GAPS Guide

Recently, I read on a forum a post which essentially asked several questions about me and my work. I would like to answer those here.

Since you are so into GAPS, why do you refer to SCD?

Primarily, this is a matter of giving credit where due. GAPS was developed by a neurologist who, as far as I understand, used SCD plus multiple strains of probiotics to heal her son’s autism. (She subsequently developed a more comprehensive program for achieving even more efficient and comprehensive healing.) Dr Campbell-McBride has always been vocal about the SCD’s role in her son’s healing and that the SCD was a major starting point for GAPS. I deeply respect and admire Dr Campbell-McBride’s decision to disclose this. I know that, personally, when I work hard at something, it’s important to me to receive the respect of due credit. Elaine Gottschall worked extremely hard on behalf of the SCD from early adulthood right to her death. It is important to me that I honour Elaine as well as the Drs Haas by giving them credit for what they established.

Secondarily, the program I started with was strict SCD, as presented in the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. In all of my work, I am very vocal about the excellent results this brought to our family. To leave out this part of our story would be a disservice to the SCD as well as to all people seeking healing.

Thirdly, as more and more people learn about both SCD and GAPS, they see the commonalities and are perplexed: “Are these the same program, just with different names? If not, what are the differences?” I feel it is helpful to describe their relationship and divergences.

Finally, for obvious reasons, many of the SCD resources are GAPS-friendly or very close to GAPS-friendly. Rather than reinvent the wheel, or scoop up content and relabel it GAPS, it makes sense (and is most ethical) to refer people to those. (I am happy to drive traffic to helpful sites.) Also, because GAPS is built on SCD, it is important to encourage GAPSers to read Elaine Gottschall’s work.

Don’t SCDers get confused when they read about GAPS?

Not that I’ve witnessed, no.

Because I always follow a forum’s guidelines, and also clarify what is specific to GAPS, there is little room for confusion.

My honest view is that people intelligent enough to realize that diet plays a role in health, and intelligent enough to find relevant resources, and intelligent enough to grasp that even some SCD foods are only to be introduced upon a certain amount of healing, and intelligent enough to develop a personal protocol within SCD or GAPS have sufficiently critical minds that they can successfully read or discuss differences in the world’s various healing programs.

Why do you post stuff about GAPS in forums besides the GAPShelp one?

I am a naturally gregarious person who desires to see all people receive answers to their questions. If someone asks a question and I have information, my natural impulse is to share that information. For the most part, I don’t create new threads regarding GAPS, but merely jump in with information or clarifications when an error is inadvertently posted and not otherwise addressed. While doing so, I take great care to honour a given forum’s posting guidelines and a given thread’s focus.

When posting on forums other than GAPShelp, why do you not disclose that you are the author of a GAPS book?

I have been specifically asked on certain forums not to mention or link to any GAPS resources. “Disclosing” about my book would inherently violate that request.

Why, on the GAPShelp forum, do you merely refer people to page numbers in your book?

Actually, almost every single day I spend up to several hours assessing and considering people’s challenges, writing carefully distilled yet comprehensive answers to posts (either on-list or on my blog), answering emails received off-list, collating information, creating and loading web-files, developing web-posts, and directing people to all of the above and more.

In the interest of time (both mine and the reader’s), and to encourage people to practice looking in their guidebook before posting ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ to an incredibly busy list, I will sometimes elect to refer to a page number in the guidebook, rather than type the information out yet again. Much of my career has been in adult education and a key aspect to my approach has always been to “teach a man to fish”, that is, to increase a person’s capacity to find desired information, rather than leave them dependent on one person’s moment-to-moment availability.

Just as often, though, I link to a post in my publicly available blog and even more often (and especially when the answer is not provided in the book), I answer the question outright.

Why would you do all of this for free?

Simply, I want people to heal. I want people to be able to experience what my son and I are experiencing, and preferably without going through a lot of unnecessary pain, suffering or frustration along the way. I trust that this is the reason all volunteer moderators, writers, guides, etc, do this kind of work without charge or hourly remuneration.

Why do you charge money for your book, then?

The cost of printing and distributing tiny runs of a self-published book in a very niche field of interest is enormous. While I am very happy to spend several hours each day volunteering my time and energy, I am simply not in a position to be able to also fund a book project of significant size.

While the book has not to date made me any profit whatsoever, if it does in future, that will simply allow me to commit to another year of GAPS service. (My alternative will be to reduce my GAPS hours in favour of regularly paying work.)

Note: If cost is a sincere concern for you, simply ask your library or resource center to get the book in. Doctors’ offices, naturopaths’ offices, health food stores, autism therapy centers, self-help groups, etc, often fund small resource libraries for their clients’ use. Bonus: When you make this request, you benefit not only yourself, but all other clients of that center who may be in the same financial position.

How did you determine the book’s price?

The retail price on the book is calculated based on production and printing costs, transaction fees charged to me by the banks, interest on the money borrowed to pay the printer, etc. (You’ll often note that self-published books, of approximately the same size, in niche fields run at about the same cost as GAPS Guide does. This is due to the fact that costs to the writer are unavoidable and consistent.)

Of note is that the customer’s cost is quickly recovered (and then some) through the tips, which save one from a lot of experimentation and errors (plus actually guide one specifically in saving money on GAPS).

Is the book’s price worth it?

The best people to answer that are those who’ve used it.

Also consider: In that GAPS Guide took close to two hundred hours just to compile, reading it is like getting a consultation for 15 cents an hour!

Do you plan to change any of your approaches in future?

Recently I had a bit of an epiphany in relation to SCD and GAPS. Accordingly, I have already tweaked some archived posts to reflect this. In the near future, I will post about my new understanding. My hope is that my activity will always be the most respectful possible, given my personal state of understanding at any given time. I am keen on learning ever more.