child, and as I and it's like y'all don't know about functional medicine yet. Apparently, this is this is back in 2014. I was like, but someday when functional medicine becomes the standard, you're gonna remember this crazy redhead, and you're gonna remember this case right here. But they didn't even bother. They acknowledged the receipt, but they never even bothered to get back to me, and I'm a. I was a fellow physician within the same system at the time. So I mean, I tell that story as an example of a medical doctor trained to see children. I've taken care of children in the hospitals. I was actually a mother three. She was my third child, and I let them convince me I was the problem temporarily, or or to not, even though I was thinking as like I don't I don't agree with that. I didn't speak up for myself, and actually, I I think I had to experience it as I had to experience it for to to be witness to that to what other parents go through, but like that's a situation where you're like, no, you just I want raise it up, talk to someone else. Like a fellow GI doctor agreed. Oh yeah, you're right. It's not constipation. Ask for a second opinion or a third opinion. But my kid was being made worse by the treatments in there. That was that was a pretty traumatic thing. But what it did was it inspired me. I'm like, all right, I'm going to learn functional medicine. Like everything I did was all the gifts. That's the gifts of medical misadventures. Is that it? God showed me how what people experience as you know parents in the system when they're not being heard, and I double whammy got it as a doctor, because then because I was that mom, then I became that doctor too, and you you fall from grace either way, and you had to decide like what's more important is it how you see me is that more important or is it the health of my child and the health of your child is definitely more important, and so that comes into mother's intuition, I like to tell my parents that you know the mother's the medicine woman of the house. You know, certainly you have wonderful fathers that are very involved, but the dads are you know historically you know sort of the dads are the protectors, the the providers, and the moms. Like we give birth to these babies, and we are connected to them forever, like actual DNA. You know, like our DNA is connected, but like they've said that cells, like we share cells, like forever, you know, between the mother and the child. So we have antennas. Our DNA are like little transmitters and receivers. So we are really, truly, cosmically connected to our children, so it's is important for mothers to learn their intuition again, reconnect themselves, and know that we don't know everything, but your gut, well, your gut is God's whisper through you on what to think about your child. That was that's pretty crazy experience.
Len Arcuri 23:19
Yeah, no, there's a lot to unpack there, and and and yes, I'm. Bottom line, you know that all happened for you for a reason, and but being on the receiving end of it, and yeah, you said it was a while ago, not that long ago. You know, 12 years isn't isn't really that long, and it would be an interesting story, but the reality is, right now, that whole thing could be happening to someone. It's not as if things have changed so significantly. Where still, if you show up, you know, going organic, eating whole foods is not something that's you know universally accepted as a positive thing, even now, right? So, wouldn't you imagine that your story could be happening right now?
Dr. Cammy Benton 24:04
Oh, well, I still hear my patients here, like they, they, we, we have ongoing, you know, influx of patients coming from the medical system for not being heard, for not being respected for their choices. So that I mean, that's the hallmark of like part of our mission is is to accept people that are we're the island misfits. I kind of joke sometimes, but it is happening still regularly. I the stories I hear just blow my mind, and I'm just thankful to be in the position that I can. Well, I was like, it's like, well, I want to just make my own clinic for my own kids. Like, I don't need another clinic, so now I have other providers. They take care of my kids. It's great, but it is definitely still ongoing.
Len Arcuri 24:46
Yeah, and then the reason that's important is that ultimately the choice that a parent makes, you know, across the board for whatever the topic, but particularly who is the practitioner you're working with, right? It's really. Useful to take the time to think about who would be a fit, who wouldn't be a fit, what are the qualities, and that's where there's nothing wrong with a conventional pediatrician if that meets you know the what you're looking for. But if you're looking for something like you know a practitioner who's very curious, who's going to spend more time with you, who's going to have maybe more options to address whatever might be challenging your child. That's where there's a huge difference between the types of practitioners that are out there. Let's just say pediatricians, whether you know conventional, which is the default for most of us. That's how we were all programmed, you know, in terms of that's just what medicine is. But you know now, obviously, there's integrative, functional, and there's many, many, many more. So the the idea of who to choose for that medical practitioner is such a key decision.
Dr. Cammy Benton 25:51
Yes, absolutely. Something that to be aware of is that there's well, I think no, there's a lot of ego that we have to navigate, you know, as parents, you know. The I remembered like so many times people like, oh, they're like they think their doctor Google is as good as my MD. Like, there's actually sell mugs with that on there and T-shirts. It's like a a funny mantra, but to the outside, but their doctors actually they feel that way. They're like, why are you looking that up, you don't trust me, kind of thing. As like when for me, and and maybe it's just due to my upbringing. I don't know. I was like, I can't possibly know everything. I can't. Like it is impossible. And just so you know, all those doctors are also looking up things too. Like now, maybe not just on Google, but they're they're still looking up things. Like we can't know everything. So any doctor who says who acts like they know everything and you better do what I say, run the other way, because science is ever evolving, and and even some science it takes a little bit longer to evolve because there's a lot of dogma associated with it. So it can take a lot longer for that to evolve. Anyone who says they know everything, I always tell anyone who works with me as like the day you think you know everything that you got it done, leave. You're dangerous. You're dangerous because we can't. I still after I've been a doctor now for 26 years, I still consult with other people like all the time, and and also the science. What we can do for people now versus six years ago versus 10 years ago, it's it's way more. We're living in actually quite an exciting time in history from all the modalities that we have access to, especially given like frequency and you know homeopathy. Just having ready access to this, and you know, like I think in North Carolina it was illegal to to give homeopathics. Like as a doctor, like that was a doctor got in trouble for, I think it might have been even in the 1990s, and like homeopathy, like that's so that's the safest form of medicine you could possibly give, right? And that was illegal. Fortunately, we've since had legislation to allow us more freedom there. But it's ever evolving, and it's exciting. And so, I you should really want a doctor who's curious. Now they're going to be, they're going to say they're going to think they're curious because they're going to conferences and everything like that. But there's, you know, there's that always. I feel like I need to find that little chart. There's like the chart of like the wavelengths of all the different waveforms, and then there's the the visible light spectrum is this tiny part that that's the only part we see. The rest we can't see, but it's there. And so I feel like the field of medicine is that. That's like what everyone sees, but the possibilities extend endlessly as to what possibilities there may be, and I'm so thankful. And I'm thankful for our specialists and thankful for conventional medicine. There is a time and a place for it all, but that's where integrative. If and some of your listeners might not know, so for me, integrative was like the umbrella, and you got the spokes of the umbrella, so this might be functional medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy, nutrition, frequency medicine. So conventional, and and then so conventional medicine falls as part of medicine, and integrative just means I'm just picking out the best of everything. We still give meds when needed. If I have someone with hypertension, high blood pressure. I'm going to treat the high blood pressure while we work on other things to try to support their health. And that's for me, for me and my children. I definitely want someone who is willing to consider what they don't already know.
Len Arcuri 29:35
Yeah, no, that's that's where yes, curiosity. We talked about humility. You know, to to to show up knowing that you don't have all the answer, and again, I can see it both ways too, because because of the internet, right now AI especially, I can appreciate if you're a practitioner and somebody shows up as as a client, and they're just bringing you all kinds of stuff and peppering you with questions and kind of interrogating you. Can see where people like listen. No, I'm here to advise you, and you know it can be can be done to an extreme. But again, that right practitioner will share what they think. They'll want to know what you think as well. There's a happy medium there, but not every practitioner really, in my opinion, cares that much about what a parent is sharing. And again, if they only have a couple minutes, four minutes with you, they don't have the ability to even ask you questions, even if they wanted to. So that's where, you know, again, it was was a decision that I didn't really think much of early on. Okay, who was the pediatrician near me, and I'm just going to go to that person. But there's so much that really does matter, and and again, I think no matter who you're seeing, parents have a responsibility to do their own homework, to do research, which is why it's phenomenal what you can learn now as a parent. But just like before, giving you know surrendering your decision making, your authority to the expert isn't a good solution now, especially with AI tools, handing that decision making over to an AI chatbot also is not a good strategy. So there's a way of using it correctly, but not in a way that diminishes your role as that decision maker in chief.
Dr. Cammy Benton 31:13
Well, AI is an incredible tool, and and it's created to almost people have to understand. All it's doing is scouring the internet, and so what is recently on the internet is what it's going to display. And most of us, probably most of your listeners, know that what we're seeing is cultivated by very powerful people who serve, who are able to make money off of all the recommendations of the things that are there. So I mean, that was a big shift in the first year of COVID. I remember well, I could find all kinds of things, and suddenly they're like, "We're going to stop misinformation, and then suddenly you couldn't find the same studies that you could find the day before. It was like a switch. You might have, if you found it, it was like 50 numbers down on it, and you're like, how how is this this? And so then AI is still dependent upon that presentation of information, and on top of that, chat will also agree with whatever you want it to say. So I, I had to, and I definitely for the viewers, I would say like for mine, I say please don't just agree with everything I say. Offer me pushback, judge a pushback. I want to see a like different views of this. Don't just give one view of this. If you're really trying to be curious, you want to know all the sides because it's kind of interesting. I brought up like a RFK in like a year ago, and like, oh, he's a dangerous pseudoscience quack. You know, I was like, okay, well, please show me examples of this, and like, did you know about this? And the next thing you know, the chat was like, "Oh, you're right, great pushback. And it was like I was able to shift the entire like conversation. And where I was like, "Oh my goodness! Like, so yeah, caution to putting all that, all your faith into that, this external authority to yourself. Really, this is the important authority here, and the practice is as an adult, as an adult, as a we grow up as children, as we grow up as an adult, is to find our inner authority. That is really the important thing before we die. Is finding who do we trust, what's real, what's not real, and that is part of our human journey. And parenting is great at bringing that stuff to a head to decide. All right, what's real, what's not real, and we're like we're full on in the matrix here, y'all. Like it's we have to figure out what's real, what's propaganda, what is, and it's very confusing to people. It's overwhelming to know, and that's when I tell people, I was like, just sit there in prayer, meditation, silence, whatever you want to call it. Sit there. What does your gut tell you? And and if your nervous system is dysregulated, you might not be able to trust your gut. That's the that's where it's working. Worth you need to like what you do with your your people that your class that you work with. If you work on your nervous system regulation, then you can get to that truth a lot easier. If your nervous system is always in fear, you can't make any healthy decision out of fear. Like nothing good comes out of fear. So working on your nervous system. Say, all right, what's, where's my peaceful place? Where's my happy place? And that can mean that you sit there and meditate. You might do gardening. You might go for a bike ride. You might like whatever it is. But you find your place and help to get your nervous system where you are not in fear. Like I am safe. I am okay. Then you can make better decisions. But just like what with my daughter, I was in fear. I was in fear at that time. I had a lot of stress. I and it definitely clouded my clinical judgment.
Dr. Cammy Benton 34:51
It made me second guess my own intuition. So it took that was like after that point, I really started working on my own nervous system because I. I, the fact that I am a really happy-go-lucky doctor, and I found myself in a situation where I felt inferior. I felt threatened by colleagues. Like, how how am I possibly supposed to make a good decision for my child in that position? That was that lit the fire underneath.
Len Arcuri 35:23
Yeah, and what you're describing again, the system is kind of designed to do that. It's a it is intimidating, and that's why it's kind of a two step process. You know, and the first one is to raise your hand and and choose to remain that authority, right? Which is which is why that is so, and that's just a choice, and then yes, if there's something in the way of a parent really stepping into that, if their nervous system is dysregulated, you know that's the irony is that most parents are trying to help their child, focusing all their energy on the child, but the reality is, as you said, it parents can't make great decisions for the child if they're dysregulated, so that's where you know concepts like self care come in. But even if a parent's not going to commit to self care, there's just things that any parent can do to get more regulated, to get more clear. And I I love that you brought it back to intuition, and that is key. Except your intuition, if you're in that dysregulated state, that may not be that reliable, which is why, you know, the great news is that parents can do a lot about their own state, which brings to the work that I do. But again, I think I'm just so excited for practitioners like you who have been gifted their own experience to see how things can go really badly and really to disempower a parent, and for you to offer what you do now, which is meeting parents where they are, giving them many more options with integrative medicine, and again, everyone's unique, everyone's different, no one size fits all, but you have to have a practitioner who can can you know basically offer you and the guidance of those various options, because if you just stick with the standard conventional model, there's just very few options there,
Dr. Cammy Benton 37:08
right? And I would have to add in there. I think about especially children that have significant challenges. This is often very hard on marriages, and I commonly see parents kind of kind of separate into their corner when they have challenges with their children, and I would just encourage any of you out there. And the problem is, each side feels like they're the right one, and that's the hard part. But it's so important. It's not about whether you stay married or not. It's so important to, regardless of what you feel about your partner, is that you work on regulating your own nervous system, and that will help to prioritize the health of the child too. If you're again, I've just seen so many marital issues. The children are like little sponges, and they feel there's nothing that you can hide really from children. That they feel it right here. So please, parents out there, I encourage you, especially if you you know work with like someone like Len, you know like you, is that they can help to navigate the health in a different way for their child. It's not; it's always about the their gut or their genes or their this reaction to this medicine. It's often about what what's in their environment too. The toxic environment can be emotional, spiritual, like all the things. So just encouraging that as well.
Len Arcuri 38:30
Yep, and that's all. As challenging as that may be, there's an incredible amount you can do about that. Right, your own state, how you're partnering with your spouse. There's a lot of things we can't control, but how you show up definitely is something with intention you can do a lot about. And again, I just love it. Brings it right back to you are the authority. You know, whether we like it or not, we are. And the only question is whether you want to claim it and step into that role in a powerful way. And we all can take steps to move in that direction.
Dr. Cammy Benton 38:59
Yes, it is our right. It is our right to do that.
Len Arcuri 39:05
Absolutely. Well, Dr. Cameron Benton, really appreciate you taking the time to share your that that story. It's a powerful story, and I think there's a lot of learnings that come out of it. So thank you for what you do and for for appearing today. Thanks so much.
Dr. Cammy Benton 39:17
Thanks so much for having me.
Len Arcuri 39:19
Your child meets you running on all cylinders now, and the fastest way to rise is with personalized one-on-one support. Get started today. Go to elevatehowyounavigate.com
