I wish I could say I am glad to be a member of this list but who can be glad about having their life ruined by deliberate cruelty in the name of the Almighty Dollar. But I am tremendously thankful that you all are here and that this list is here and that there is an army of faithful people devoting so much of themselves to helping others and attempting to stop this madness. I simply feel that I have to have someplace to unload something of what I feel and connect to people who understand. My history is long and complex but I will not dwell on it suffice to say that I grew up in a very violent home with two severely disturbed alcoholic parents. From that I have received the diagnosis of chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. Ahh how the Aspartame helped me with my depression. How it took me lower and lower into the depths of a mindless black fog. And then while doing my stint in college back in the early ’70’s I was exposed to a massive dose of chlordane in the house where I was living.
After that my health has been weird. I wasn’t the only person living there that experienced lasting effects. One person developed a brain tumor. The rest of us lucky ones just got chronic fatigue and chemical sensitivities.
Then I was gassed with 2-4D, you know, Agent Orange, while living in newly wedded bliss at an apartment complex. Finally life in the big city was so intolerable for me, even with herbs and vitamins and organic foods, that we moved to the country. But that meant giving up a lot. Organic foods are hard to come by and finances are difficult at best. As we grew to mid-life and watched my husband’s sisters and brothers become diabetic we switched to using NutraSweet and other various forms of Aspartame. This was about 1 to 1and 1/2 years ago. I started using the stuff for various reasons, not good ones to be sure and viola. Memory loss-oh I can remember the horrors of childhood vividly but I can’t seem to figure out which key is for the car or the house.
Severe muscle and joint pain till I could barely walk. Burning pains, ringing ears to the point of hardly being able to hear, then the weird pounding noises and burning skin and then at the last migraines- this from a person who ordinarily had maybe 2 headaches a year. Also I was having some sort of seizure activity.
I didn’t know what it was till I described it to my husband and he as a lifelong epileptic recognized it at once. Miraculously I stumbled across the Dorway website and my life has changed for the better. I am now, as far as I know, Aspartame free for one month. I can walk without pain and am no longer hopelessly depressed; my old coping skills I learned through years of therapy are working again. No headaches at all unless I get in contact with outgassing such as at Wal-Mart. But I still don’t feel consistently well. Today was a bad day. I have had a HORRIBLE painful rash for about a week. It is improving with creams and B vitamins. I should be feeling better.
I checked your archives and found the post about Aspartame being hidden in yogurt and started shaking and almost crying I was so upset. I just started using Dannon’s “All Natural” plain yogurt. I was careful to read the label. Supposedly, there is nothing in it but milk, and of course bovine growth hormone, but it is the best I could find.
What upset me the most is that I gave some to my beloved dogs. I want to stay on this list to keep abreast of what I can do for my family, my pets, my friends and neighbors.
I have been telling everyone I know about the dangers in Aspartame. Most of the time I get this blank look and then the subject is changed. Well, at least I told them.
Thank you all for indulging me in this long outpouring. I pray night and day that this horrible thing that has been perpetrated on the world by Monsanto and the FDA will come to an end. M.B. in Ohio