Customer Reviews

A Promise Of Hope

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If I had been asked to read this book 10 years ago, I probably would have turned away and said no thanks, I'm not interested. A lot has happened in my family in the last 10 years that has made the words that Autumn Stringam used on the pages of her book reality for me. Reading this book was a "no-brainer". My cousin suffered with mental illness and I am sure that I have only heard a sprinkling of the stories. All I know is that as I was reading Autumn's book, the story became so very real for me. I understood what she was going through and I knew what was going to help her - this miraculous cure is just that...a miracle. Trust me, I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't of seen it with my own eyes help my cousin take back her life several years ago. The fact of the matter is that there will always be a number of non-believers out there, but if Autumn can touch one person's heart and make them understand and believe that there is hope for them, for a family member or a child...then her job has been done successfully. I am not an avid reader by any stretch of the imagination, yet I found it very difficult to put this book down. There is something about this book that catches you by the heart, pulls you in and won't let you go. It is touching, true, and refreshing. I loved reading it.

Promise of Hope is a must read. It opens the readers eyes to the life of the mentally ill. It gives you understanding and then hope for the future. Since reading this book I have met people who take the nutrients that the author uses. They have finally found the answer to their problems. I urge others to read this book and fill themselves with knowledge to help others. Sad to say that mental illness is growing. Just think how many people that you know with depression, which is a first step. Hope and help is finally here!

"A Promise of Hope" is filled with faith, hope and fantastic examples of forgiveness and healing. I encourage all to read it, even those who have not been touched by mental illness. The book gives a superb look inside the illness and the writing is brilliant. It is wonderful that Stringam has the courage to bare her sole in the hope of helping others. We need more books like this one to help remove the Stigma so strongly attached to Mental Illness. "A Promise of Hope" is the most real book I have ever read.

Before I read this book, I myself, was very familiar with this story. Years ago, afflicted with this terrible disorder and having exhausted all allopathic means of help, I miraculously was guided to this treatment by a series of synchronistic events that still has me in awe. The book depicts well the story of many of us Bipolar people. The treatment resulting from the years of research is amazing and has given me a re-birthing into what most would term "a normal life". I have walked many through this treatment described in this book and to this day advocate the products use. I have also come to know from direct personal experience that this system of supplement treatment described in this book "re-trains" the body to function in a healthy way so in the end, the afflicted have hope to eventually live a normal life without any dependancies on any substances besides good wholesome food. Bi-polarism is an affliction of the senses. Those gifted with sensitivity need more sustenance to feed the nervous system which takes a beating by constant overstimulation. This story is a good one! A must read for anyone looking to heal or understand this imbalance. As they say,
"WE are what we eat in more ways then we can ever know!"

I know the Stephan family. (Autumns maiden name). I take TrueHope. I am a financial contributor to the research studies and political debate that is occurring in Canada in regards to TrueHope. I am living a semi-normal life with the brilliance of Empowerplus instead of living off and on in institutions. This book it a very hard read for someone that has a mental illness. It put me into a tail spin for almost 3 weeks. It is an incredibly powerful book, I give it to people who are unaware what it is like to live with mental illness and to those that I work with that help me with my health.

I found Truehope first and Autumn second. I was using her father's products, which saved my life, for almost three years before I read her book. Having read it, I learned how close my fate was linked to hers. Had she and her family not endured what they did and had her father not done what he did, I'd have long since died in an institution of some sort. No joke.

Autumn shares such personal pain in this book as to be profound. Bipolar disorder is an agony that is hard to convey to the healthy but Autumn did a splendid job of doing just that. Healthy folks supporting a bipolar loved one would do well for themselves to read this book. The bipolar mind is so far removed from anything a healthy person knows as to make it almost impossible for them to comprehend. But if they could, they'd be better able to help a sick person. Autumn gets you a lot closer to that comprehension than most.

But, as I said, her father's company Truehope, saved my life. I don't say that lightly. In fact, it has become my main overriding goal in life to send as many sick people to them as humanly possible. I was horrified to read how close they came to not existing. As one who literally survived what the doctors did to me in their attempt to help, the fact that this better option almost didn't come to be, is mortifying.

I suffered pain and despair that defied description for six years before Truehope. The relief they brought me was stupendous. To learn the Canadians who went through this same wonderful transformation and then had it denied them for a while...that is a nightmare I hope never to face.

Autumn has done and is doing a great thing in her fight to rid the world of bipolar and depression. She couldn't have made her passion to do so any plainer in her book. If you are personally crippled with bipolar or are someone looking for help for such a person, then do not hesitate to get a copy of this book. I beg you to not overlook this amazing source of inspiration and help.

Somebody in your family or circle of friends suffers from some form of mental illness, and this book is truly a book of hope. I read this story as the self-published These Painted Wings. I've seen the proof copy of the book to be released by HarperCollins in September. It's part coming of age, part courtroom thriller, part David vs Goliath.

After you shudder at being taken into the mind of a raving maniac side of bipolar disorder, your heart will sing at Autumn's glorious story of redemption. You'll wish her dad could be yours, that you could know her husband, that you could have her courage in taking on her own government, which acted as if it did not want her and thousands of other mental patients to recover -- and winning in court, fully vindicated by a Harvard Medical professor, university studies and the judge who ripped Canada's health agency.

Autumn will put a new face on mental illness and give hope to anybody who knows anybody afflicted. You'll want to share that face -- and hope -- with that friend or family member. Before you buy this book, stock up on tissue for the nose and eyes -- you'll need it -- and set aside some time for reading because once you begin, you won't put it down. I'd recommend putting some fast food aside for the kids because they'll be taking care of themselves until you're done with this book.

This book brings the reader inside the mind of a Bi-Polar Disorder patient in her own words. All the chaos, highs, lows, delusions, anger, and deep depression are felt in a way that could not ever be accurately described by anyone who has not lived the story. Autumn Stringam has lived the story. The depth of the urge to suicide is indelibly written. It is told with no holds barred in the still voice that is often seen in trauma victims describing what has happened to them. A distance that makes the story very compelling and true. There is nothing asked of us other than to believe the story and what it means. No requirement to sympathize with the writer for what she has gone through.

We see her life with her mother's undiagnosed bi-polar swings and final suicide through a child's eyes, never dreaming that the same terrors would one day be hers. The illness does not surface until she is an adult and married. From this point on, we travel through her own mind, while at the same time she finally begins to understand her mother. The family once again suffers the same fate as her younger brother also is diagnosed. There seems to be nothing to live for because nothing, no treatment yet used, could do more than remove them from a life into a stupor from which they dare not try to emerge.

Her father begins a quest to find a way to help his children in a way that he had not been able to save his wife. All he wants is for them to be safe. A chance meeting with an animal nutritionist eventually leads to trying a new way, a nutritional concoction of vitamins and minerals, based on the formula for quieting aggressive hogs, 'tail biters'. Over the next few years we journey through the miraculous recovery of the siblings. Indeed, both now lead healthy and productive lives.

There are agonizing legal battles to get the product approved. The futile fights with the Canadian government are spelled out completely and succinctly and made me want to join in the fight! I can see it exactly as if I had lived it. I would strongly recommend this book for a number of reasons. For understanding of the bi-polar progress, for the discovery and preliminary trials to improve on any new medical discovery, and for how difficult it is to bring government acceptance of alternative medicine for many illnesses, are three main reasons. This is a real life, Autumn lived this life and tells the truth as it is, plain and simple, with suspense as to what will happen with the discovery, and the final outcome. I highly recommend the book to all my friends. Read it, you will be glad you did.

As someone who has lived with a family member who has bipolar, this book provides a rare look at what it is like to be at the mercy of horribly malfunctioning brain chemicals. Rare because so many people who have bipolar are not even able to focus on reading a book, let alone writing so compellingly about what it is like to live inside the hurricane. But what sets this book apart from other mental illness "war stories", besides Stringam's can't-put-it-down writing, is the fascinating account of her ultimate, unorthodox recovery. Despite the fact that drug companies make billions on psychiatric medications, no one really knows how mental illness works. Stringam's experience has now become the basis of a whole new area of psychiatric research. It is very exciting to think that a major breakthrough in the understanding of what causes these hugely debilitating illnesses is now being researched right here in Canada.
Truly a must-read!

As a psychology graduate I was absolutely moved by this personal story of living and dealing with bipolar disorder. The author pours her heart onto the pages and accounts in great detail her life story; the ups and downs, the struggles and the victories. It is a story of healing and hope for all of those who struggle or know someone who is struggling with a mental disorder. A must read for sure, I would definitely recommend purchasing it!