In Their Words…

The Red Umbrella Campaign was led by 9 determined women who were directly impacted by Truehope. During the campaign, they each wrote their personal stories.

SHEILA STANLEY, TORONTO, ONTARIO: Mother to a 19 yr old daughter with a bipolar diagnosis, now symptom free after using EMPowerplus.

I am a journalist and an editor with numerous bylines in everything from Chatelaine and Canadian Living to HealthWise and Canadian Family but my most challenging assignment in life has been as a mother. My daughter and another close family member both have bipolar and I have seen first hand the enormous cost that this most serious of mental illnesses exacts.

Early last year, our 19 year old daughter began showing increasingly serious symptoms of bipolar. She had experienced several bouts of depression but I told myself it was just normal teenage angst. She always had a very difficult time in school and it was only with a lot of extra curricular help that she was able to squeak by. Even though I knew she was intelligent, she had a terrible time concentrating and was continually disruptive in class – something that did not win the hearts of her teachers. At one point she was diagnosed with ADD but thankfully I refused to allow her to be put on Ritalin. At 19 she was drinking heavily, bouncing back and forth from distracted, giddy behaviour to not being able to get out of bed. Then we started seeing the terrible raging anger that is so typical of bipolar. She couldn’t concentrate on her studies, was distraught about her chances of getting into university, was wracked with unnamed anxiety and was generally getting worse and worse.

One doctor suggested putting her on lithium but I could not face the prospect of watching a young life destroyed by the ravages of both the disease and the medications. I had read about an organization called Truehope in the National Post that was having success with treating bipolar with something called Empowerplus – high potency vitamin and mineral supplements modeled on those given to pigs and other farm animals to control behavioural problems. It sounded wacky but I was desperate. If it doesn’t work what have we lost? I thought. The drugs will always be there.

Today my daughter still takes the Empowerplus supplements and has no symptoms of depression or mania or the horrible anxiety that goes with bipolar. Nor has she ever experienced any side effects. She is now happy, stable and normal ­ a far cry from the emotional hysteric we had been struggling with. She was able to concentrate on her studies, finish her year in high school with decent marks and get into Dalhousie University. She was even able to successfully navigate all the distractions and emotional upheavals that come with first year university (leaving home, keg parties, new boyfriend etc.) and score a 75% average – something that for a kid with bipolar is truly a miracle.

I know this is not a placebo effect because we have tried all sorts of things such as salmon oil and pycoganol to no effect. I also know that it is not just coincidence because she diligently filled out the detailed mood charts that are standard for any kind of treatment of bipolar. I wanted to see for myself what was happening so I charted her progress. Up until she started on Empowerplus her symptoms had been getting worse. However, there was a distinct and steady reduction of symptoms right after the time she started taking this stuff.

Empowerplus has changed her life and allowed her to be the sunny, happy, normal girl she deserves to be. Every day I thank God that I found out about this treatment when I did so that she never need enter the nightmare world of psychotropic drugs.

 

KRISTY RIESOR, RED DEER, ALBERTA: 26yr old, Bipolar diagnosis, Hospitalized numerous times. Not since being on EMPowerplus.

My name is Kristy, I am 26 years old. I am currently healthy but my struggle with bi-polar mental illness nearly took my life. At the age of 14, I was brought into the traditional mental health system. I complied with all the medical community had to offer: drug cocktails of anti depressants, anti psychotics, anti anxiety meds, mood stabilizers, sleeping pills, individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, hospitalizations and even electro convulsive (shock) treatments Instead of wellness, what I got were brief periods of medicated stability, followed by thunderous crashes into darkness.

In July of 2001 I began taking EMPowerplus. I have not been hospitalized since. Now my wellness and survival is being threatened by Health Canada¹s decision to ban EMPowerplus. It is the ONLY thing that has removed the suicidal ideation that threatened my life. Without it,

II can only expect to slide down the slippery slope of depression and ultimately return to the suicidal thoughts and compulsions that haunted me for a decade. I do not want to die! I’ve found a way to live, please hear me and do not take that away.

 

DEBRA OXBY, KENTVILLE, NS: Mother, Grade 2 son, ADHD diagnosis. Replaced Ritalin with EMPowerplus and been symptom free since.

Right from the start our second son had been a very challenging child to deal with but it was not until 8 days into Grade 2 that all of our lives started spinning drastically out of control. It started with a phone call from his teacher. She was using expressions like “lack of focus”, daydreaminess”, and “inability to concentrate”. My mind started reeling. Although she was careful not to use the expression ADHD, it was quickly becoming apparent that she was convinced that our son had a mental disorder.

It was one of those galvanizing moments in a lifetime where you remember exactly where you were when you learned of some tragic event. This was incomprehensible to me. I knew nothing about ADHD except that these children had trouble concentrating in school and that a drug called Ritalin helped them. Our problems with our son at home had nothing to do with an inability to concentrate on his part, it was quite the opposite. He was continuously coming up with ideas that we could not get him to stop concentrating on. How could this child be “Attention Deficit”? It was to be the beginning of a long and heart-breaking learning experience for us all.

We began the process of getting him evaluated. I can remember sitting on my couch with my husband going through the questionnaire… did he eat inappropriate things? (dirt, feces), did he enjoy harming animals? I was in tears the whole time. Then the last question on the last of many pages invited us to say something positive about our son. It was the hardest question of all to answer. This was the most miserable experience I had ever gone through in my life but it was just the first of many and a mild one in retrospect.

We waited weeks for an appointment, several more for the results – ADHD. They didn¹t feel that Ritalin was necessary at that time. They suggested behavior therapy but also recommended that he have a cognitive evaluation done. He was unable to read but they did not feel his ADHD was severe enough to have been the sole contributor to this problem. It was early November by the time we got these results back.

On Christmas day he walked into the kitchen where my mother and I were sitting and talking, held an imaginary gun to his temple and stated in a monotone voice, “I am stupid, I am stupid, I don¹t deserve to live”. He was 7 1/2 years old. I felt a crushing weight on my heart as I realized that my son was now fighting for his life. I clung desperately to the belief that if I could help him learn how to read that I could somehow reverse this process that seemed to be out of everybody¹s control.

We went to our doctor and got a prescription for Ritalin. I had read as much as I could about the drug and knew it was the last thing I wanted my son to be taking but there didn¹t seem to be another option for us. Within 15 minutes he sat down for the first time in recent memory. But, as Labour Day approached even the Ritalin wasn’t having an effect dealing with the rage. And by now he also had a plan for ending his life. He was going to hang himself in the barn. Our barn is an enormous structure – it was a potent threat.

He had always required a great deal of supervision, we had never, ever been able to let him out of our sight. He passed through Labour Day weekend in what could only be described as blind fury, directed at my husband and myself as we did everything humanly possible to try and reason with him, placate him, just “get through” to him somehow. He continued to rage at us but we somehow managed to get through the weekend and get him to school.

In October of that year I happened to catch a “teaser” for the National News that talked about a promising nutritional supplement that was being used to help sufferers of Bi-Polar Disorder. My brother had been incapacitated by this disorder for 7 years. I wrote to the network to get information about how to get in touch with the people doing the research and was directed to Truehope’s website.

I was amazed to find out they were helping children with ADHD as well. The more I talked with the research assistant the more I came to realize that my son probably had at least three disorders. He had all the symptoms of Bi-Polar and well as Oppositional Defiant Disorder in addition to the ADHD.

He started taking the supplement in early November of 2000 and stopped taking the Ritalin after 2 months but struggled to stay on task and not be disruptive in the classroom. In March we were faced with an ultimatum by the school, to either put him back on Ritalin or take him out of school. I knew that the future he would have if we went back to the pharmaceuticals would likely parallel my brother¹s life of life-threatening bouts of depression and an inability to work and look after his family despite the use of bi-polar medications. I was fully prepared to give EMPowerplus a chance to make him well. I took him out of school again.

More than 2 years have passed since we made that decision and he has shown slow but steady improvement in every facet of his life. In September of 2001 he was ready and willing to return to school for Grade 5. We transferred him to a small private school so that he could get a new start with teachers and students who never knew his “former self”. His self esteem has soared as he has begun to experience success in school for the first time. He shows no sign of having a learning disability. He prefers to get to school early every morning and likes to be the last child picked up. He now has friends for the first time in his life, gets invited to birthday parties, has an amazing sense of humor and loves to laugh, is a willing helper around the house, loves to go camping and kayaking… loves life and the chance to just be just like any other kid his age. Life is simply good.

 

LU, EDMONTON, ALBERTA

Diagnosed with manic depression

I have had a struggle most of my life with manic depression . . . being diagnosed in my early teens but never really treated for the disorder until my late 20′s. I first started on anti depressants in my mid twenties, which did little to alleviate the highs and lows that I was experiencing. By the time I was in my thirties I had been given many different kinds of pills in a multitude of combinations to ‘FIX’ me with yet worsening affects. I was in and out of psychiatric wards regularly toward the end of the nineties. I couldn’t seem to stay out longer then a few months at a time all the while wondering how long would I be able to ‘get by’ until the next time I would be placed back in the hospital. Not only my mental health was deteriorating but my physical health was failing me as well.

By the year 2000 I was no longer functioning. I couldn’t take care of my children or myself. The doctors I saw at the mental health clinic had me on five different kinds of pills at the same time and were trying to put me on number six.

I had had enough. This was NOT living, or even existing. I was a walking zombie incapable of anything. I went off all the pills and decided it was time to end the pain. I got things in order as best I could and made arrangements for my daughter to be taken care of and I was going to end the misery for myself and for everyone around me.

I was saying goodbye to a friend when her and her husband told me about some vitamin supplement they had read about in the local paper. They said it may be the answer to making a difference in my life. They approached Truehope on my behalf. I did not give in willingly to this. I could not fathom anything getting better. Finally after days of them convincing me I agreed to try it. I DID NOT believe it would change anything, in my mind I was humoring them. I hadn’t changed my plan just adjusted the time table a bit.

Those first few weeks of being on Empowerplus and waiting to finish what I had started were excruciating. I was still not capable of taking care of myself. I merely was fulfilling my promise to take the supplement for six weeks, then I could complete my plan of suicide.

Toward the end of the six weeks something changed, not drastically but there was something tangible. Life didn’t look quite so bleak. It was not a speedy process for me. It was very gradual. Slowly but surely I could see a little light at the end of the tunnel. This progressed steadily with the help of the wonderful people at Truehope who listened to me and monitored my progression over the last 2 1/2 years. They provided the Empowerplus for me, for free under the perpetual health fund that they have established. They have continued to keep in touch with me and answered any issues that I have had all along the way. Without Empowerplus and the compassion and support from Truehope. I would be DEAD!

Today I CHOOSE to LIVE! I have a full time job, I can take care of myself and my family. I feel very normal. I don’t have bouts of depression anymore. Friends that stuck with me through those terrible years see the complete change in me. They would be more than happy to tell you about it if you cared to ask them.

I am very angry that Health Canada is threatening my stability. My ability to function day to day. I have never felt as well in my life and I resent that Anne McLellan and the Ministry of Health thinks they can make these kinds of choices on my behalf to take it all away. I have not asked the government to fund my recovery, Truehope has given it to me. Free of charge, without reservation. Health Canada wants to protect me from what? Being well?

 

PATRICIA SHANTZ, EDMONTON, ALBERTA

For too many years I lived in a world threatened by life. I was scared of everything: people, vehicles, air and especially the dark. The dark was always trying to get into my brain and destroy me. Leaving my house was almost an impossibility. I would be gripped by such paranoia and panic that all I could do was shake and scream. I would injure myself so that I could watch my blood flow and prove to my deceptive mind that I was still alive, was still human. For brief periods I would be set free of this hell and allowed into a different world. One in which everything moved incredibly fast. My mind was my enemy rattling off thoughts at such a speed that I thought I would never catch up. My body went fast as well. I had to get as much accomplished as I could before all the fear came back, and inevitably it did. I would be thrown again back into paranoia. When in a depressive swing I tried to sleep all the time, to hide from the world in slumber.

Finally, it got to be too much. I sought an answer. “Why am I not like everyone else, what¹s wrong with me, isn¹t there anything I can do?” To a fifteen year old, fitting in is the most important thing. Whether it is with the geeks or the popular crowd, everyone fits in somewhere. I was in a clique all my own. My peers feared me, I feared myself. I wanted to die. I needed to die. Death was the only way out of this hell my brain had created for me. Thankfully, after many stays in psyche wards and numerous anti-depressants, I was diagnosed Bipolar II with moderate cycling. An answer! I knew what was wrong. I was put on psychotropic drugs.

This is it, right? I¹ll be fine now. No such luck. Yes, I could leave my house more often, yes I didn¹t want to die as badly, but I still swung. I was still depressed, then manic, then depressed, then manic. I still needed to prove to myself that I was alive by hurting myself. I could not work full-time; I could not go to school. On top of the remaining symptoms I now had to deal with side effects form the drugs. I shook constantly; I dreamed that my family and friends were dying. In my sleep I watched them be raped and/or murdered, I went to their funerals and I grieved for them. I started avoiding sleep. Books were my escape. I would read, the book bouncing from the shaking in my limbs, until my body forced me to sleep. I still was not a fully functioning human being. I had had an I.Q. test done when I was fifteen and was in the 98th percentile, I knew that I could achieve so much more. I couldn¹t reach what was mine.

One day I was introduced to EMPower Plus. Fearing that it was another quack remedy I sought out a bipolar person that was taking the supplements. He was “normal”! I was stunned that someone that had lived the life I was living was now working full-time, going to school and loving life! With much trepidation I started taking EMPower Plus. Within 3 days I experienced a “really good day”. There was no fear just joy! I had energy, I felt ALIVE! I was off my chemical medication within six weeks and have never been on it again. That was two and a half years ago. I am now working full-time at a high stress job. I am upgrading my education and looking at going back to school. I am engaged to be married, we own a house, and I am a human being! I am no longer a burden to society; I can support myself physically, financially and emotionally.

Don’t take this away from me Health Canada! I can’t go back to a constant nightmare. I have so much now and can achieve so much more. If I no longer have access to EMPower Plus I no longer have a life. I don¹t want taxpayers having to pay for my living when all I would want would be to die. Please, let me live. It¹s just vitamins and minerals, not a threat to society.

 

DEBRA, RED DEER, ALBERTA

My name is Debra. I have had the diagnoses of clinical depression, anxiety and cyclical mood swings for more than half of my 50 years. Yet, I am fortunate in that in spite of the prevalence of mental illness in my family, I have managed to continue to work and avoid hospitalization. I was first prescribed psychotropics in my early 20′s as I struggled with low energy and depressions that painted my world black and bleak. At one point I even heard voices but I hid that fact from everyone. I was like many of the walking wounded living with mental illness, blaming myself for being inadequate. I was raised in an environment and society that saw these symptoms as character weaknesses to be overcome by hard work. I became a workaholic and eventually developed fibromyalgia as I buried the emotional pain in my body. In May of 2001, I chose to begin EMPowerplus instead of anti\depressants that gave me unpleasant side effects. I tested it on myself to ensure I could safely maintain my own mental health with EMPowerplus before recommending it to my daughter, Kristy Reesor.

As her mother, I spent many years searching for answers, feeling tremendous guilt, helplessness and fear.

I cannot return to the horror of witnessing 10 years of Kristy’s suicidal despair. EMPowerplus has supported my daughter’s health and given her the chance to live a normal life. Health Canada’s current short sighted and unjustifiable ruling on EMPowerplus is endangering her life as well as others, who have finally experienced an improved level of mental health. I have personally felt and seen the results EMPowerplus can deliver. I want my freedom of choice upheld by Health Canada so we may continue to maintain our health by accessing EMPowerplus.

 

SABINE COULSON, PEMBROKE, ONTARIO

The recent closing of the border to imports of a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement by Health Canada will affect the lives of thousands – and not in a healthy manner!

Though my personal story is just one of many, it is worth telling since the actions of Health Canada could harm someone in your family or someone you know.

I suffered many years before my illnesses were diagnosed in the early 1990′s. But my suffering would not end there. My illnesses went on to take the precious time of Medical and Psychiatric Doctors and countless visitations for treatment. I was diagnosed with rapid cycling manic depressive disorder (bipolar depression), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), borderline personality disorder and fibromyalgia

-the list of symptoms for these illnesses is much too long to list here. The prescribed treatment included aggressive drug cocktails that included Effexor, Haldol, Resperidol, Lamictol, Prozac, Serzone, Neurontin, Seroquel, Olanzapine, Oxazypam, Cogentin, Ativan, Diazapam, Amytryptiline, and others. The amounts I was taking moved one prominent psychiatric doctor to acknowledge the dosages were unheard of, and a cardiologist said “these dosages are frightening”! My well-meaning psychiatric specialist’s reply was “it’s the only way we know how to keep you from committing suicide.”

My life was not a life in this condition. I was either in the hospital or bed-ridden at home, and in such a drugged state that I was up only a couple of hours per day and had extremely limited ability. For many of those years I have little or no memory other than pain, both mental and physical – no memory of time with my three children or time with my husband since there was precious little of that in my state. At one point my husband calculated my time spent in the hospital amounted to over 10% of our marriage life! The aggressive drug therapy brought no relief and was at best only sufficient to keep me out of the hospital and confined to my bed. On top of it all, the drugs brought about unwanted side-effects, including diabetes, a condition which required 5 needles of insulin per day, and further hospital visits with blood sugar levels that were in the coma range. And that is not all, the drug therapy brought on eye trouble requiring prescription glasses, hair loss, heart trouble, and the onset of severe abnormal liver function -conditions that where all acknowledged medically but only casually accepted!

Years went by in this state, with prescribed variations in dangerous drug cocktails. Prescription costs were enormous with many months averaging well over $1200 per month. My psychiatric symptoms cycled rapidly at times, and over time my mood worsened, my physical condition continued to deteriorat and thus I lost all will to live. On top of it all, my husband’s strength and stamina was fading from his years of responsibilities as a caretaker and father. What were we to do? I knew I could not live much longer, nor did I want to anymore.

Then, in the spring of 2001, I began taking Empowerplus vitamin and mineral supplement while at the same time keeping my medical and psychiatric doctors informed. With supervision, I weaned off of the drug-cocktail over several months and by continuing with the Empowerplus supplement my mental and physical health improved rapidly and beyond belief. Empowerplus provided my body with vitamins and minerals in a form readily absorbed and useable thus allowing my body through natural processes to heal itself! For those that have experienced such a restoration of health they will know what I mean, and for those that have not there are just no words that can describe it.

Overall, my psychiatric symptoms became marginalized with only brief and relatively minor symptoms experienced when my immune system is weakened with a flu or high stress, and all this without dangerous psychiatric drugs! I have disposed of my prescription glasses! I also no longer require insulin shots! Empowerplus has given me back my health and life, and has allowed me to become a wife and mother. I even have a job working as receptionist at an Animal Hospital, and I contribute as a community volunteer! Just last week I participated in the Canadian Cancer Society¹s Relay for Life.

I wonder how much money my illness cost the health care system before Empowerplus? How much did I cost the taxpaying citizens before Empowerplus? And what about the costs to the drug insurances and ultimately each of us? I continue to pay off a large pharmacy debt years later. And sadly, what were the immeasurable costs and impacts to the lives of my family and friends before Empowerplus?

After taking Empowerplus for the past two years and regaining a life of mental and physical vigor and happiness, Health Canada is now offering me probable death as a result of their ban on Empowerplus! Their offer is this: Removed access to Empowerplus in exchange for a return to mega-doses of damaging drugs, an endless cycle of hospitalizations, and a Œlife¹ of mental and physical misery! Their offer will essentially lead me to my premature death! On top of it all, Health Canada staff will even assist me with arrangements for a return to a merry-go-round of medical consultations and ultimately hospitalization! How absurd! To me, this is an immoral, unjust, and inhumane act on the part of an organization whose purpose is to ensure the provision of health care to Canadian’s not to corrupt it or take it away!

Please share my story. Not only on my behalf, but also on behalf of my family and all the others who have come to regaining their lives through Empowerplus.