Autumn has been using the Dynamic Neural Retraining System to recover from Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Food Sensitivities, Depression, Anxiety, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, and environmental allergies.
Autumn had experienced symptoms associated with limbic system impairment since the day she was born. “The hospital staff put a gown on me that had been washed in fragrant detergent, and I broke out into a rash. I suffered symptoms all throughout my childhood–allergies, anxiety, lots of infections. Things really ramped up, though, when I reached my tipping point later as an adult. I got pregnant with my daughter and had a traumatic birth experience, all while living in a house that had a mold problem in the basement. I was never the same after that.” It was then that Autumn began searching for answers in hopes of regaining her health. “I started with my family doctor and progressed to various specialists: gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, neurologists, rheumatologists, psychiatrists and therapists, dermatologists, gynecologists, allergists, and mast cell and POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) specialists. I reached a dead end with those, and started seeing integrative doctors, mold specialists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, naturopaths, and diet coaches. I tried several elimination and gut-healing diets. Then I started trying the various protocols of famous doctors and ‘biohackers’. By the time I started DNRS, it seemed I was starting a new protocol every other week.”
Overwhelmed and losing hope, Autumn decided to try the program that she had heard about several times through the course of her illness. One story in particular stood out to her, inspiring her to give DNRS a try. “My interest was finally piqued when I heard about a woman from a mold support group on Facebook who had gone through the program and was fully recovered, off all meds and supplements, and living in her old house again. At that point, my expectation of recovery was to find a protocol of supplements, dietary restrictions, and environmental circumstances that I could tolerate for the rest of my life. It blew my mind that someone could truly recover and live a normal life again. At the same time, it confirmed a suspicion I’d always held that something about all of these mold-detoxing, hormone-balancing, gut-healing protocols just didn’t add up–that there was a root cause that I was overlooking.”
Since implementing the program, Autumn’s recovery has been nothing short of incredible. She recently shared her inspiring story of recovery on our Community Forum:
In December 2018, I moved out of my house because I was too unwell to live there anymore. I couldn’t take care of my 3-year-old daughter on my own. I ate homemade broth-based soups with spoonfuls of fat and a handful of veggies and soft meats for 3 meals a day. There was no exercise gentle enough for my body to handle. I couldn’t use any beauty or hygiene products. I lost my livelihood (professional singer and voice teacher), my home, and my family, and my daughter and I moved in with my parents while my husband continued to work and live 13 hours away.
Last weekend, almost 11 months into my DNRS journey, I moved back into this very house I left and we are–at long last–a family again, living and thriving together in a way we never dreamed was possible only 1 year ago.
I spend all day long with my daughter. I laugh so much with her. I run around the house and the playground with her. We dance, we play soccer, we play games, and we are silly all the time. I am patient and understanding and gentle with her. I make her meals and I take her places. Every night before bed, I describe a happy memory and then I sing her a song.
I eat absolutely anything I want. Not just pizza, ice cream, and egg McMuffins, but delicious, healthy, nutritious things like huge salads with nuts, vinegars, and berries. I haven’t had a broth-based meal in months. I receive a local farm share every week and I love planning and preparing meals with every single ingredient that comes in that box–cucumbers, squash, snap peas, cabbage, beets, leeks, corn, tomatoes, onions, everything!
I do Zumba or yoga every day. Sometimes for a full hour! I dance and smile the whole time and sometimes I get to the end and feel like I could keep going. The first time I completed an hour-long Zumba class, I cried tears of joy during the cool-down.
My house is full of wonderful smells: hand soap with lavender essential oils, body soap with rosemary, and shampoo with flower extracts. Not just the products in the house, but the house itself. The musty basement smell, the coat of fresh paint in the bedroom, the gasoline smell of the garage, the cleaner on the windows, and just all the wonderful smells of cooked food, fresh bread, cut grass, outdoor breezes, and our daily activities mingling together to make the wonderful smell of home.
I am singing again. Every day, I use my voice and I fill the house with my strong, confident, clear singing voice. When the opportunity returns, I will fill the halls of churches and theaters again with my trained soprano. And this time, I will know what it took and what it means to have that gift to share with the world.
Annie Hopper, do you know what a gift you have given our family? I think not only about the families you have restored, but the human beings you have given back to the world. We, who became shells of our former selves, restored to grateful, compassionate, resilient individuals who are able to make a difference and contribute a thing of beauty and hope to the story of this world.
And to my DNRS coach, Emily, if you’re reading this, please know that your suggestions are, every time, immediately helpful.
I have achieved my defining moment–this was the scenario I envisioned, but didn’t think was possible when I started DNRS 11 months ago. And I am so grateful for the ones who have gone before me. Your success stories are the reason I persisted to this day.
What is Autumn’s message to those who are still suffering? “You don’t have to believe this program will work for it to work. Doubt is a natural, and I’d even say healthy, part of the process. So many of us come into DNRS wanting certainty, and learning to be okay with uncertainty was, for me, a huge part of the recovery process. That being said, watching others’ success stories gave me so much hope and motivation to keep going. It is a slow process and it’s a lot of work. There are ebbs and times you’ll feel you’ve made no progress. But you commit to this, you give yourself no other choice–it’s either this or be sick the rest of your life. You maintain that determination and you will fully recover.”
