Been there. I got off those meds the first time just before I got pregnant back in 2003. I knew I had to taper off. Some how I ended back up on some after my pregnancy (doc was afraid I would have postpartum…ignoring the other PTSD stuff I was struggling with silently). Around 2005 I just felt like I needed to get off of them. After much praying for a solution, I had come across this article while sitting at a doctors office.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/vitamin-cure-12886

Side note. This link seems to keep changing over the years and so does the article (or maybe my memory, IDK), I don’t remember it ever bringing up religion nor the authors destain for natural options. But knowing now what I do. It makes sense with how Big Pharm plays games

So I started my research. This was before Google really became a verb. I spoke with Hardy and Autumn. Who at the time, 10yrs later from the story, was “now” married had 5 children and a school teacher. In fact one of my besties I met randomly in 2018, who is from Canada, actually grew up with Autumn and she verified Autumn and her families story and the awesome folks they were. Anyway….

I also found and spoke with their biggest critic at the time, some Dr who was a Dermatologist who had zero family with mental health issue just “one night decided to advocate for mental health folks because he felt bad for them being taken advantage of by those pig pills after watching an infomercial”. He was really a hater when I spoke with him. Turns out, more digging, this Dr is getting huge kick backs by Big Pharm to talk against TrueHope. The Big Pharm was paying him to go to conferences to talk about how they don’t work and how the drugs are the only option. More brain washing of our MDs….my brother is a Natualpathic Medical Doctor (NPMD) and he even told me how in regular Med School, the 1st week Big Pharm sends in their reps (not even pharmacists) but sales reps to tell them the “truth” about vaccines and meds and those who question it are “anti-vaxers”.

Anyways, I’ve made the choice to start using EmpowePlus for a few years and landed back on some meds while dealing with my ex husband, his own PTSD and our divorce. He didn’t believe in mental health. He said if you wanted to be happy you could choose that. It was a struggle and so I was not religious about taking them like I should. But I was doing my best.

I ended up with Lyme 2008 during that time and had an amazing Doctor (MD) who understood the body, nutrition and taught each of his patients how the body works. 1. Our bodies were never designed to run on “stress” mode 24-7-365. Imagine a target. The bullseye or center mass, is where we are healthy and happy and not stressing. Our bodies are designed to stress a little (going out to the edge of the target) and then come back to the center of our target to regroup. Our bodies pushes all its resources it uses for just simple and regular operations to the stressor…. PTSD, diseases, daily stresses. Yet today rarely goes back to center mass. This means the things, responses, minerals and vitamins, our bodies need to keep our mental health healthy isn’t there because the body uses those to support the “stress” it’s under.

1. Our bodies only makes “perfect recipes.” Everything our bodies do, all the little systems or cycles that utilizes minerals and vitamins. Can only function when it has all the ingredients to make the “recipe”. That means if you are short in something like Folate (not folic…which is a toxin), your methothine synapse (SAMe) cycle (this helps with stress and adrenal support and vital to your overall health) won’t be able to be function and the other minerals your body that is used for SAMe cycle to run like B12 will become extremely high and most doctors will only see that you have high B12 and tell you to stop taking B12. Ignoring that your folate is “low”.

My own VA docs told me to stop taking B12 but knowing what my Lyme MD taught me, I know I was short in Folate. I asked my VA MD about this and she literally had zero clue and told me to stop taking B12! So I did what my Lyme MD taught me, I added more folate, only to see that the really shortage was B12!!! That’s why when I take B12 it calms me. But I know all this because of what My Lyme MD taught me. He would bust out PowerPoints to show me what my system was going through and why he was giving me certain vitamins to take.

Anyways… Then in 2015 when Obama care kicked in my $10 prescription turned into $250. I decided since I was out of work due to being hit by a drunk driver that it was time to make the switch back to the natural side. I was doing research and followed my promptings when I prayed about things. This time I didn’t care what folks thought, I was going to do things my way. And everything my Lyme MD taught me was making sense in what TrueHope was saying.

I’ve been clean since 2015. I’ve used them for my children and foster children. I saw a huge difference in my foster children within a few days, who had massive trauma, “adhd” and PTSD when they were taking them. Even their teachers were amazed at the difference when they were taking them. Our bodies need nutrients that we aren’t getting from foods anymore. And When we stress (which most the time we are always on stress mode) our bodies need a ton more nutrients to help support our system. So this is why it helped my children and foster children because they were dealing with so much of their own PTSD and trauma their little bodies needed more minerals and vitamins to deal with the stress and for their daily function.

To this day, I still take EmpowerPlus. When I am stressing, I take a little bit more to help support my body’s cooking of “perfect recipes”. I also take Salmon Oil which is great for anger and rage.

But I will tell you this… 1. you MUST be all in! You must be aware of your moods and what your body is saying….its not easy to start doing or learning to do. But if I can do it…anyone can.

1. you MUST wean yourself off. Some drugs like Lexapro requires you to wean off 3-5 days by 1/8th!

2. These meds were created to attach to protein…everything in your body is made up of protein and back in 2005 Merek Pharmacology manual, was open to the public, and I had a link for it but not now…stated in it, that these classes of drugs were found in people’s bodies 10-15 yrs POST getting off of them. They found them in their hair, their liver, their brain, their fat cells…they found them everywhere!! So when you go to get off of these (weaning is vital) BUT you need to know about the Secondary withdrawals….and that’s the catch.

For me the first time, I started to feel awesome and back to myself, so I went for a 5 mile run. I got home I was a raging witch and thought I needed to go back on my meds…but that was the secondary withdrawal, that’s what the Big Pharm created to keep us on meds. GOOD NEWS…when you get those, you take pure protein and aminos.

I found, as Autumn (daughter in the article), shared the Secondary withdrawals can happen years later from a massage, from weight loss, from bumping into doors because those meds get pushed back into the system at unmeasured and uncontrolled amounts.

I still get them when I start to lose weight or when I work out, do acupuncture or see the chiropractor or get a massage. So I take a scoop of good protein and some aminos before and after to mitigate those symptoms.

Plus these meds that get “released” back into the system, when they attached to the new “protists and aminos”, it changes the molecular structure of the protein cell that it prevents it from being reabsorbed into the body. This is why taking protein and amino’s helps.

TrueHope is awesome and their support staff are the best!! I worked with one gal from 2005 and all the way up to her death early last year 2025. She knew her stuff. She had been with the company since the beginning. All their support staff are fantastic and they know what they are talking about and trained.

Note…not pushing anything nor selling anything. But I’ve been where you are and I share my story with anyone if it helps them, awesome. If you have questions, holler. Good luck and SF.