Hi, I'm Brittany

And this is my story.

All I can remember about my childhood is lying in my bed, propped up on 4 huge pillows, sleeping upright, with the intoxicating smell of the essential oils and vapo-rub that had been rubbed all over my chest, filling my nose, as I desperately gasped for air and cried from the sheer panic that my airway would close completely and I would just fade into the night.

I remember the pain, the feeling of chocking to death, the inexplicable suffering that comes from not being able to sustain yourself with breath. I remember feeling very alone, hearing my parents, my sisters, laughing from the other room as they enjoyed my birthday dinner, or our Christmas parties.

Spend my entire childhood crying and begging the universe
to be healthy for even one holiday

I remember my mom coming in every hour to check on me, trying to assure me that this latest ‘attack’ would pass. But I saw the stress and fear in her eyes, and the doubt behind her words, because she truly did not understand any more than I did, why I was always so ill.

I went to bed each night knowing that I was causing my parents incredible amounts worry and stress, and that my chronic sickness held my family back from more vacations or events than I could even count. I felt like such a huge burden.

I remember my soul literally bleeding out all over my bedroom while I cried myself to sleep... night after night, year after year...praying to a God who didn’t seem to hear me; to please help me ‘feel safe’ and ’ be normal’ like everyone else.

I was desperate to live a normal life and felt imprisoned by my own body and its unrelenting suffering. I spent hours before bed wondering what I had done to deserve this torturous existence and contemplating what I could do to repent my ‘sins’.

For nearly 10 years, I missed every birthday (including my own), every Christmas, every summer camp trip and every school outing because I was chronically sick, fighting infection after infection, or having extreme asthma attacks that left me wheezing and chocking for weeks on end.

My sisters would get pink eye for a day, and I would have it for a month, and it would result in eye scarring and corneal erosions. They would itch from chicken pox for a week and I would be scratching relentlessly for 2 months.

In grade 3, I caught a cold in school that nearly killed me. I missed class for over a year and was bedridden for nearly 6 months of it. Battling back to back whooping cough, pneumonia, strep, bronchitis and repeated asthma attacks. For the next few years, I could not inhale without coughing. I could not breathe normally without wheezing so loudly with every exhale that an entire school auditorium could hear me.

I remember holding my breath for minutes at a time, over and over, for most of grade 4 and until I was nearly blue, because the wheezing was so loud that everyone would hear and stare at me, or make fun of me. My teachers pitied me. I remember rushing out of class and hiding in the bathroom as I coughed and gasped for air (where no one could hear me).

I could not play any sports, or even spend a lot of time outside in the summer, because my asthma and allergies were so aggressive that I would be incapacitated for days after exerting myself physically. I fell sick every month and it seemed to take me 3 weeks to get over it, only to fall sick again a week later. I seemed to have the most fragile and sensitive health of everyone I knew.

I couldn’t understand why life felt so hard, or why it seemed so much easier for my sisters and schoolmates. I couldn’t comprehend why it hurt so much to be alive, or what the point of even being here was, if I couldn’t live the way everyone else did. The way I desperately needed to.

My late childhood brought a host of new and additional health issues, and after months of crippling gut pain, increased food allergies, and anxiety and depression, I ended up with severe appendicitis and had my appendix removed (at 12 years old).

Childhood rolled into teen years and with my first period came crippling agony. Cramps that left me passed out in school bathrooms, shamelessly vomiting in parks and in bed for days at a time. The pain was so debilitating that I missed school, work and most social events.

After fainting at a friend’s birthday party from my severe period pain, I was rushed to the hospital where I was diagnosed as having 7 times the amount of pain-causing prostaglandins (cramp- inducing hormones) in my blood as a woman in childbirth...and this happened with every period.

Apart from the torture of spending 1 week every month in bed screaming, vomiting profusely and fainting as I begged for mercy, I spent most of my teen years sick with one infection or another.

The day I lost my virginity, I was introduced to my very first bladder infection... which turned into a kidney infection and became the beginning of the literal urinary hell that I was going to live out for the next 10 years. I took countless courses of antibiotics and had repeat UTI’s, alternating with kidney and vaginal infections, every 2-3 months for a decade.

These repeat antibiotics devastated my gut and left my already weak immune system in ruins. My toxic lifestyle at the time certainly didn’t help and I was so tired of stressing my parents out with my fragile health and unstable emotional state, that I moved out at 14.

After moving out, I spent my teens exhausted from overworking and relied on freezie pops, soft drinks, candy and coffee like it was my lifeline. My adrenals were already giving out at this time.

While all of my friend’s had evenings and weekends off to focus on being teenagers and excelling at school, I worked like a dog most evenings and crushed double shifts every weekend. By 15, I was barely sleeping anymore and burning the candle at all ends. To cope, I was relying on multiple stimulants and alcohol to get through the exhaustion.

By the time I was 16, I was so horrifically ill, adrenally burned out and nutritionally deficient, that I developed devastating pneumonia that turned into aggressive bacterial meningitis, multiple organ failures and septicemia.

 I was in the hospital for 3 weeks on IV antibiotics and was given a bleak 40% chance of survival.

I heard the head of chronic disease tell my parents that if I survived, it would be a miracle and to prepare for the worst.

I also heard him say that I was the single only case of this type of bacterial septicemia under the age of 60, in all of Montreal, in the entire history of medical records at that time. Awesome!

I spent my 16th birthday on IV meds, unable to get up to pee on my own, with my parents (who I had barely seen in a year) crying at my bedside. I knew I couldn’t let this be the end of my time here. I had suffered so much, and I knew that there had to be a way to eventually get the life I so desperately wanted… a life without suffering.

I left the hospital, with a system devastated by antibiotic and narcotic side-effects and no longer felt like the same person. My mind was cloudy, my thoughts frantic, as my anxiety erupted into full-blown panic disorder. I could not sleep at all anymore (severe insomnia), and I had lost every last ounce of zest for life. I literally felt like a dead, apathetic, paranoid and depressed, soul-less zombie.

I spent months trying to muster the energy to get through my full-time work schedule and was desperately struggling to control my insatiable sugar cravings. I felt like a junk-food obsessed, emotionally unstable, demon took over my body and thoughts. I cried daily and was sicker than I  had ever been, with repeat infections every few weeks.

I developed horrific crippling migraines and an extreme dependency on alcohol and caffeine, sometimes drinking upwards of 10 cups of coffee a day to be able to survive my shifts without collapsing.

By the time I was 17, I was battling sudden weight gain, and pervasive depression that crippled me. I tried multiple birth control pills to help balance my crazy hormones  and mood swings, yet this only made me unable to function. Within months, and out of nowhere, I developed a full-blown eating disorder and spent the next 8 years as a bulimarexic who’s entire life revolved around abusive relationships, self-medicating with alcohol (and sleeping pills), more shame, guilt and self-hate than anyone deserves, binging, starving myself and purging until most of my teeth had cavities and my toilet bowl was filled with blood.

I spent every weekend in the hospital with kidney infections from the continual UTI’s, gastritis from the bulimia, pancreatitis from the binging, inflamed liver from the booze, bronchitis or pneumonia and was regularly battling eczema, acne, migraines, menstrual pain, dizzy spells, heart arrythmia, nausea, constipation, vertigo, tinnitus, muscle spasms, insomnia, vaginal infections and emotional breakdowns.

I vomited and over-exercised my way from a healthy 135 lbs to 98lbs in just under 3 months. I remember desperately picking fights with people just so I could get out of there to ‘get rid’ of the meal we had just shared...or pulling over to throw up in public gas station bathrooms because I was scared I would ‘absorb the calories’ before I got home and could finally stick my face in my toilet.

On top of it, I looked totally fine on the outside, and was even complimented daily for 'my slim physique', all the while I spent my days gorging on toxic foods until my stomach screamed in pain and then purging it it all out, along with my shame, until I could barely catch my breath.

I wanted to die.

I socially isolated myself and even moved every 3 months to avoid people getting too close to me.

At 23 years old I had a deep 3 months long emotional crisis, and knew instinctually, in a way I can’t even describe, that if I kept going as I was going, I was going to die. I could feel the life-force and vitality draining out of my body every single day and I knew I needed to fight for my life. I would wake up in a cold sweat every few hours from dreams of seeing myself dead.

Over the next year, I fought to overcome my bulimia, quit smoking and coffee, quit alcohol, started doing hot yoga, began eating healthier and applied to university. I started doing regular detoxes and excitedly waited for my health to improve! Only it didn’t. I got sicker, and sicker, and even sicker!

I honestly didn’t understand it! How could my super-clean lifestyle be making me so much worse?! It seemed that with every ‘healthy’ choice I made, my skin broke out harder, my gut swelled larger. My body literally did not know (or remember) how to digest food. My organs of elimination had been abused so badly that they didn’t seem to be able to even process an organic apple!

I went from Doctor after Doctor. Had every test done under the sun, and over the next year, received dozens of random diagnosis’s including: IBS, Lyme, Endo, Chronic UTI’s, severe acne, chronic meningitis, migraines, psoriasis and eczema, chronic parotid gland inflammation, ulcerative colitis, chronic heart palpitations, hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s, adrenal insufficiency, a parathyroid gland tumor/growth, ovarian cysts, fatty liver, gallbladder stones, multiple food intolerances and gastroparesis (delayed stomach emptying).

I remember eating vegan sushi with my mother for lunch one day and becoming so unbearably distended that I could barely lie down to sleep. I woke up 10 hours later and was still so bloated, I thought I would I would burst and was still burping sushi and acid. My gut literally did not know how to digest any food.  Even super tiny amounts of healthy food would bloat me until I couldn’t breathe and cause organ pain that made me think I was going to faint!

My bladder urgency was so severe at this point that I could barely get through 30 minutes of my shift without running to the bathroom, almost crying and screaming in desperation. I even avoided drinking liquids on most days because my pain and urgency was so debilitating.

I spent every second weekend at the hospital during this time and was even placed on cardiac monitors for days at a time in an attempt to diagnose the cause of my incredibly irregular heartbeat, and other unrelated symptoms.

I was so unbelievably disheartened at my continued health decline and couldn’t believe that all of my efforts to heal didn’t seem to be working. Just before my 25th birthday, I decided to treat myself (for all of my hard work) and take a summer vacation with my then boyfriend.

Within an hour of landing, I developed a severe UTI that progressed to passing blood within hours and had me in a local emergency room within a day. I spent then entire trip crying in a bathtub, in agonizing pain, on antibiotics and popping AZO (bladder analgesic) like it was candy. My boyfriend was so frustrated at my eternally awful health (and that it ruined every holiday and trip we attempted), that he deserted me in our hotel room to sit in my own pain and depression.

Upon returning home, and after my course of antibiotics, I re-visited my local MD because my infection was getting worse, and not better. It was as if this last course of antibiotics caused my UTI pain to increase by 100-fold! I was actually crawling out of my skin. My bladder was so raw that I could barely sit still. It felt like my insides and my urethra were on actual fire!

I was given another 3 back to back courses of antibiotics and took them to completion only to end up in even worse agony! My next visit to my MD sent me to a urologist to determine the reason the meds weren’t addressing my infection, and after confirming that my symptoms were not caused by an innocent UTI.....

I was diagnosed with Interstitial cystitis on the day of my 25th birthday.

Here I was faking that I was ok, prepping for a family holiday while my insides were screaming from the burning pain of my IC. I kept rushing to the bathroom every 3-8 minutes to relieve the acid bleach-resembling urine that my bladder needed to expel. I cried alone multiple times daily for years around this time.

If you’ve been lucky enough to never have this condition, or never have heard of it, IC is an ulcerative bladder disease where your bladder mucus lining disappears and a combination of your acidic urine and deeply embedded infection in the lining of your bladder literally burn open wounds into your bladder wall. The result is a feeling that you are going to burst if you don’t urinate immediately (like your bladder is so full it hurts…on steroids), combined with the feeling that your urine is made of fire lava and so much extreme tenderness and inflammation that even a few drops of urine in your body feels like you will pass out from the pain.

The best part? It’s supposedly ‘incurable’.

Or so I was told ;)

I remember walking out of that medical appointment in devastation. Squirming out of my pants in pain. Desperately trying to suck back my tears and still bursting into loud sobs... waiting for the bus on a bench in the summer sun as dozens of strangers walked past me, not sure what was wrong, or why I was so upset.

I knew in that moment that I could not live with this level of pain. As soon as I returned home that afternoon, I started my first entry in my ‘healing’ journal, where I courageously declared my commitment to finding a ‘cure to the incurable’, doing everything necessary to overcome this pain and save myself!

I also wrote down that if I was not on the healing path, or seeing noticeable decreases in my suffering, by my 26th birthday (a year from then), I was going to swallow a bottle of Advil liquid gels and gift myself with a level of peace and painlessness I had never known in this lifetime.

And this is when my healing started. I didn’t know it then, or even for many years to come, but with my newfound empowerment, my healing had already begun.

I spent hours, days, months... YEARS, researching over 15 hours a day on everything health-related. I read about, and studied: natural healing, IC, gut issues, detoxification, nutrition, Ayurveda, natural hygiene, naturopathy (and am now a certified Naturopath!), fasting, juicing, heavy metals, parasites, candida, liver cleansing, colon cleansing, kidney flushing, lymph cleansing, hydration, toxins in our environment (and how to protect myself from them), embedded infections, the microbiome and infinitely more!

Then I tried all of it. I did every cleanse, every detox, every extremist lunatic cleansing procedure in existence, every type of enema, every heavy metal detox, and every single diet I had ever heard of. Including: the candida diet, Paleo, SCD, GAPS, AIP, FODMAPS, Keto, Keto vegan, carnivore, lemon water fasting, straight lemon juice fasting (gross and sour I know!), the water cure, the master cleanse, the master fast, coconut water fasting, fat fasting and coconut oil flushing, high-carb raw vegan, low carb raw vegan, fruitarianism, fermented food fasting, bone broth fasting, herbal tea fasting, juice fasting, very long water fasts (over 60 days in under 2.5 months) and even dry fasting.

And I documented all of it! I tried every herb, tea, supplement and healing protocol I stumbled across and I repeatedly put my body through the grinder as I tested every healing method, hypothesis and theory there is, for the next 3 years.

The end result was a lot of trial, way more error, lots of crying... doubting, fear and worry, making myself much sicker, horrible detox reactions, fainting on my bathroom floor more times than I could count, near kidney failure from chelation therapy, losing and gaining close to 30 lbs many times over, losing half my hair and my nails, and yet also finding wild success in decreasing my own pain levels to almost negligible. Most of all, all of this helped me learn more about the human body and health than I ever even knew was possible!

I analyzed everything about the body, how it works, why it does the things it does, how our body cleanses itself. How it heals itself and why extremist approaches are not necessary to find success in health. I discovered the mind, soul and body connection, and why mindset is so critical to achieving genuine and profound healing.

I found out how to work through my past traumas, ditch my toxic emotional patterns, and exactly how to master my diet and lifestyle to promote the fastest inner healing.

I learned how to let go of everything I didn't need and how to give my beautiful body everything that it did.

I discovered the best way to nourish my body. How to support it in cleansing, and how to begin to feel safe in a body that had only ever shown me physical pain.

I learned how to cut out the people and habits in my life, that were keeping me sick. I learned how to set boundaries, and how to have healthy relationships (at least for the most part! ;))

I uncovered my hidden passion for health and happiness... and most of all my gift for successfully helping others to achieve the same!

My years of suffering enabled me to have such a great understanding of the human condition (and even more importantly)....how to master it.

I stand here today before you, free of suffering. Without chronic disease symptoms of any kind and with a level of health and vitality that I never knew was possible for me, or anyone else!

I finally wake up feeling alive. Excited to be here, and able to dream, love, live, create and hope!

I can take vacations anytime I feel like it, without fear of becoming ill. I attend EVERY SINGLE ONE of my own birthdays and family celebrations! My mother, nor anyone else, ever has to 'check in' on me anymore, and in fact, everyone I know comes to me for health advice and inspiration!

I have watched dozens of people I personally know, and thousands who’ I’ve coached or helped online, completely reverse their health conditions (and symptoms) through the tools and information I’ve acquired.

I still can’t even believe how far I’ve come from the girl who spent the first 20 years of her life crying herself to sleep!

I never have trouble breathing anymore, EVER, and the only thing close to the sound of a wheeze that comes out of my body is the occasional passing of gas if I glutinously eat enough popcorn for 4...

I can now eat a gluten-ous pizza in Italy without guilt or gut pain….and still have room for cake! I can have sex without wanting to scream in pain, and I haven’t had a single UTI or kidney infection since I healed my IC naturally 9 years ago. In fact, I can easily hold my bladder for a 6-hour bus ride if need be without any discomfort at all! I mean, that’s impressive for any woman.

I can exercise like a normal person. I never drink coffee or alcohol anymore, because I simply don’t need the artificial energy. I sleep like a baby and I love my life!

I look back at my own history, and it feels so different from my current reality that I almost can’t believe it ever happened.

I want to cry and scream and jump for joy every hour of the day because I can’t even tell you how long or how badly I have wanted to be here, in this place. To be healthy, and vibrant and absolutely free!

And I want this for you. More than you may even want it for yourself. Because I know it’s possible. Because I did it. And because I know exactly how you can do it too!

I think the biggest benefit of all of my suffering and struggle, apart from finally healing myself of course, is that I was able to create a thriving online community of amazing health warriors. First with the Montreal Healthy Girl YouTube channel, and now with The Wevolve Tribe!

This online community (and sharing my results publicly throughout my journey), helped keep me accountable. It gave me purpose in my darkest hours and provided the support and love I so desperately needed when I wasn’t yet ready to give it to myself!

My supporters, my passion for helping others, and the gift of being able to watch so many others heal because of the content I share, quite literally helped save my life. And it still fuels my soul every day!

No matter where you are starting, I want you to know how possible excellent health is for you! I want to share with you everything I’ve learned so that you can recognize how unbelievably (and even miraculously) powerful your body and mind are. So that you can finally live a happy, fun, vital and satisfying life in a body that makes you feel so good you want to scream your gratitude from every rooftop!

So please don’t waste another moment, because only thing you need to do to get to that end goal, whatever that is for you, is simply to take the first step. And in a year from now, you’ll be so happy you started today.

You are not alone, and you are not beyond salvage! If you don’t know where to start, or what you may have overlooked on your journey, come join me in ‘The Tribe’ where you can find natural health videos on virtually every condition imaginable, and most of all where you can connect to me, and so many others just like you, who can help you meet your health goals!

I love you so much and am so unbelievably excited to see your transformation!

xo

Brittany Auerbach