Olivia continues to do well. She is completing finals for fall semester. She got less and less anxious in the 2 or 3 months after comign home from A2Meds. She had difficulty reading at first, but the miracle has happened, I think she is “normal”. One semester for her to complete her BA at a very good private college.
My experience at Alternative to
When I came to Alternative to Meds Center I was going thru severe withdrawals from Methadone and Benzodiazepines [and was afflicted with Lupus]. Thru the tapering program, nutritional, and supplemental and therapeutic options provided, I was able to complete the detoxification process with minimal pain and discomfort. The staff was very accommodating and willing to answer any questions I had. I would recommend this establishment to anyone seeking a natural health alternative for healthy living.
Heather Rudbeck
I wanted to write about my experience with Alternative to
I called an addiction hot-line hoping they could point me in a direction that would help me withdrawal from this medication. The woman on the phone told me she knew of a great place and had someone call me back. I received a call back within two minutes. Diane called me and told me about the Alternative to
I got on a plane two days later and arrived at ATMC. The house was beautiful and my driver was very reassuring. I was very scared to be so far away from home and felt desperate to return home. I quickly went to a staff member who shared with me that he knew how I felt and explained his story to me and how he was able to safely withdraw from his medications. I felt very reassured. I continually went to different staff members who had no problem dropping what they were doing to explain what was happening and what to expect. This was a very important piece of my recovery.
I was taught how anti-depressants worked and the importance of nutrition, not only for recovery but for the rest of my life. I helped in the kitchen with a fantastic cook who taught me various ways of healthy cooking, not to mention his innate ability to cheer me up and pull me out of a pit. We had various speakers come in who only enhanced this program.
The entire staff at ATMC was incredible. I cannot express this enough. Each and every staff member had something helpful to offer me, even if it was to get me out in the community and talk about regular life and not to focus on withdrawing. I asked for regular counseling sessions and my counselor never hesitated to talk with me. He helped me find support groups for when I returned home and never judged me or my feelings. This meant a lot to me. The owner/founder was also very involved and encouraging. He knew what we were all going through and it made this program even more helpful. I am so grateful for the program he has started and continues to improve upon.
The doctor I worked with was incredibly helpful. He not only offered me information about my complications but he was compassionate and listened with interest in what I was saying. The blood tests and food allergy tests were also very extensive and informative and put some “science” into what I was experiencing.
I would recommend this center for anyone who is considering going off psychotropic medications of any kind. This is definitely a serious endeavor and should not be done on your own. The side effects and withdrawal symptoms I experienced at home were torturous and I wish I had not tried to taper off by myself. But I was glad I could go to ATMC to get help with this traumatic experience. They helped me in so many ways and I am forever grateful. Always remember to ask questions and seek help. It takes a lot of courage to ask for help.
I am someone with strong convictions and am not someone who would write a testimonial if I didn’t believe in what I was writing about. I feel it is important to say this and let folks out there know that they are NOT alone and there is help and hope. I searched endlessly trying to find someone who knew what was going on and how I felt and I found them.
Thanks to the entire staff at ATMC. I am so very grateful to ALL of you!!
Tracey
Denver, Colorado
Our family learned of Alt To Meds on an alternative health blog after my daughter had been put on anti-psychotic and tranquilizing agents, and she was experiencing 18 adverse side effects from those agents rendering her non-functional and with much daily suffering.
She had been put on those meds after a college experimental hallucinogen experience in a bad set and bad setting. The mental health folks treated her for “bipolar” by a non-board certified psychiatrist from India. When I questioned his diagnosis, he replied that she was bipolar because “sometimes she is teary and sometimes she laughs”. I asked him if he would cry if the person he dated gave him an overdose and then dumped him under the influence at a big camp-out party and then he found himself in a psych ward on meds that were making him sicker by the day.
I should have known better than to question the Big Oz shrink. My daughter had daily refused their meds, told them the meds made her sick, questioned her diagnosis and asked to go home, which they did not tell me. She was pressured into taking the meds, and strong-armed to give blood at one point to assert their authority. I did get her out under my home-supervised care after eight days, luckily. I saw that her father’s fat insurance policy was the greatest risk to her health as the shrink was recommending involuntary commitment because she wasn’t “responding to treatment” and she was well-insured.
I was able to get through to her directly and caught her in a lucid moment in between their major tranquilizations of her and she and I were able to arrange her discharge. Next, back at home, her family physician refused to help taper her off the meds because she felt she did not have expertise in psych meds. Next, her outpatient psych nurse at the clinic near her college refused to taper her off the meds, but did reduce her Depakote, but doubled her Klonipin in spite of my daughter’s report that the Klonipin gave her the worst symptoms.
I spoke with the Alt To Meds registrar based on the recommendation of a former client who had contacted me off the blogosphere. After my daughter and my experience with the mental “health” system, it was very scary to consider sending her out of state to a facility. The registrar reassured me that their program knew how to get people cleaned up off psych meds and their supplementation approach for brain chemistry balancing made sense to me as a nurse and health educator.
My daughter dearly wanted help to get off the toxic meds and we were able to get her into their program a few days later. That was very scary, to see her go because at that point she needed so much help in daily living skills. She was very confused and easily became immobilized with uncertainty over the smallest details. Coping with her numb brain and aching body was very difficult to see much less undergo herself.
The facility director, Lyle Murphy, was very helpful in looking out for my daughter’s well being throughout her stay. Their psychiatrist expert verified that he could find no evidence of any mental disorder, or any medical disorder other than hypoglycemia and she was cleared for the tapering program. This was a tough process, and my daughter does not believe she could have done this on her own. She found great help from the supplementation and nutritious foods prepared at Alt To Meds.
After the traumatizing experience of the ER and psych ward, it was very difficult to find trust in any therapeutic facility, but I knew we had to get her off those psych drugs or she would have been on disability and her college senior year ended before it began.
My daughter got off all her psych meds and regained the brightness of her mind. She is still recovering from the post traumatic stress of the events, but she gained greater inner strength as she felt her real true self return after the meds were gone. Her mind is bright, her spirit is strong and she is now re-entering campus life. This would NOT have been possible if we had not found a de-tox center, Alt To Meds. I am happy to talk to any parent or person considering entering their program.
Realistically, family support is very important and the person undergoing the de-tox has a lot of work to accomplish, but the Alt To Meds provides a facility, structure and knowledgeable framework in which to accomplish a de-tox experience.
I don’t want to sound corny, but I am and will long remain, truly grateful to the staff, director, medical personnel and registrar at Alt To Meds for creating a safe haven for my daughter to regain her mental health and wellness.
Cheryl
Since becoming staff here at the Alternative to Meds Center I have seen huge accomplishments by our clients. Clients who used to stay in the house all the time are now coming out of the house and going to all kinds of sports events and outings and actually are having fun doing it. They no longer have that nervous look on their faces when they are out in public and seem to be at ease. It is really nice to see people come here and clear the fog from their heads and live a happy and healthy life without being on medication.
I am so happy to be a part of a team that is part of something even bigger.
Julie Rosenau
Supplement Specialist
Alternative to Meds Center
1.) Feel hopeful
2.) No longer afraid of the night. I’m able to go back to sleep if I wake up early.
3.) Finally am getting relief from absolutely constant anxiety.
4.) Around people who understand where I’m at, what I’ve been through and sympathize.
5.) There are people around me who know how to help me – I no longer feel there’s no help.
6.) Learning to express how I feel and what I need, even though the fear is great.
7.) Feeling well enough to get out and walk places.
8.) Realizing I’m not alone.
Alternative to Meds Center helped me to get off of my anti-anxiety medications. I have been taking prescription benzos for about eight years. I had, in the past, repeatedly tried to get off them with no success and as of recently, have been on very high dosages and I couldn’t function without them. ATMC gave me nutritional education, time, support, and a lot of patience that I needed to get off the drugs. And for that, I thank them.
- E.B.
I had seven months clean upon coming to Alternative to Meds Center. I had been and currently was operating in a sort of mental fuzz, and often times would have to get others to do the thinking for me. It was difficult for me to follow conversations, and often I found myself interjecting at inappropriate times. I came to realize that this clouded thinking was a carryover from my drug history [methamphetamines]. Since I had been in a program where most of the people around me shared that same fuzziness, it didn’t seem so abnormal. But upon arrival at ATMC, the clarity of other clients at first made me believe that these people were not real drug addicts like I had been and had been around. Indeed, they were different, but not because they hadn’t been as bad. They had just gotten a jump on me in a completely transforming process that I was also to share. Through the combination of communication drills and other life skills, sauna detox purification, and vitamin and mineral regiments specifically designed to process residual toxins, I was able to lift the mental fog. I went from believing I was unfit in the workplace, to being capable of generating my own employment as a self-made specialist.
-L.M.
In the sauna, I learned more about my self and my goals in life. I learned from my changing views (through more clear open eyes) of other people’s actions and behaviors what kinds of behaviors I, myself, respect and will copy as well as behaviors that I don’t like and will work on everyday. It was a great experience and I feel more aware of my surroundings and more comfortable confronting people and situations and for that I am grateful.
- A.B