My story starts back when I served as a signal specialist in the U.S. Army. I served my country for seven years, which included a deployment to Iraq before I was discharged due to a life-threatening illness and post-traumatic stress. While I was being treated, I became overmedicated with more than forty psychiatric drugs. I did what anyone would do after enduring traumatic experiences—I sought help in the traditional mental health system. That system failed me, and I found myself medically retired. I was a proud veteran, and in what felt like an instant, I found myself wondering what had happened to my identity, my career, and my life.

After years of questioning my treatment plan, medications, and diagnoses, and after a series of disillusioning experiences, I finally asked the tough question, “Who would I be without all of these medications?” I wanted to know how I would feel if I could find my way back to myself.

That was it—the catalyst I needed to change everything. From that moment, I decided to take a harm-reduction approach to my care, and I reduced medication and found other ways to heal. 

And everything went according to plan until it didn’t. When I was taken off of my last medication, a small dose of an anti-anxiety drug that I had taken as prescribed, it was abrupt and done within a psychiatric hospital after I became suicidal. What happened after was horrible—I found myself plagued with horrifying symptoms and states of inner terror, and I’d spend the next three years fighting for my life. I knew I was a warrior, but I didn’t know how hard I’d have to fight.

I couldn’t stand to shower for over two years, and I became sensitive to light, sound, and every noise imaginable. I felt like my entire body had turned on itself, and I was inside out; every nerve in my body felt like it was on fire. This is when a documentary film crew connected with me to record my recovery journey in “Medicating Normal,” a film that would finally shine a light on the trauma and harm inflicted on many by the very system designed to treat us.

I led an international and grassroots outreach effort for the film traveling around the U.S. in my campervan, attempting to heal from all that happened. It was an adventure—engaging with over 180 audiences in an open dialogue about psychiatric drug use, withdrawal, and healing. 

Today, I’m on the other side of it all. I’m a trauma informed coach helping individuals navigate recovery while working through withdrawal and severe trauma from overmedication— individuals who’ve done nothing wrong yet were unfairly harmed and found themselves suffering at the hands of the very system they sought out to help them.  

It’s my mission to do what the mental health care system failed to do for them—help them heal. My fight is far from over, and I know there is still work to be done on an even larger scale. And I am doing everything within my power to improve the mental health system for good, for all of us.