This piece was written by Anna Nelson. The opinions herein are not necessarily those of Natasha Tracy. Editor’s notes are by Natasha Tracy.

In February 2022, I decided I wanted to go off my antidepressants. This is what led me to find the company Truehope and their supplement EMPowerplus. I wish I never had. The direction from the staff at Truehope has damaged my health more than I ever thought possible. I have depression and have been greatly injured by Truehope. This is my story.

(TL;DR, read a summary of this story.)

Over the previous four years, besides my family doctor, I had seen four psychiatrists and trialed many different antidepressants. Instead of getting better, I was getting worse. I wondered if the antidepressants could be causing the worsening, and now considered “treatment-resistant depression.” I had been on one antidepressant for over 20 years and another for approximately two years. I couldn’t imagine why I would continue these medications if they were making me worse, particularly given the side effects, which were unbearable.

How I Learned About Truehope and EMPowerplus

I started researching how diet affects mental health, and I came across the book The Better Brain: Overcome Anxiety, Combat Depression, And Reduce Adhd And Stress With Nutrition by Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, and Julia J. Rucklidge, PhD, who studied the Truehope supplement EMPowerplus. EMPowerplus contains micronutrients and is the company’s “magic pill” purported to cure all mental illnesses. I emailed Kaplan, and she endorsed the EMPowerplus supplement. She made it clear she was not affiliated with Truehope other than through past research. (I did, however, see Kaplan on a YouTube video endorsing EMPowerplus. But that was years ago.)

(Editor’s note: I would call Kaplan a “true believer” who has many links to Truehope. Both Kaplan and Rucklidge are “alternative treatment” believers and appear to be antipsychiatry. Note that neither are medical doctors.)

Kaplan stated I should contact either Truehope or the company that broke off from Truehope, called Hardy Nutritionals. Kaplan told me to work with them, and they would get me on the right track.

I went to the Truehope website and watched their video testimonials. I watched the video of how the company was started and how several of the cofounder’s (Anthony Stephan) family members were healed from mental illness using EMPowerplus. I also read A Promise of Hope, written by Anthony Stephan’s daughter, Autumn Stringam, and how she overcame bipolar disorder using EMPowerplus. There is only one brief mention of difficulty with withdrawals in the many testimonies on the website. In the written information, it says, “Coming off medications can produce uncomfortable withdrawal effects, but Truehope AminoPower is here to help.”

I Wanted Off My Antidepressants and on the ‘Magic’ EMPowerplus by Truehope

I was hyped to get off my medications and on to these “magic” supplements. When I got the supplements, I called their support line and was told to take six EMPowerplus capsules. I ended up in the emergency room four or five days later with close to a hypertensive (high blood pressure) crisis. I feared I had the extremely dangerous serotonin syndrome. This should have been a red flag, but I didn’t see it. (I was later told by David Stephan, the founder’s son and Director of Marketing at Truehope, that the reason Truehope takes you off medications so fast is that EMPowerplus causes serious drug interactions with antidepressants [and possibly other psychiatric medications].)

(Editor’s note: You may recognize David Stephan’s name as he and his wife were convicted of failing to provide the necessities of life in April 2016 after the death of their son, Ezekiel, who was 19 months old. [After an appeal, they were found not guilty, but that verdict was subsequently thrown out. All the drama here.] For obvious reasons, please take Stephan’s words with a giant boulder of salt.)

I sent an email to Truehope the following weekend and received a call from Stephan. Stephan told me to call the support staff for further direction.

I told the first Truehope support worker I had, “Vicky,” that I was not working with a doctor. She felt it was fine and said the support staff is qualified, and doctors don’t know how to manage psychiatric medications anyway. Vicky had worked for Truehope for 25 years.

(Editor’s note: Vicky’s name was changed to protect her privacy.)

Vicky, and the other support staff, have no medical training, and none of the people I talked to had any personal experience with psychiatric drugs.

Vicky told me that Health Canada had sued Truehope and lost, trying to take their supplements off the market in the early 2000s. She said that after losing the lawsuit, Health Canada mandated counseling by Truehope to help people get off their medications and onto their supplements. I thought that if Health Canada mandated it, then the company must be safe.

I have since found out that Health Canada does not agree with having non-medical support staff counsel people. I don’t know how Truehope is allowed to operate, as even medical doctors can have trouble withdrawing people off psychiatric medications safely.

Vicky instructed me to decrease my dose of each drug by 25 percent. (I have since learned through the company Outro [a company that withdraws people from medications] and lay sites that you should decrease your dose of only one medication by between 5-10 percent per month at the maximum.)

(Editor’s note: Be careful with companies like Outro. Remember, they make money getting people off medications. They are not impartial. Your best resource is your own psychiatrist.)

I Withdrew My Antidepressants and Got onto EMPowerplus

On March 7, 2022, I reduced both medications by 25 percent and started taking the maximum dose of EMPowerplus. I was instructed to call the office if I was having “overmedication symptoms,” which I was told were agitation and restlessness. After one week, I started to feel that way, so I called the office, and again, my antidepressant dosages were cut by 25 percent. This happened every week until I was only on 25 percent of the original dose.

(Editor’s note: Stephan and staff at Truehope claim that “overmedication symptoms” are due to the interaction between EMPowerplus and antidepressants. A vitamin supplement would not do this, in my opinion.)

On April 8, 2022, I started having these “overmedication symptoms” again. It was a Friday evening, and since the office was closed and I was being taken off the medications 25 percent each time, I stopped the antidepressants altogether. I called the office early the following week and told them what I had done. They told me I did the right thing; I was off both medications in 33 days. I have since learned through Outro and lay sources that once you get to the last 25 percent, you need to taper by 5 percent or less per month. A psychiatrist who specializes in antidepressant withdrawal in the United Kingdom (UK) said I should have been tapered off my medications, one at a time, over two years and that there are no supplements that will take away withdrawal symptoms. In my case, the supplements may have helped a little with the tremors, but they weren’t the magic pills I was led to believe they were.

Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Hit; Truehope and EMPowerplus Did Not Help

Withdrawal symptoms hit in full force within a few days of being off both antidepressants. My symptoms included hot, flushed skin, sweats, severe tremors, severe irritability and agitation, rage, crying spells, insomnia, hyperventilating, tingling all over my body, and a deep depression with ruminations about all kinds of dark things, including suicide.

I called the office several times between April 8, 2022, and April 20, 2022, telling the staff what I was experiencing. They told me to drink protein isolate shakes and take more amino acids (other Truehope products). This did not help. I called the office on April 20, 2022, and said, “This can’t be right; I feel like I am going crazy.”

Vicky told me that to settle down the symptoms, I should reinstate a small dose of one of my antidepressants. According to my notes, I was doing a little better for a few days. But by May 11, 2022, they decreased my new dose by 25 percent. May 15-20, 2022, I was in bed with suicidal ideation, insomnia, sweats, tingling, shakes, shortness of breath, and all the previously mentioned symptoms. I called into work sick a lot.

By July 2, 2022, I was off all antidepressants. It took 10 weeks this time, but I was still reducing by 25 percent at a time and still having severe withdrawal symptoms.

Exercise and Antidepressant Withdrawal – What Truehope Says

At some point after April 20, 2022, I told Vicky that after I worked out, I seemed to feel worse. She said, “Oh no, you can’t exercise!”

What?

She said that antidepressants are stored in fat cells, and when you exercise, the medication is pushed into the bloodstream, which is why I was experiencing such extreme withdrawals. This made zero sense to me. If this was a fact, then why did they reintroduce my antidepressant to “take the edge off?”

I kept exercising off and on as I didn’t believe this theory. I also asked a different support worker, “If I work out, won’t I be flushing the medications out faster and get through withdrawals faster?”

The support staff agreed this could happen. But when I worked out, I would get the most crushing fatigue I had ever had. The fatigue was awful 24/7, but I couldn’t even get off the couch if I exercised. So, I stopped exercising for a while.

I was never warned that I could experience severe withdrawal from exercising. There was no discussion of what I would experience. I expected to have some withdrawal, but with their magic supplements, I believed it wouldn’t be so bad.

I went on a bike trip that summer. That put me in the most horrible shape, with the most intense withdrawals I had experienced. I waited a few more weeks before biking again. The staff advised me against biking as it would make the withdrawals worse, but I was determined to flush it all out, as I was told was possible. I was discouraged when the support staff told me not to bike, so I called Stephan again. Stephan told me that the support staff were wrong and that there was no reason I shouldn’t be able to bike. He gave me a protocol of how often to take amino acids and isolate on biking days. I went biking twice more and then had to cancel the other trips planned for the summer. Increasing the amino acids and drinking isolate shakes did nothing for withdrawal symptoms.

EMPowerplus and Truehope Did Not Help Me with Antidepressant Withdrawal

I spent my summer in sheer agony with a few hours of respite here and there. When I called the Truehope support staff, they would blame my withdrawal symptoms on my biking. At other times, the staff were condescending and said, “Well, you can go back on your medications again.”

I thought they were giving up on me. They talked as though going back on my medications was a failure and not something that might help.

August 11, 2022, was my last day of work. I could no longer hold it together. Besides being constantly agitated and having crying spells, I had a meltdown in the office and was put on administrative leave, then went on disability. Despite being on disability, I was not advised by the Truehope support staff to reinstate my antidepressant medications again. I was not told I was prolonging my withdrawal symptoms. At that point, I was in withdrawal all the time, regardless of whether I exercised. I was always in a state of crushing fatigue and irritability; I experienced tremors, and I was feeling unwell and detached from the world. I called the Truehope support line frequently, telling the support staff how horrible I was feeling.

I went from July 2-September 12, 2022, before there was any mention of reinstating my medication. On September 12, 2022, I was reinstated on one of my antidepressants at a small dose. It didn’t help much. I tapered myself off it as I had lost all hope in the Truehope support staff.

At this point, I felt my central nervous system was totally dysregulated, and besides being in a chronically irritable mood, I could no longer exercise at all.

I feel the rapid removal of antidepressants has damaged my central nervous system. Stephan told me he stands by Truehope’s policy to get people off medications as fast as possible. He said the medications need to be discontinued as fast as possible so that the micronutrients can start working. I feel this is a very dangerous practice.

I Was Harmed by Truehope

There are so many things that are obvious to me now after suffering so much but weren’t at the time. I was in a constant state of a messed-up mind and was trusting in Truehope. I wish I had known what a normal taper rate was. I wish I had known that I should have stabilized once I reinstated an antidepressant and that reinstating at a larger dose, then tapering over many months, would have saved me tremendous pain and suffering. I wish I had known that a fast taper would ruin my ability to participate in sports. I wish I hadn’t believed I was flushing the medications out of my fat cells. I wish I hadn’t believed in their supplements to save me from withdrawals.

As I write this in August 2023, I can no longer exercise. If I exercise, even an hour walk, all the withdrawal symptoms come back, and I can be in bed for days. Stephan told me that when you exercise, you flush the medications out of your fat cells and into the bloodstream. By doing this, the medications interact with the EMPowerplus supplement, so when you exercise, you will have withdrawal symptoms. If this is really true, then people on EMPowerplus can never exercise. I was told that it can take years for the medications to get out of the fat cells. I asked Stephan, if that was the case, then why can I still not exercise as I have quit taking the EMPowerplus. He had no answer.

I spent most of the last year in bed with occasional exercise, trying to get my life back (I used to be active all the time). I am not sure why, but my withdrawal symptoms seem to be worse than a year ago. I can do a gentle 30-minute walk occasionally, but if I go more than twice a week, I get ill with all the withdrawal symptoms. I’ve been told there is no cure for this except for time. I am in a deep state of grief. I don’t know what to do with myself. I miss my life so badly, but worse is knowing that for some people, it can take years to recover, and sometimes this state can be permanent. I will forever regret going to that company for “help.” Their dangerous practices have severely damaged my health.

I have lost thousands of dollars due to missed time at work and seeing specialists and antidepressant withdrawal coaches. I have spent countless hours trying to figure out how to repair the damage done by listening to the staff at Truehope. I don’t know how long it will take. Being off antidepressants was a choice I felt I had to make. I would do it again but at a much slower rate.

I know there are probably many more suffering from their experience with Truehope. I would like to hear your story. Maybe we can collectively summon Health Canada to stop this company before they harm others.

Summary of My Story of Being Harmed by Truehope

  • I had seen doctors, but I decided to come off my antidepressants without the aid of a doctor and instead listened to the support staff at the company Truehope.
  • Truehope makes the supplement EMPowerplus, which they bill as a practically magic cure for all mental illnesses.
  • Truehope advised me to come off my antidepressants rapidly. Following Truehope’s advice caused massive withdrawal symptoms.
  • Over a year later, I still suffer from withdrawal symptoms and can’t exercise because of it.
  • I have been gravely harmed by Truehope and their advice. I’d love to hear from you if this has happened to you too.

Contacting the Author, Anna

If you have been harmed by Truehope and would like to contact Anna, please email her here.

More About Truehope and EMPowerplus

Image: Take that Pill by Macro Verch under Creative Commons 2.0 license.