Tara Mackey

on drugs. She was put on to fourteen different prescription pills as a child to try to help her I guess cope, but really no one ever diagnosed her what was really going on with her her, And so she got herself off of every single one of these medications as an adult, and she wrote books about how to live naturally and how all of these drugs are basically killing us and all of the harmful side effects of just putting yourself on a prescription drug. So her book

is amazing. She's so soulful. She leads us through a visualization exercise where you really tap into what you're true calling is. She is an angel from God and this interview was amazing. Get excited for Tara Mackie. Here she is Tara Mackie. Yes, girl, what is up beside you changing the world? What's up? You know, I think that's that's good for now, right. I mean, I think that's a big, big task that you've taken on, and you're

doing it so amazing. And I'm so grateful that you have like flowed into my podcast world because I have in the past couple of years gotten so obsessed with the food industry and just trying to understand our food and all of the crap that's in our food and all these extra products, and like where is it all coming from? Are we eating real stuff? And then take that one more step to medications. Are these medicines that

people are giving us are they really helping us? Are they just like band aiding something and then causing a greater problem somewhere else, Like I feel like, are we really being taken care of out there? And you have done all of the research and just how You've written two books, which is insane, and you have a new book out called Wild Habits, which is talking about how you beat fourteen illnesses? All right, fourteen allesses? Yeah, with

plants and nature and natural everything natural. So how did how did you get to the point where you're on fourteen medications? And how then did you decide to go on this wild journey to go all natural, and really that could have been super scary because doctors are probably telling you that the last thing you should do. Only my whole life. So I was born on drugs. My mother did drugs the entire time she was pregnant with me, which I feel like is becoming more and more ubiquitous.

So my mother did, Um, she did cocaine, mostly should cocaine in the cab on the way to the hospital to give birth to me. So and then she drank and she smoked cigarettes her whole pregnancy with me. So, Um, that didn't. That didn't. That didn't cause any like birth defects or anything. I can't say. So no, I mean I was in I had to do detox for the first two weeks after I was born. Yeah, I was in the nick you no bonding for me. Um, So I know I had tubes up my nose first thing

when I came out. I mean I wasn't. I had toxic things in my system when I was born, So it kind of started there. And then my mother raised me as a single parent and she um got into heroine. I was five, who was raising you? When she was doing all this. She was I was, So were you ever worried for your safety or anything? I can't, you know.

I feel like when you're that young and you don't know any differently, Like you know, you're raised by neighbors and the kids down the block and yourself and the guy at the store who sees you get cigarettes for your mom every other day with a little note from her, and you're five years old, Like, those are the people

who are raised. You know. My grandparents were huge. I mean, they ended up getting custody of me um two years later because my mother overdosed on heroin in front of me when I was six, And I think that's when they truly realized that, Okay, yeah, no, she's not in a safe environment like that. I saw that. That was yeah, I saw that. I called them, How does a secural process that? What do you even know what's happening? I didn't know what a heroine overdose was, but I definitely

knew something was wrong. When your parent doesn't wake up and their eyes are rolled in the back of their head. That's one of the first feelings I remember, is just being really scared that I she was dead, you know, because you don't know that, you know, you kind of I saw like a dead bird and like and like ants and stuff, and you kind of know when something's

not responding to you, um, it's something is wrong. And so I, I uh pulled out a chair from the kitchen and student and reached the phone and called my grandparents and they came first before the cops and before the ambulance. Um and they ended up calling nine one, but and took me out of that situation before the cops and the ambulance showed up. Because had the cops shown up and it was just me there or they were there with me, they immediately would have taken me

into foster care. And they knew that. So they got me out of the situation, which was you know, probably one of the smartest things they ever did, aside from right after that apply for custody of me, because I think that's when it really occurred to that of like, oh, she's like here by herself, like living alone, and her mom is like doing this all the time. It's not like a one time thing. And she's making herself dinner by standing on the same stool that she used to

you know, call us on the phone. Things like that. I think just started really kind of slowly hitting them, especially when I started living at them and going to therapy and they asked me like, you know, where did you sleep and where are your toys and like things, just where's the money we gave you for Easter? Like they just kind of started to realize that she wasn't taking care of me anymore. You know, it was about

drugs and alcohol. It wasn't about her child. And um, a judge granted them custody of me when I was seven, So they raised me with kind of the hope that m that my mother would get her act together. And their daughter, that's their daughter, Yeah, their first daughter, their first child. The reason that they are married, um because they had her in Ireland back in the day. Are you are you are your descendants from Ireland? Yeah? Oh yeah, that whole side of my family. My mom's from Ireland. Um,

that's why my last name is Mackie. It's my mom's last name. So yeah, And so my mother was in and out of jail and rehab my whole childhood and then finally when I was ten, she got sober for about a year at a at an outpatientary. Have facility, and then she came to live with me and my grandparents and she was that. It was amazing, actually, I mean it was, well, there's some healing that happened. Did you have to talk about some stuff or how did you? Yeah,

there was a lot of healing. There was a lot of nights out. There was a lot of her actually finally really trying um in a way I had never seen, because she really had never been sober in my memorable life. And I always was a little nostalgic for the you know, the teenage version of her that my grandparents always talked about before she started drinking and stuff. You never had known that side every I never got to see that she always had been drinking and always had been doing

drugs my entire life. And so spending time with her sober is definitely very interesting because I got to see her for who she truly was, and what did you discover? She's you know, she's an amazing person. She's a great artist. She's very compassionate, she's very kind. I think kindness is

she's she's incredibly selfless. You know, I think a lot of addicts really are they They drink and they do drugs, because they get down on themselves, they feel guilty about how they treat other people, and they really they have a hard time with self forgiveness. And she and a lot of the kindest, most gentlest people are like that, and she really is. She's a really great person. Um for you though, to be so open to healing with her in that way, you know, a child, especially because

I'm sure that was not easy. Wow, it was dark to your life world a little bit, just a little bit. So I was saying a therapist this whole time, too, and that was definitely helpful because having somebody in your life go, you know, it's not your fault what your mother is doing. Do you feel like it was your fault? You? Every child of an alcoholic or a drug addict feels like it's their fault because you do something wrong or you do something right and your parent goes and drinks

and does it doesn't change anything. So how can you not internalize that? Right? And so I think when you see a therapist when that's your situation, they have to really kind of hammer into you that this is not your fault, especially when you're the only child and there really is no like you can't even mentally go blame someone else, you know, you know what to talk to

you about it. You're alone, and you're also learning all of what's happened, like you're plopped into this world, like you're learning everything and you don't know how to interpret what's happening, and you don't have anyone to talk to

you about it right exactly. And you know, I went to a very small private school with literally ten of their kids, and all of their families were completely nuclear, like not even divorced, like I mean, everybody had just like happy, smiling like just and you know, in Catholic school, and everyone's just kd of putting on this whether it was a front or whether it was real, Like it

wasn't relatable to my experience at all. And so the only the only things I really saw as a kid that were relatable to my experience was when I was watching Oprah. You know, we're listening to Tony Robbins, like, because those are the only people in the early nineties who were speaking to things like this on a on a public platform in a large way to millions. It's true.

Do you do you feel like and I'm not I want to get back to this but do you feel like social media, all those social media I want to talk to you about that too, can be like a downside. Do you feel like that? Is one of the positive things about social media is it gives so many people a voice to speak about these things that maybe we

wouldn't have heard before. Totally, and I love it, and I think it gives a lot of people a lot of inspiration to get better in a way that yeah, we only had one or two things before and if you couldn't afford those, the box cassette from Tony Robbins or a TV who were you listening to? You know, people still thought that was kind of crazy back then too. Oh yeah, totally totally. It was wasn't happening. It wasn't the movement yet. No, no, not yet. We were still

in our little bubble. But uh but I really feel like so. My mother actually relapsed in front of me when I was twelve, and then when I was thirteen is when I was put on for a month. After that was when I saw a child psychiatrist for the first time. I was put on my first drug, which was a mood stabilizer called lithium. So they put you on a drug at fourteen and what is that is that a heavy drug. It's a heavy duty adult dosage of a moon stabilizer that they normally at the time.

What was interesting at the time was that this was you know, early early two thousands, and they were just starting to give these adult dosages of drugs to children. At the time, they were not allowed to test them on children. So only in the last like five years have they been legally allowed to test these drugs on children. But they've been giving adult dosages of drugs to children

for at least the last twenty years. So you had no choice when you were You're born into drugs in your system, then not your fault at all that you are in this world which is what you're born into, and then you get put on drugs like out of

your control. Totally wow, Okay, so what happened when that happened, Well, my grandparents, I don't think, even maybe to this day, still don't see the irony of of paying a therapist for many many years to help me stay off drugs and then paying another therapist to put me on drugs. Um but I got put on another drug the next year. So lithium can inhibit your ability to do math and science,

which is what it started to do for me. I started to go from being a complete straight A student to getting I brought one C plus home on one math test and my grandparents were like, what the fuck? So they brought me into my psychiatrist and he was like, this is attention defice, that hyperactivity disorder. You are very serious. And they put me on a drug called Methodate. Are they keeping you on the other one too? Oh? Yeah?

What and your tiny little baby pression and body I was like eighty pounds on a hundred and five pounds now, like my gosh, ebody, person, prescious body was just pump with all these drugs. It makes you want to cry. Oh no, I know, I'm so sad. I'm so sorry. I don't know. I want to go back and hug thirty. I want I want to hug seven year old me always. I'm just like, oh man, you've been such a fighter, Terra. Oh you are crying like it really like makes you emotional,

Like I'm sorry. You're so innocent, I know, and it's so weird when you don't have a choice. Even no, it's okay, it's all right, but you don't even realize you don't have a choice. And that's why when I talk to parents who are like they want to put my five year old on a d D medic Like, here's the thing, and it's not even the health, it's not even anything. It's it is this. It's the choice. It's the fact that when you when you're five and somebody tells you to take a pill, you don't have

a choice. And if you really think that your kid needs this because he needs to graduate from kindergarten or she needs to do better in a subject, if they ever regret being on this medication, and trust me, they probably will, they're not going to blame themselves. They're gonna blame you. And so if you just let them go through challenges, they have to blame themselves and then they have to overcome that and they're not going to rely on a pill and they're not gonna rely on you

or someone else to solve that for them. But the second you start medicating your children, you start holding them back because you stop giving them a choice. That's my larger message, Like that's what I want to really, really really bring home to parents, because when you're a child, you don't have a choice. You don't and you're you don't know, you're not even mentally capable of knowing that

you have a choice because a doctor is involved. Anything yeah, anything like no, no, no, no. And And what's weird is I think every thirteen year old can be diagnosed as bipolar. That's the thing. I mean. I wasn't even exhibiting mood swings or any or really any like takeoffs of the disorder. And but not do a quick little background check and just like examine what's happening in your life and be like, Oh, she's probably going through some

home and that's what's happening. I like to say, I probably had shitty life disorder and they must diagnosed, because no, they did. They knew exactly what was going on. Even when I got even when my grades started slipping, you'd think, well, maybe it's because she's been through something traumatic, or maybe it's because she's on this medication that at may after a while started inhibiting her learning capabilities. But but no, every single time something was wrong, and this is every doctor.

First it was my psychiatrist, but then I went to see doctors for other things. For my school usis for I got diagnosed with arthritis. I got diagnosed with anxiety, and every single one of them their first line of defense was pills. I don't know if it's because I had shitty health insurance. I don't know, because actually I didn't at the time, because when I was a kid. I mean, it definitely became more prevalent when I, you know, was on state health insurance. Of course, what are they

gonna do. They don't want to take any time to see you because you're not even paying to be there, so they're just going to give you the quickest, easiest solution. But I don't understand how it started when I was under my grandparents insurance, which was like really good at the time because my grandparents worked for the airlines and um, and it was every single doctor I saw just here's a pill. And I think it was just becoming a more prevalent part of the culture at the time. If

you really look at the drug statistics. When I started getting prescribed drugs, is when they started prescribing everybody drugs they went for. They never prescribed the old ones. I just kept adding on, so they I did get switched from lithium to a drug called the Michtal. But I stayed on the Michtal for the next eight and a half years, and I never switched drugs because I really, the honest truth was because I didn't feel any really that much different on the new drug and I didn't

want to get switched to something else. What are they trying to cure in you? With all this kind of what I was wondering the time was like, what is the final destination here? Like, yeah, I don't really get it, Like you're just a kid, Like what are they trying. I'm not gonna saw your mom overdose in front of you,

so they're gonna put you on heavy drugs. Also, I mean that that seemed to be the train of thought, right, I know, it's so ironic, and there's so many ironic parts to it, with the fact that my grandparents went along with it when drugs were the cause of this whole thing, right, the fact that like the doctors didn't

connect what I was going through even physically. Right, So now I know when I'm more stressed or anxious or something's going on, or I don't have control over what's happening, which was like my whole life as a child and young adult I'm in a lot more pain, right, And so to get diagnosed with arthritis as a child or as a teenager and not have a doctor go like, are you going through anything stressful or traumatic in your life?

How much do you exercise? What are you eating? How? Yeah? Like, yeah, do you have anyone in your life who's supporting you? Do you? Are you getting enough? Like? Are you able to talk about your feelings to anyone? Exactly? They never asked me any personal questions about my life. And that's where I start. Why not? What is that disconnect between?

And I feel very passionate about this. I've not lived your experience in the slightest, but I feel very passionate about why when you go to the doctor, is it not a well being experienced. It's not for your whole well being. It's like nothing about it treats your whole well being. It's it's so I have a biology background. Of course, I ended up getting into psychology and biology in college because why not, Let's explain my own neuroses, right, What were you like as a kid? What was your

personality like with all this going on? Like you know, I mean, I went from being pretty outgoing and really happy and unstoppable to being pretty fucking jaded and melancholy. Like I'm gonna be honest, and I think any friends I had around that time will be uh very quick to say that that's probably the truest thing I've ever said about myself, is like, honestly, I mean it really like it changes you. And but for me to answer your previous question, like it's part of the education system

they don't teach doctors. When you're going through the education system of pre med and medical school. They don't teach

you about mind body connection. They teach you about the drugs, but they don't even teach you about how the drugs really work to treat the ailments they're designed for it, like the SSR eyes or the anti anxiety medications, or the mood stabilizing medications, the mood stabilizers, especially because once I really started to look into it, after I came off my drugs and started um researching natural healing and really wanted to get into the science of why it

works so I could explain it to myself and to other people and then eventually used it in my books. But I came across things like lithium, the first drug I was put on that we've talked about is a GABBA inhibitor, and so it's it suppresses your the GABBA in your brain, and GABBA is a neurotransmitter found in all of us that's responsible for your mood balance. And so if the drug they're giving you is inhibiting the ability for your GABA to be transported through your brain,

how is it helping to stabilize your mood? Exactly interesting, I don't get it, Like there's so many really started to look into the chemical makeup of it. I was like, how is this possible that they like have approved these things when they're so counterintuitive to the science of how your body actually works. And another thing, to one doctor's opinion decided you should be on that pill. Like what if you have walked in on a different day with

a different doctor, he could have put it different. Are human, Like, that's why people don't realize they have preconceived notions about things before you walk into their office, just like every other human. They judge people trying to put you into a human Yeah, they are trying to label you when you walk to their office, like that is their job is to find a label for what's wrong with you. You're not. I mean unless you literally are going in there and they ask why and you say, I'm just

here for a checkup. If you go in there saying anything is wrong, it is their job to go through a checklist in their mind until they find the box you fit in then and then they can write you a pill. They have a pill for that. I promise you they do um because and I you know, we we don't have to maybe get into the pharmaceutical industry.

I don't tend to a lot. I have some eye opening statistics in my book, but here's the one I really want to share, which is that in two thousand and sixteen, Walgreens sold enough drugs pharmaceutical drugs nine hundred million, almost a billion prescription drugs for every man, woman, and child in this country to be on three medications at

the same time. That's babies. Infant babies include literally every single person that exists in the United States of America could be on three drugs at the same time based on just what Walmart sold or Walgreens sold in two thousand and sixteen. What's mind blowing about that is that it's just one pharmacy, right. Wow, So there's enough for every person to be on three pills, but that's only one and one pharmacy from just Walgreens. And wow. That's though.

If you are wondering if we are over medicated, I think that is your answer. We're clearly over medicated because I'm not taking any of these pills anymore. I haven't taken a single solitary pharmaceutical drug ins seven years. And so who is taking all of these pills? How? Anybody is?

I mean somebody? Well, because I mean I've gone to the doctor for no reason at all, and I'll get written a prescription just as I feel like weird, you know, like like a cup of times I've gone and I just like you feel like something's off, and they just give you something, you know, or maybe their energy changes your response because they're not in a good mood and you have a sympathetic person and like it's just it's so. And then that doctor writes you a pill that you're

on for eight years. Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, and then it's really hard once you're labeled as a child especially. This is another little warning to parents who may be thinking about labeling or medicating their children. Um just to make it easier and fit them into a box. Is that once you are put in that box, as you cannot get out of that box, that is the rest of your life. And I guarantee you because and I can tell you because I did it, and I've seen

so many other people do it. Especially when you're an impressionable child and you're told something is wrong with you, you will take on the symptoms of that illness. Eventually. It may not be the next week, it may not be the next year, but after twenty months or three years, or five years or ten years, you will absolutely feed into your diagnosis because why wouldn't you Because they told you you had it. They told you you had it.

They tell you that every single time you go back and guess what, Every single day when you take a pill, you are reiterating to your body that something is wrong with you. Every single time. You're proving to yourself mentally and physically that something is wrong with you, or you would not take that pill. And so when you don't give a kid a choice, and a kid is just taking a pill every single day, even if they're getting better, you're reiterating to them that something is wrong with them.

To begin with, and so I really really caution people before they start medication, over before they put their children on medication, that you really consider all of these these things, because this is not what a doctor is going to tell you. It's like, you know, how they say like fast fashion, how people are just like without his fast fashion, and like overseas or doing all these it's like so polluting and it's so terrible for the industries because like

the slave workers and all that. I feel like it's fast medication also, it's like you walk in, let me speed date you really fast, give you medication, walk out. It's just like a conveyor belt. And I feel like it's so accepted that parents are just like, oh, it's no big deal. Yes, I agree, And I'll tell you a little story. I don't have to go to the doctor that often anymore. I go in once year from my checkup. She knows I'm totally natural. She makes fun of me all the time and tells me to eat

in and out. She's great, Um, eat all natural too. I try, you know, and in and out's actually great. Scraps bed, It's not that bad for you. Um, And that's why she tells me to go dude, if you're gonna eat fast food, you know where you can eat. Every single time, she's trying to get me in and out. Get it almost, good girl, Get some French fries on my learner sponsored by In and Out. Um no this case so um, oh my god, No, I completely forgot what we were talking about. You said, you go to

your doctor. You're all natural grassbed right. So I go to her because the doctor I had before her, um, like four years into this journey, haven't taken one pharmaceutical drug for anything, haven't taken a title at all, haven't taken an aspirin. My adoptive father, my grandfather passed away, and I came back home and I saw my doctor from my checkup, my last doctor, and she's like, oh, what's going on, how are you? Etcetera. And so I told her I just got back from you know, my

dad's funeral. And she was like, oh, you know, and she literally immediately got out a prescription pad and I was like, you know, I have something for that, and it's not supposed to be taken long term, but it can really help you. Like, just take it for two weeks and let me know how you feel this because you're not like hasn't even looked me in the face, has literally just started writing this prescription while she's telling me this, just because I wasn't even sad like I mean,

I like it. Well, of course I was sad, like it just died, but like I wasn't in her office crying, like I was just answering her question of like, oh, what's going on? What are you going? Where have you been? Like? Because I think I told her like I just you know, unpacked my stuff or whatever this morning, and like it just you know, ended up telling her what happened. And it was so weird how instantly And ps a regular

medical doctor, not a psychiatrist, right, not a therapist? Okay, And I have friends who are regular medical doctors who feel completely comfortable writing people prescriptions for antidepressant drugs because quote unquote they you know, if they work the way they're supposed to work. I feel comfortable putting a patient on this. And it's like, what why, Like, first of all, you shouldn't feel comfortable putting someone on that just out of the blue, without like why can't we just feel

things like why is this that feel pain? Why is it so bad? Like you were saying like if you don't let your child work through these things naturally, like why is it so wrong? Like the world, there's a lot happening in the world. It's not it's not a perfect world. We got to learn how to deal with it. You can't just like kind of numb it out with a drug. Yep. And it's weird because the drug doesn't even make it easier for you to process anything right.

If anything, it holds your brain back from being able to understand the reality of what's going on and therefore really be able to process it in a way that's healthy and moves your life forward. Like so it's actually terrible on all accounts. It's terrible on all accounts. And I'm not saying it's not necessary, Like here's the thing, here's the precursor. Like I I've been off these drugs for long enough to know I never needed them. My question is how many other people don't need them. I'm

not saying they're not necessary. I'm not saying that people don't benefit from this at all, blanket statement across the board. But like we've talked about, we're clearly over medicated, we're clearly medicating children and we're clearly medicating people without in depth diagnosis. Is so how many people can we help? That's my real question of like, our people getting the

real help they need from being on these pills. And if they're not, let me give you the help that I desperately needed when I was on them and I happened to use to come off them. You don't have

to do that, that's a story. But like, honestly I needed this, especially the Method and Wild Habits, the Wild Method, Like I fucking needed this so badly in my best moments and my worst moments, and the moments where I decided that, you know, I was going to come off all these drugs, and the moments I decided I was going to go on them to begin with. Like, I needed this because it would have really really informed my

decisions in a way that nothing else had done. And I really my greatest mission really is to help people before they're at their wits end. When did this become

your soul's mission? Because that's really the point of my podcast is I'm all about soulfull living, finding your passionate your call, and also inspiring the everyday woman because I feel like a lot of women especially get stuck and they just get like overwhelmed by life, and then they can't figure out how to live a soulful life and how to find a purpose and add meeting into the world because everyone has something that can add and oftentimes

your case in point, it's your greatest hardship that leads to your greatest blessing. But how did this become your soul's work? When did you decide to like turn it and be like I'm done, Like fuck this, I'm out. I attempted suicide. You did eleven and I want stars to show for it. I still have to look at that every day and go, I'm never going to do that again, and I'm going to make sure nobody does this. So what got you to that point where you just hopeless?

Oh my god, I was hopeless. I was helpless. I was um at a job that I hated. I was overworked. I was in a city that that depressed me. I was in a relationship that was abusive, and every way you can think, go like he'd literally tried to kill me. I had a restraining order against him, and I was still with him. Like I was making all the fucking wrong decisions, the wrong decisions. It was the fault you didn't know. Like knowing your family was like encouraging me

to be with that person. That's what I'm saying. I don't need to blame them in any way to perform. Here's the thing, It's just when you come from a pattern of dysfunction, it's really hard to see the light, right because the people who are supposed to care about you the most, they don't know how to live. And then we end up by talking my book about how

it's just easier to be the victim. We end up blaming our parents for our shortcomings and like, oh, they never taught me anything, and I don't know how to manage money and I don't know how to have a relationship. And while that might be true, like you're not your parents, you don't have to live. The family is telling you to live or repeat the same mistakes just because nobody taught you any better. Like, if anything, this is your opportunity of nobody set standards for you. Guess what set

them for yourself? And that's what I really started, like after my suicide attempt, Like in that moment I really realized that you want to follow through with it? Or

was it an accident that it didn't follow through. I I wanted to follow through with it, and my my abusive boyfriend at the time, who soon became my ex within a few days, like, showed up at my apartment in the middle of it, and um, I think that was a divine blessing in disguise, because like holy ship that I mean, yeah, Like it was honestly the bit.

And I realized that even though every single thing in my life had said no, like a forest outside of me, had said yes, and I needed to just accept that and continue to bless that up and be grateful for that because my best friend had taken her own life just a few months before, which was part of the

catalyst to this kind of award spiral. Yeah, I mean it not only I mean you see when you see suicide statistics, you'll see when you know, it becomes this weird domino effect where one person does it and then other people around them sometimes end up doing it. It's almost like it's almost like, well, here's my escape. Okay, someone else did it, so maybe I can do it too. Is that how it starts to put thoughts in your head?

You know? She was one of the smartest, most intelligent, most incredible people that I knew one of my best friends ever, like I'd spent more time with her than almost anyone else in my life, and I was like, well, if she thought this was the way out, like maybe it's the way. Maybe it's the way, And then realizing literally what was crazy was I realized In that same moment, I realized that I'm a divine human being who has

made a lot of mistakes. I also realized that everybody attempts or commits suicide for the same reason, which is not that they hate their life. It's that they want to escape their pain. And it's a it's a permanent solution to a very very temporary problem, and every single person who does it wants to live their best life. They don't want to die, No, they just hate They just can't figure out how to get out of this hell.

They're in correct, and you wouldn't because you wouldn't take the drastic steps if you were just dissatisfied with your life. You're in a massive amount of pain and you want to live your best life and you feel like you can't and and like there's no hope. And that's why I realized she had done it, which, oh my god, she didn't want to die her best life and she was hopeless and all you need is hope and I had. That's when I really started to gain hope, which is

something I had not ever had in my life. What did hope look like? How did it come to you? What did it feel like? It felt like being a child, like like in a good way, in a good way, not in like the wave that my whole childhood had been just these like fucked up traumatic memories I can never talk to anybody about. It felt like the purest parts of being a child, when you're such a child that you don't even know anything is wrong because you're

living in your imagine, your nation. And once I started to embrace that, I could use my imagination for a higher purpose to manifest my dearest dreams and goals. And then I started to do that, and then it started to work. Okay, Like, how did you find about manifesting and visualizing and living your highest self? Because not everyone gets to that place? We did you just wake up so much after you got to your rock bottom? Or

how did you get into No? So I was like super duper science background, like hardcore, like I grown up Catholic, right, and then I went pretty much pendulum atheist, and then I was like somewhere in the middle where I'm like, I haven't run a self help book in a really fucking long time. So I really I was a hard ask New Yorker. You know, I wasn't woo at all.

And somebody said the word manifest to me and probably would have laughed in their space, like so lame any language are you speaking, like, okay, magic voodoo off the Yeah, exactly, Yeah, no, totally. But on the other hand, I was an avid reader as a kid, and I always used to pick up like books on like Wicca and like mysticism and um books about like the saints who received Stigmata and like

all that stuff had always really intrigued me. And when I was a little kid, I like pray for signs from God and pray for Stigmata and like just weird. I don't know if kids do this, but it was like it definitely set me up for being interested in these things. So once I made this decision, it was really weird because I have a lot of books, as anyone who maybe follows my Instagram stories and stuff you can see because no matter what you're hiring, everything you

post so love it. Things love. Um. But on my stories, like when I share pretty much any room in my house, there's books and there's books on books on books on books, umnesting like self help, it's a combination. So I love all different kinds of books. I love like sci fi and fiction and you're all of the well and like I've got like fifty copies of the Bible. Yeah, um, I just I love old books, Like I'm really into

all different kinds of stuff. And so there was books I carried around with me for years that I literally either hadn't read since I was a really little kid or just really hadn't opened. And when I opened myself up to this new idea of healing, I literally was rearranging books and they like fell off the shelf, story it was like. And then I read them and it was like they spoke directly to the ailments I was facing.

Like that's how I learned to start using tumoric for my pain and Valerian for anxiety and skull cap you just rub oil on or do you swallow it? Or so I swallow supplements. I used tinctures UM when I wanted to be really concentrated. They're concentrated. You can get them either UM an alcohol form or nonalcoholic, and they're just like concentrated versions of the herb that are liquid that you can add to tease and you're inanks in

your water. UM. I also take supplements. I also just used the raw ginger and tumeric and garlic and stuff just on everything in tease, in salads. Like when I'm saying work, it really worked. Like, Okay, here's the thing. I was on fentanyl, which is killing more people in this country than any other pharmaceutical jarter because it's a really heavy duty narcotic that is a hundred times more

powerful than morphine and ten times deadlier than heroin. And here's why it takes a hundred milligrams of heroin to kill a full grown man. It only takes ten milligrams of fentanyl. And how many milligrams are you taking a day? I was on the patches and I can't remember how many milligrams those were. But that was just on you all the time. Yeah, it was just on me, just

sleeping in through my bloodstream. Oh yeah, great. So I went from taking fentanel to literally drinking tumoric t and with like a little skull cap tincture and actually being pain free. Here's the other things. I'm opiate intolerant, so I would take all these and by the way, no doctor ever told me this. I have to figure this out by vomiting taking opiates. Like that's why they gave me the patches, because I couldn't actually swallow them. I

would throw up everything. Like your body is rejecting this, so we're just gonna stick it on your arm yep ye, No, seriously, they've got fentanyl lollipops. They've got I mean they literally do they have fentanyl lollipops. I don't know if anyone remembers the intervention episode with the fentanyl lollipop girl, you need to google that immediately because that ship she literally became schizophrenic on this stuff. And it's a lollipop wow full of pain killers. Okay, like it's real. Sounds off.

I mean, this sounds like it can't be legal. Um, So here's the thing I point this out in my book to like, isn't legal? Surprisingly, yes, But here's the thing. The pharmaceutical company is have to pay millions to sometimes billions of dollars in fees after these drugs inevitably either don't work, or kill people, or have crazy side effects or all of the above. Right right now, every single state in the country is suing the company who makes

fential because of the overdose deaths, including Ohio. I'm not sure if they won that case. But here's the thing, Like just buy ox. For example, a drug I was on, an anti inflammatory drug I was on in high school through college. They took it off the market. And when they took it off the market, a bunch of states sued them. The company Mark, who and is ironically my alma mater from my college. They have a dorm named after them. Uh So they sued the Mark Drug companies

for I think a hundred and eighty million dollars. Wow, And they won and Mark had to pay them a hundred and eighty million dollars. But it barely made a dent because Mark made fourteen billion dollars that year. Not that's none of books. The blocket change. Yeah, it's literally a hundred bucks. It's like, so they killed these people and then they basically have to pay a hundred bucks and fines and then they're allowed to just go back and do whatever the hell they were doing before. So

when did you decided to write a book? Like, when did you get your formula laid out? Like you had your stuff that was working for you, you're off of everything, and when did you because your first you wrote a book before Wild Habits, Wild Habit, Just when did you decide to put on a book? So I put it on my and my blog first Organic Life. Is that what it said? Yeah, the Organic Life blog dot com was my book. My first blog, well not my first blog.

I had a blog out live journal, so I was like fourteen, but this was like my blog about this journey. And my publishing company found my blog and it came to me and asked if I would write Cured My Nature, And I like, so they you it came to me, Yeah, which happens, by the way, if you write a lot of content for free, eventually somebody will come and ask if they can pay you for it. Hey, that's awesome.

Hey it went on to be a best seller, and they went on to be a best seller in the first week, which was crazy with this book because this book was number one new released a month before it came out, and I was like all impressed with myself last time that it was the week it came out. So Habits is already like number one a week before it came out. Wild Habits was number one a month before it came out. But I'm lucky I talked to you. You're so incredible author. Thanks man. No, I was like,

really surreal to just go look. It was right after I announced. Damn time that you get your reward. You know, thank you, love. I appreciate that because I literally like, I mean, you know, I made this decision a change, but it wasn't like anybody you know, encouraged it for a while. I wasn't to go through that, like like hell boot camp for your whole life and then you could write this book. You're like here because of my

all my pain, I can now write this amazing. But but I mean, I guess it is now worth it because you've turned into something so beautiful. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. I think you feel that way. I do. I do, Oh god, yeah, no, I have. I understand. It's so weird to come to a place where you recognize why every single shitty thing in your life happened to you, especially all that stuff, like most people can't get over that kind of trauma, Like most

people are aren't like you. I feel like, yeah, no, most people are not like me. And not that I'm like so no, not to say like I'm so, I'm just saying most people are not like me, Like they don't you know, it's it's what and that made me feel very lonely for a really long time. That's why I say it is that I really was coming from a place where most people are not like me, and

that's a bad thing. And honestly, the book and the point of the book is really just switching your mentality and to switch it to that of like, most people are not like me, and to own that and to have that empower you as a person and empower what you're doing. I mean, that's a one eighty. That's a true one eighty of like really feeling told really alone because people don't get you, to really being like I don't give a fuck of people get me, and then

people really get you because they feel the same way. Yes, did you how did you feel when you Obviously this book is what we'll talk about this one too, but when you wrote that first book and all of your trials and tribulations came out, it became a number one bestseller, and then people are coming to you probably saying like,

holy sh it, thank you for writing this book. You are speaking directly to me, You're like, oh my god, Like you have changed my life, Like how did that moment feel to go from all of the darkness to all of a sudden You are a beacon of light for people. That's why I do this. I don't do this doesn't pay me money, This doesn't like, this is not a lucrative career. I do this because for that, that's my reward. Is because like I needed that so badly, and all I wanted to do was give that to

someone else. Like that's true happiness for me is is the altruism of like because you know the pain, Yeah, because I know, and I know what it feels like to feel like you're not going to get over it, And I know the fear, and I know the fear of the future, and I know the fear of not having hope or not having anyone um there to support you. And here's the thing, Like I also want to let people know that once you get to the point where you can support yourself, the right people who truly do

support you will show up. And I don't mean support yourself financially or any of these things that port your vision, your cause, your purpose, port your vision, support the core of what you really care about, because once you really start doing that and living that, the people who get that will show up, and then you'll find a true support. You've always been banging your head wondering where the funk it is. That's where it shows up is when you

start living it. Other people can't help but respond to that. And I feel like I feel that, Yeah, I mean, I feel so lucky that I did put in the self work because now I have the true support I was looking for the whole time. So talk to me about and I feel like I want to. It's men and women, but I primarily like to focus on women because I just like women are superheroes. But a lot of times we lose our capes sometimes. Yes, I love that. You know, like, how does a woman who feels trapped,

you know, like in her own life. So she's like got kids, she's a single mom, she's working hard, and she just like can't figure out how to own her life, how to feel that soulful living, how to get out of this grind, like how do you tell people over overcoming your struggles and to relate to other struggles? Like how do people get out of this place where they're stuck but all they want to do is like you said, your best friend is lived their best life, but you

can't because you feel stuck. What is your advice to people who are in that situation right now? In all areas? So that's why I invented the Wild Method, and that's why I wrote the new book is even the Wild Method, and then it can get you out of exactly what

we're talking about. I have that story of a mother of two who really just didn't know what to do to Picky Toddler's home every day, husband's the doctor like never, you know, never home, and she um, she used the Wild Method, And honestly, and I've used it over and over and over and over again depending on what I'm

going through, because it applies to so many things. So I would say to that that mother, that person that doesn't know what the next step is or even what tomorrow may look like, the Wild Method comes in extremely handy. So wild is an acronym. The W stands for willingness. Right. You need to have the willingness to acknowledge that something is not working, that you were unhappy, why you're unhappy,

and what what would make you happy instead? And then you need to have the intuition take a little soul searching. Sometimes people a little searching that you're in such a right you might not even know what would make you happy exactly, so you need to use your intuition. The next step in the E stands for intuition is to use your intuition to ask yourself what brings you joy? When's the last time you laugh your ass off? Who can you spend your time around that will make your

life better? Who truly supports you? Who can you call who are just going to make your life better? What time can you get up in the morning? What can you do for your children so that they're not clinging onto you every morning? Um? And then the next step is L stands for love. You know, you need to use the love like the self love really to give yourself the space to ask yourself these questions and then implement the answers into your life. And then the do

you stands for discipline. You need to do that over and over and over again until it becomes a new habit. And that's what I feel like so many people don't realize is and you touch on this so well, just like through your Instagram and like that, checked out your blog and watching you do videos and stuff. You are

so good at being intentional and living intentionally. And I feel like so many people miss that major, major, major thing that is really what makes people happy, because people will look at you and they're they're gonna be like, you are so beautiful, You're so happy. How do you have happiness? But it is an intentional choice that takes discipline every day. You have to train yourself. You have to train yourself, just like you've trained yourself to think

the other way. People think that they haven't trained themselves to think negatively. You absolutely have. And you can use the same power that's got you wherever you are right now to get you to wherever you want to be. I say that you know, for any circumstance, whether you're at the worst possible place, you're kind of somewhere in mediocre, or you're at the top of your game and you just want to get better, Like you can use your past to propel your future, you don't have to use

it as a jail sentence. How do you change that thinking? How do you? What do you? What is your technique for I guess it's the Wild Method. That when the Wild Method, you need to be willing to change. I mean like, literally, any time I get stuck, anytime I catch myself, I'm like, I'm not using the method because if I was, I would be willing to change. I'd be using my intuition. I'd be doing something self loving, and I would know I was doing it because I

would be doing it over and over I can. And so every single time you're not doing something self loving and you're not doing something self serving in a way that's really going to help you, um, you just need

to come back to the method. And that's that's for me been and it's been incredible for me to watch it change so many people's lives, from people who are get over getting over childhood trauma, to people who just want to start exercising, to my friends who are looking for new jobs and can't figure out how to get out of the sprout. There's so many exercises in the book too that. I mean, we'd be here for seven hours if I wan through all of them. But like I just see, for the rest of my life, I

never stop talking to you. But I know you have things to do, so no, it's all good. No, But I just want to explain that there are exercises. I don't say this like you know, as a blanket statement. There are many exercises in the book. And I went through one of my my book launch party in San Diego, Yestra, and people were crying because it's a visualization exercise that will if you have any trouble figuring out what your passion or what the thing that you're here to do is.

I have visual visualization exercises in the book that will bring you right there, I mean, into that moment, and you'll know immediately and you'll know how to get there. Is there? Is it? Is it a long process or can you tell me how to do it? I can tell you how to do it. I love visualizing. Okay, awesome, let's do it right now. Okay, so let's close our eyes and everyone listening now your accent is okayed, by the way, Oh my god, I don't even know what it is. It's like a small gosh, hell, I can't

think you're good. Okay, We're going to close our eyes, okay, and we're gonna see ourselves in a theater, like a movie theater, looking at a blank screen. It's totally black, and now on the screen you appeared, and in the background is your dearest dream and goal. So you are doing the thing that is the most close to your heart, the thing that seems the most and craziest, almost unachievable, but you know it's what you're put here to do.

Somebody comes out on the side with a microphone and asks you how you got here, and you take them through from this very moment right now two the moment that they showed up and asked you the question. They thank you and kind of disappear into the background. The background disappears, and it's just you up there again. Really feel the moment, not just for a minute, but like try to carry it with you for the rest of

the day. Perfect also exactly what you're put here to do and exactly how to get there, and you kind of just have to figure it out really fastly because when I think about what my exact purposes, it's kind of like a little wide. But when you have like put it into one thing, you have to figure it

out really fast to it. Yeah, you have to condense it, which is great because I'm like to really feel it because within the same category, I like to do several things, but like it made me think about my one that I love the most. Yeah, exactly, So it should pinpoint and then all the other things you're doing around it are things you're doing now that bring you joy. Should be things that really support it and that that would allow you to continue to do if you really wanted to.

But that moment should be yours. Tara, You're amazing. I like to leave every I like to leave every interview with leave your light. But you are just pure light. Everything you have said is light and just amazing. I feel honored that I got to chat with you. But I like to wrap up with just leave some inspiration for all of those who are falling along with you, who have who hear your story, who resonate with it. What do you want them to know just about anything?

Like what do you want to tell people? Like just if you had one blanket thing that you just want to like, this is what you need to know? What is it. I want people to know that they can work hard for fifty years and not be able to accomplish what they can accomplish in five years, as long as they have the right tools. How do you get the right tools? Well, books like Wild Habits give you

the right tools to get on a path. I'm not saying it's the only tool, but I really hope it becomes a great tool that you use to get you to other tools that will get you to where you're meant to go. So just Wild Habits, what is the what is the like? If you're going to just like summarize what Wild Habits is all about, what is it? The wild method? It's a method that helps you to propel your life and whatever your intended direction is amazing. Yeah.

I don't purport to tell you exactly what the book is going to do for you, because I feel like it's different for everyone. And that's why I just want to give people the tools because everyone's journey is completely different and I just want people to own it and I want people to have a wildlife. Have you met Oprah and Deepak yet? I've met Eepac. I meant Deepak a few weeks ago. Yeah, it was amazing. These are like this is like you're going like you're having all

those people. I'm like, you're gonna have Oprah's number at no time. Yeah, I love that you just said that. I love him. Deepak is amazing. He's so much more like gentle than you would like think he is. You know what I mean. He's very humble and gentle and soft spoken and down to earth and he's great. His daughter Malik is also amazing. Wow, you are amazing. I'm so excited I got to chat with you, and I'm gonna keep watching you just changing the world in the

most beautiful wild way. And thank god you're out here doing this. We need you know, thank thank everything. I mean honestly, like I feel so grateful. I feel like gratitude is is top priority for me because every single day I'm just like, I get to do what cool help people become their highest self wonderful and you're but you're all living in your highest self and you forget that. You will like for the past before that really paid your dues to get to live in your highest self.

I definitely don't. I thank younger me, I thank seven year old man's and seventy year old me all the time. Seven y year old me is always telling me to work harder because she wants to drink more rose, and seven year old me it's always telling me to slow down and appreciate what the funk I have builds for myself in these last few years. So there's always this small dichotomy, but I I appreciate it. Gratitude is at the center of all of it. I have a tattooed

all my wrist. Yes, I love that because that same thing, like gratitude, changes everything. Yeah, it's that's beautiful. I love that tattoo. You're amazing. Thank you so much. I'm now obsessed with you for the rest of my life. There's nothing I can do about it, and you're just the greatest. I'm obsessed with you for the rest of my life. Thank you so much for having me on and you know, chat me up anytime. I already miss you. Don't don't cheasee, but don't don't joy with me because you know I'm

not girl crushing on you. I'm girl crushed on you, especially since we just did this with the video, so I'm like, damn okay and her accent and she scored this here. You're amazing. You are so so, so amazing. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for sharing your gift of the world. Thank you for being brave, thank you for being wild. I'm gonna cry again because I just your sweet little girl that you look through

your heart. It's so amazing what you've done with your life and your true example of you the busn the life. Oh you're the bust. Thank you for being in my life. Thank you, Tara. How amazing was that interview? Tara is so incredible. I cried a couple of times and I just couldn't get over how much she's overcome, how strong she is, What a beautiful life she's turned in all of her tragedy into talk about turning tragedy into triumph. What an example you guys. Make sure and check her out,

get her books. She's everything, everything, everything. It was the best interview ever. And I'll see you guys next week. The deten