Living a life with autism, Allicia has always had difficulty learning and understanding the world around her. She had a panic attack on her 18th birthday because of a misunderstanding, and this led to bouts of depression, followed by a long line of medications. She couldn’t handle the side effect, which included large amounts of weight loss and gain, loss of bladder control, and tongue clicking. As a last ditch effort to help Allicia, who now wanted to take her own life, her doctor recommended Truehope. This is Allicia’s story:
Allicia had a reaction to medicine when she was 9 months old and again at 15 months. We also think she has a form of autism called Kanner’s syndrome. At any rate, Allicia has a hard time sequencing, and she displayed many learning disabilities as she tried to gain knowledge from age 3 years on. Allicia has always tried very hard to learn, but reading and writing have been very difficult for her.
When Allicia was 18 years old, she started a downward spiral with what we now know to be a panic attack. Allicia was very afraid to turn 18 because a teacher had told her many times that she would be an adult when she was 18. Allicia knew she was mentally incapable of handling living on her own and all of the characteristics associated with being an adult, so she had a severe panic attack the day of her 18th birthday.
Since we had no way of knowing what she was thinking, we did not understand why she was not sleeping and that Allicia had thoughts of dying. This episode began our roller coaster ride of drugs, which graduated from antidepressants to psychotropic drugs.
Allicia’s mental capacity could not handle all of the effects these drugs had on her, and she began to melt away in front of our eyes. She gained 110 pounds and lost 130 pounds. She clicked her tongue. Allicia lost control of her bladder. Allicia could not bend her hand and then it would bend on its own.
There were so many side effects that we thought we had lost our wonderful, smiling daughter with the easy laugh and the friendly hello to all people that crossed her path.
To say this part of our lives was heart-wrenching does not even begin to describe the pain of what we witnessed as Allicia—confused, angry, depressed and silent—went into a world we could not reach.
A year ago, Allicia tried running as far and as hard as she could to escape the world that had become hers. She was picked up by police, and when they understood she was mentally retarded, as well as bipolar and schizophrenic, she was brought back to our doorstep with not so much as a “good luck’.
Allicia was wanting to end her life, and her father and I were not sure what to do short of having her committed to an institution. As a last ditch effort, her doctor, trying to balance her drugs, told us about Truehope.
I got online, willing to try anything that might end our cycle of despair. We ordered the EMPowerplus and started talking with the wonderful people that would be not only Allicia’s life-line back to sanity, but a wonderful support to her father and I as well.
We had lost hope, and here was literally “true hope”! The name is not a false one. Our family has been blessed with a hope that has turned our lives around, and Allicia no longer has panic attacks, nor is she on any medication.
Allicia is taking EMPowerplus and knows that she can now function without the excruciating effects of the other drugs. We thank God that you exist to help Allicia find her existence at long last.