Ashley Sargeant had been serving a mission in the Brasilia Brazil Mission for nine months when she was given an honorable release. While serving, she battled with mental health struggles and halfway through her mission, she had a complete mental collapse. Ashley was heartbroken, but knew it was right to return home. On her last day in the mission, her first companion found her, and knowing that she was going home early, took her by the shoulders, looked her in the eye and told her:
“Whatever you do, just don’t stop Sister Sargeant. DON’T STOP!”
On February 19th 2015, she launched a social media campaign titled “Don’t Stop Sargeant” designed to share hope and resources with early returning missionaries and those who are battling mental illness to overcome the stigma that is so prevalent in our culture. She responds to messages from her followers on her website (link above), Facebook page, Instagram, and YouTube. Ashley has been battling mental illness for the past fourteen years, but coming home from her mission really hit home and her quest to find answers really began at the end of her mission.
It has been around three years since Ashley returned home from Brazil. Six months ago, she was in an even darker place than she had ever been in her life. In a recent presentation she gave, she said “my brain could not handle it anymore.” At this same time, a friend approached her on social media saying that she would be in town and that she could come visit her. She was excited to see her friend but also in deep need of help at this dark time. It was at this time that her friend Josie Thompson told her about EMPowerplus Q96. When Josie told her about this broad spectrum micronutrient, she said that she had already heard about this from nearly a dozen of her other friends, but she assumed that it was just too good to be true.
Josie said to Ashley: “Before you admit yourself to the hospital, at least try this.” So Lisa Thompson, Josie’s mom, sent Ashley a month supply for free the next day. Ashley was still hesitant that it would work, but within the first couple of weeks, she noticed changes in her mood and she started functioning again. “Within a month of taking it, I started getting out of bed. That is a big deal! The second month it became even easier. I was sleeping better and I didn’t have the desire to kill myself anymore.”
In a recent video, Ashley stated: “I didn’t have this heaviness, this darkness in my brain in the morning that made it almost impossible to get out of bed. I thought a couple months into taking it, ‘This has got to be a placebo effect. This is going to wear off any day now. I’m going to wake up one morning and I’m going to go right back to how things were before.”
Six months later, that hasn’t happened. It has only gotten better.
She says: “It’s not that I don’t have ups and downs and good days and bad days, because we all have those. It’s that I feel like I’ve gone from riding this out-of-control, terrifying roller coaster ride of a life to a manageable carousel ride. And now I can say that I know what normal feels like for me. And these lights have turned back on in my life, in my face — I feel all sparkly inside and I just want to tell everybody about the amazingness of Q96! It has literally changed my life. I feel excited about my future, and I feel a lot of hope.”
Photo of Ashley from a recent interview
With so many people who struggle with this, it is important to remember that this product is not approved by the FDA and is a broad-spectrum micronutrient, not a medication. As such it does not claim to treat or cure any disease. Each individual experience is unique, but we share this story because if it brought Ashley out of such a deep darkness, it might help you or someone you love to find the light and hope that Ashley now feels.
“I’m living proof that this stuff works. I don’t know the science behind it, but I know that nutrition affects your brain. I am now six months on the Q. I can say that today I am a completely functional, happy human being.”
And though Ashley may not understand the science behind this formulation, there is ongoing research being done and over twenty-seven peer reviewed journal articles have been published (to date) on this broad spectrum micronutrient formulation. Is this product right for you or for someone you know? It might just be. Ashley struggled for months of terrifying darkness before she let herself try it. Now that she knows that it works, she wished she would have started long ago.
Editors note: To see a list of empirical reports and clinical research on this product, click here. To read about a Harvard Psychiatrist and other researchers who have done tests on this product, click here. To watch a TED talk given by a clinical psychologist who has researched the EMPowerplus formulation, click here. For more information about EMPowerplus Q96, click here. If you are interested in trying the product for yourself, click here. This article was written with permission from Ashley Sargeant and was sponsored by MyQHealth.com.
Important Safety Disclaimer: If you are considering transitioning from any medication onto the EMPowerplus formulation, please be careful. Please do not go off your medications “cold-turkey.” This is dangerous and is unwise. However, please do consider trying this method very carefully and with the help of professionals, family and transition coaches. Mental illness is serious and can be life-threatening. Please be careful, but know that there is hope and for anyone who is willing to take the time and make the effort to transition to a more natural pathway. It may take longer than Ashley Sargeant to experience any result. For anyone considering it, we would recommend using the Micronutrient Support coaches who have been trained professionally to coach people in this type of transition. As you consider a lifelong pathway for your health, remember that the former president of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Martin Seligman, has said in his latest book Flourish that there is not one SSRI that is made for a cure. They are all cosmetic, not curative. He said this: “Every single drug on the shelf of psychopharmacopoeia is cosmetic. There are no curative drugs, and no drug is in development that I know of that aims at cure. Biological psychiatry has given up on cure.” [Flourish, p. 46]. QSciences and EMPowerplus Q96 does not claim to cure any mental illness, but it has been proven to have clinically effective results with those who suffer from mental illnesses. As stated above, please be wise and use caution in your decisions about your mental health or that of a loved one.
