Last Updated on January 8, 2024 by
I investigated ATMC and discovered it was very different in a good way … I am now mentally healthy without the drugs, and my pain is very mild.
My life started going south around the age of fifteen. My home life was very turbulent and dysfunctional. I became very depressed, so my career in therapy began. I went to a psychotherapist who specialized in working with adolescents. This work we did together was overall counterproductive. I began to act out in dangerous and violent ways, and I became extremely suicidal. We were stirring up all these deep issues in therapy and I had no coping skills. When the darkness became too much to bear, I made a serious attempt that nearly killed me and landed me in the I.C.U.
After this attempt it was apparent to my mother that she could no longer handle the situation. I was sent to an array of institutions which included a foster home, group home, and forty inpatient psychiatric admissions. The first thing the psychiatrists would do is get a frighteningly brief history, and medicate, medicate, medicate.
I have probably been on one hundred psychotropic medications, which included but not limited to, Thorazine, Mellaril, Stelazine, and Ritalin. This went on for many, many years. When the clinicians deemed me stable enough for discharge, I would last out in the world for two weeks, at most, and I would be admitted into the hospital again. This is what I like to call “The Revolving Door Syndrome.” The clinicians did their best, but they really did not know what they were doing. I guess just trying to keep me alive.
When I was about twenty-one, I managed to fight, dig, and claw my way out of the mental health system, and graduated to drugs and alcohol. I found a new love: heroin. I believe this is the ideal drug for sensitive people, because the craziness of the world and the people in it cannot touch you. This saved me for awhile, until it didn’t. My significant other and I were living together, and we were both hooked on opiates. So, we decided to go to rehab together, which as you can imagine was a complete bust. That rehab was your typical 12-step model, with bad nutrition, no exercise regimen, and copious amounts of cognitive behavioral therapy that it made me feel more dysfunctional than I really was. Therapy, meds, hospitals, and recreational drugs weren’t working for me.
I decided to go get treatment at the methadone clinic for opiate addiction and chronic pain due to my cerebral palsy. In short, another huge mistake. I started out on 40mg and over a two-month period I bumped it up to 120mg. This med took away my life. I would wake up and be at the clinic by 6:00 am, get my dose, drive home, smoke large amounts of marijuana all day long, and lie on the couch watching TV all day and night. I was basically in a coma. I couldn’t feel my life. My diet consisted of caffeine, sugar, nicotine, and fast food, or TV dinners. I was suicidal again, and save for a few moments of clarity, I’d lost my light.
After months of arguing, begging, pleading, my mom convinced me to look into ATMC. I was skeptical because I didn’t see the point in going back to treatment that provided the same cookie cutter approach. I’d already tried their way three times and thrown away, thrown away thousands of dollars. After about 5 months of resistance, I investigated ATMC and discovered it was very different in a good way.
ATMC provided an innovative approach. They actually address things like proper nutrition, whole foods, no white flour, sugar, dairy. At first you may think “oh my god, I cannot eat like this, how is this going to help my body heal?” I was skeptical at first but over time I noticed major physical/ emotional improvements due to the organic food. The supplements we take here at ATMC are also very valuable, top-of-the-line supplements that are derived all from whole foods. These supplements are meant to replenish your body of all the nutrients it needs due to the fact that we have been dumping toxins into our bodies for years. They maneuvered me off the Methadone, without consequence, and soon thereafter were able to rid me of a lifetime of drug use.
I am now mentally healthy without the drugs, and my pain is very mild. The Detox Shoppe and staff are a family environment. I am now med-free, and working as an intern at ATMC.
Annie K.
