Spreading optimism to parents of autistic children
Spreading optimism to parents of autistic children
Parents all over the world are benefiting from Kristin Selby Gonzalez commitment to her autistic son. She joins Justin Benton to share her family's story and discuss how the Autism Hope Alliance provides support and strategies to help children on the Autism spectrum.
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MP0002 mp3 Justins track and MP0002 mp3 Kristens track
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Justin Benton: Welcome to the miracle plant podcast. I'm just inventing. And I'm here to tell my story and share stories all over the world. How this miracle plan has helped so many families. Our story was our son was diagnosed on the severe case of the autism spectrum disorder. And we were at a pumpkin patch. There was a tantrum.
He was hiding under a bench. We were just like, what are we going to do? He was covering his ears. Fortunately, I'd come across some research about this miracle plant. [00:01:00] I made a cold extracted oil, gave some orally and five minutes later, he was out playing with kids and his brother and sister. And that was our Eureka moment.
Five years ago. Fast forward to now, he's a healthy, happy kid in school playing in the YMCA basketball, this miracle plant this story, this incredible gift that we were given, we want to pay it forward and share our story and share other stories all over the world. So this first guest we have has an incredible jury and incredible story and so much experience and has done so many incredible things for so many families all over the world.
Christian, Sally. Gonzalez welcome to the show, our first ever miracle plant podcast. How are you?
Kristen Selby Gonzalez: Hi, Dustin. I'm so happy to be here.
Justin Benton: Well, it's a very big deal to have you here. you've done so much for. other families in need with auto-immune diseases and the autism spectrum. tell us a little bit about your journey [00:02:00] and what happened when you were introduced to this miracle plan.
Kristen Selby Gonzalez: Well, yes, I'm so excited to share this story. , so. My son is 18 years old now. my journey began like many others. There's, we got the diagnosis around two and a half years of age. We didn't have language, we didn't have eye contact. We did lots of different therapies and diets and biomedical treatments, and the list goes on and on.
And we were moving. We were trekking along and reaching our goals and. And it was great. , w everything was kind of moving along the way we had hoped and then puberty hit. And when puberty hit, it was like our world came crumbling into basically a big, huge mess.
And. , he started having aggression and he started losing his games. he went from a fifth grade level at that point, which we were happy to have a minute, fifth grade level to basically a first grade level. he wasn't, you know, talking in a way he was prior, he wasn't looking. And [00:03:00] again, our biggest concern was the aggression.
It was so scary for us.I, I think I cried. It felt like for two straight years and. I was running basically from my life. And if you're a parent out there listening, and you have a kid with aggression, totally know what I'm talking about. you know, here it is my little boy and I love him so much and yet I'm afraid of him and he is fiercely strong It's just, I didn't know what to do. And being in the position that I am, , I have access to some of the top experts in the world and nobody knew how to really help me. And we were basically just throwing stuff at him, like trying to see what was going to stick and. And then, about a year ago, 11 months to a year ago, , I talked to you, Justin, and I'd met you, via phone before, but when you hear about CBD, you probably have tried it.
And if you haven't, you know, somebody that has andyou don't really understand there's differences in between each company. And, in my mind, I was like, okay, CBD, CBD, and here we were giving our son CBD and yet it was barely [00:04:00] doing anything and I was spending a ton of money and just trying to figure it out.
So when you talk to me, you were like, Oh no, ours is different. And I was like, yeah, yeah, like you were real nice. And I was like, I didn't, I didn't really buy it. I was like, okay. I was desperate. I was totally desperate. And I thought, you know what? Not going to hurt anything. I'm already getting beat up every day.
And, we had to remove all the pictures off our walls and I swear, we patch more holes in our walls than, anything I could ever have imagined. And, so I took the leap of faith and you sent me a bottle and it actually sat there. I'll be honest. It sat there for good two weeks because part of me was still like, okay, here we go again.
And finally, I was like, all right, I'm going to try this. And. I was, maze. I didn't tell our therapist that we were switching CBDs and that same day I'm at the office. And I get a text from our therapist and she was like, gosh, Jackson's having a great day. [00:05:00] And I didn't really ever get those texts anymore.
It was always like,we made it through it or, he was really upset or, it was always something negative. It was never a positive. And in my heart, I was like, Oh, my gosh, no way. Could it be the CBD? Well, fast forward, within that same month, I mean, the aggression was basically gone and I kept having a hard time believing it.
I kept waking up every day thinking, okay, it's going to happen. And it didn't and now fast forward 11 months. Oh my gosh. I have my son back. And the sense of yes. Does he have autism? Yes, he has autism. Are we trying to catch up on the developmental delays? Absolutely. Do we still have, you know, immune issues?
Yes, we do. However, If you would've asked me a year ago, what's the one thing that I just would praying for every day that I could think of doing was I was praying to God, please just take this aggression way, please. it's interesting, I'll hear like a boom or something like [00:06:00] on a wall.
Like, and it's not my son, usually someone Brandon, you know, we all bump into stuff and my heart stops because I instantly go back to that. Oh, my gosh, she's gonna hurt something or he's gonna hurt himself or he's going to hurt us. And, and then I look at my son, he's laughing and he's playing, you know, his developmental delays.
He's constantly climbing that ladder back up. And, I now got to just recently go with him on a mini vacation and he was learning how to paddle board that wouldn't even have been in the cards last year. you know, less, this last weekend, I took him to a drive through car wash. You know, most parents would be like, eh, what's the big deal.
However, if you were a kiddo like ours, that's a huge deal. That one you're in a carwash and there's all this sensory integration stuff going on. And then he gets out of the car. Not only does he get out of the car, we're in a pandemic right now. So like he's wears his mask, which is a huge deal for a lot of our kiddos.
He then helps you drive the car. And then he proceeds to vacuum the car all by [00:07:00] himself. the life skills are coming back and, he's learned now to take a shower by himself in the last 11 months, he's learning how to cook his own food. He is reading and comprehension is coming back.
And the only thing, and I swear, the only thing that we have changed is we took away the other CBD. that we were giving and we have replaced it with the one-on-one CBD and I am just a huge, huge believer. I always joke. I'm like, yep. you know, drinking the Kool-Aid cause like this is like huge. And I was very much the mom that was like, ah, here we go again.
and. , I feel like now all the therapies and all the things we're doing biomedically with them, they can actually start benefiting him in better ways now because his body is healing, his body is more receptive and his connection. Oh my gosh. His connection is there.
And if you have a kid with autism, you probably have heard like, Oh, these stories of that person recovering, or this person no longer having their diagnosis, [00:08:00] or maybe this person going into mainstream school. But if you have a severely affected child, like I do just to be able to have, and I always say the other R word of relationship, I get to have a relationship with my son.
And to me, that is the biggest victory and the biggest miracle of all.
Justin Benton: That's incredible. Yeah. I just, just an amazing story. And this is why when we found this miracle plant and it answered our prayers for our son. That we have this moral obligation topay it forward, share our story, share our products, share the same oils that, worked for our family to other families, exactly like yours.
And, again, to speak to the,specifics of the miracle plan, is how we found that it worked for our son and for your son. on the autistic spectrum, it was that we kept it cold extracted, and it [00:09:00] might sound like a technical term, but cold extracted is exactly how you make freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning.
So there were other products out there and, everybody to each their own and find a product that works for you. and if it's ours, no one hemp.org. Great. if it's someone else's fantastic. but what worked for us is keeping it raw and which is called CBDA. So there are over 500different pieces of this plant.
in the miracle plant and CBDA is one CBGA is another. And there's, obviously all the NAB annoys in the flavonoids with makeup, things like tennis, leave an AA, which has been proven to be 30 times more effective than aspirin. And then there's, turpines that give off these smells that also are being proven to be therapeutic.
And then there's a perfect chain of 21 amino acids. And. The fatty acids, the Omega threes, the sixes, the nines, the chlorophyll, just this incredible miracle plan. And so by [00:10:00] honoring this plant, we basically created a product that's just like making fresh, squeezed orange juice. And that's what worked for us.
we had tried other products too. And that's what worked for us. And we've heard great stories, from other companies that have that specific things have worked for, epilepsy or seizures and obviously there's autism. And so. Again, that's why we brought this podcast together because it's all about honoring the plant and keeping an, educating the plant and sharing these stories and continuing to just, if there's somebody out there, what would you tell them?
Kristin, they, cause we've all been there. you know, whether it's a family member, whether it's a child or a mother or a brother or a husband or wife, who've gone to the doctor 20 times or they try exists and they've tried that. and you were there at your rope and as well, what would you tell them?
if they're just kind of on the fence thinking, you know, I just don't know if I have the strength to get my hopes up. One more time to try one more thing. [00:11:00]
Kristen Selby Gonzalez: Honestly, I would say it's better to go ahead and try that one more thing, because look at where you're at right now. how I thought about it was like, well, gosh, how much worse can it get? Right. Like, I hate to even think that cause it was bad, but I thought, you know, what
if I don't try something else, I'm always going to be right here. And I always tell families, I don't have a crystal ball, but I can say that if you stay in the same spot and you don't move, you're going to be in that same spot, no matter what next year. But if you take a leap of faith, you may go two steps forward, one step back, one step forward, two steps back, four steps forward, two steps back, but no matter what, you're going to constantly do this dance.
Eventually you're gonna move forward a little bit more, a little bit more and a little bit more. And. for me, I was exhausted and I was afraid. I was really afraid to try something new because I thought, Oh my gosh, you know, right now, This is, you know, you're in a comfort zone, but you have to get out of that comfort zone because if you want your kid of any age, and I say that my son's 18, supposedly he's not supposed to have any games anymore.
If you listen [00:12:00] to traditional doctors, right. I think that's hogwash. I don't believe that at all, but you know, if you want your child to be. As successful as they can possibly be. And to have that optimal growth, we have to keep taking that leap of faith. We have to keep taking one step forward and maybe two steps back.
Justin Benton: Absolutely. And I agree, and the thing with Christian andI'm sure so many other listeners out there can relate was that we were at our roof sin. And exactly like you said, Christmas, like we do the research, we looked at it and it's like, well, it's a plant and the side effects so far, it seems like you might, maybe take a nap.
Okay, perfect, great. Black better than all the other. Those crazy side effects that we see on commercials all the time. So, again, I, my story was, I got lucky cause I came across some research from dr. Raphael Meshulum and I had no idea what CBD was. This was five, six years ago. And, I just was like, okay, something else we can try.
Cause we tried everything else. I mean, other than [00:13:00] pharmaceutical medication. Which was a route we chose not to take because I was raised to mystically and plant-based medicine, and I just didn't trust the science. I didn't trust the single molecule method and it just hadn't been proven to be that effective.
And so I came across the CBD. I was a cannabis farmer. THC was never my thing. I did inhale and exhale in college for sure. And, had a good time there with it. But. I didn't get the benefits of the life that I wanted from it. So that's where it ended for me. And so I gave up on the plan, back then, and then as I started to research and understand that there was more going on in the plant, the first it was sativa versus Endeca.
And then when it came out with CBD, that's when the light bulb went off and I just sat there and thought, well, if it helped with epilepsy and seizures, as dr. Raphael Meshulum showed in the seventies, then it was worth a shot. And we jumped through the hoops and did all the things. And I was like, we tried some products, we didn't [00:14:00] get the feedback that we were looking for.
We didn't see the results. And then I was like, well, why is everyone heating it? Why is everyone decarboxylated it? Why is everyone isolating it? Why? Because I understand the holistic properties of a whole plant using a whole plant. And I understand that you want to get high. You need to activate that THCA and burn it and turn it into THC Delta nine.
But I never understood. Why would you want to heat this beautiful plant with 500 properties in a three dimensional molecule? And turn it into a two dimensional molecule and Burt off the acidic precursors. Just consume it the way it was grown, the way it was intended for millions of years and our body communicates perfectly with it, the way it was grown.
So that was how we got lucky. it was a wing and a prayer. And when our prayers were answered, we literally took it on as our mission to pay it forward. By sharing these stories, by sharing our story. And as Kristen talks about, if you reach out to us, we will send a product for [00:15:00] free to any family affected by autism.
And just about anybody really affected by just about anything that's severe and chronic and complex. if you reach out to us, we have a program where we will get that product in your hands. We have free consultations on our websites that you just pop on and ask all your questions because. There's so much confusion about this miracle plant with so many names.
There's so much misinformation out there that that's why we decided to start this podcast, share these stories and just talk about the plant in a real life situation and how it affected them. And could you add anything more to that Christian, as far as where you were, and maybe yours. Dilemma of crossing that line to, to trying, CBD.
And I know that was a way back when, so we're at a much different place now in 2020, but , when that first time you were like, should I shouldn't I, and then when you finally said, I'm going for it.
Kristen Selby Gonzalez: Yeah. I remember [00:16:00] when I very first tried a different brand, but CBD, I was really scared cause like, I didn't really. No anything about CBD. I was really uneducated about it. I wasn't the person in college that ever tried, any form of CBD or THC. I was really afraid of anything like that. and the only thing I knew was, people smoke pot and got high.
So that was my kind of understanding of what I thought CBD was. And so I remember. When we had a doctor recommended it and I thought, Oh man, I don't know about this. And I was so afraid. And then when I started learning about it, I really felt kind of silly. I'll be honest because I was like, Oh wait, the CBD, it doesn't get you high.
Only the THC gets you high. And then. and then I had to like really learn about CBD. And even then until I met you, Justin, I really thought I knew something about a little bit, at least about CBD and I really didn't. and what I love what you say. And especially if you're a parent out there that you're kind of nervous and you're like me, that didn't really know much about it.
I [00:17:00] love how Justin says, either you can get high or you can get healthy. And, when you're looking at CBD and especially CBD, that is cold extracted and it's the whole plant and it's, really bare to get you healthy. That's what was kind of like that kind of aha moment for me where the light bulb went.
Huh? Maybe these other CBDs that aren't cold extracted, basically they're not having the whole entire plant and all the properties as a plant because they're burning some of those qualities off. Maybe the reason I'm seeing some of this amazing benefits from my son is because maybe he needed all those properties.
I don't know what gets burned off. I still don't know that, but I know that when I give this picture to my son, and we just put it under his tongue and we give it to him, you know, several times a day, and not everybody has to do that, but we do. And he's coming back to life and that's huge.
And I feel like if you're a parent out there and you're on the fence, the best thing for me was thinking, where do I, I want to be in 10 years from now, or even five years from now. And. [00:18:00] I just knew that I had to get through my fear and if it didn't work okay, well then I'll just be right here again. And here's the great thing as a parent is you go, okay, my son's or my son or daughter is doing better now maybe, or maybe, you were at a plateau of some sort, you're a resting spot, but then you go, okay, now what's next.
So even for us right now, it's like, okay, he's doing better. The aggression's gone. And now my next step with our doctors are like, okay, now what's next. What's next because I want him to have the best life, the most optimal life. I want him to thrive in whatever his amazing abilities are. And, , if we constantly sit there and go, Oh, it's comfortable or I'm afraid, we're never going to get to that.
What's next. So I think often it's the parents, when you're kind of doing this fearful dance is you're comfortable and you have to get out of that comfort zone and you have to be okay to take that next step because autism. It's still. So new of all the things that we're learning about. And if we look back at, [00:19:00] even the eighties and the nineties, Oh my gosh.
Even when my son was diagnosed in 2004, we have come so far. And so we can't just sit there and be on that plateau, comfort, resting spot. We really need to go. Okay. Now what. Now what, and, and constantly push ourselves because our kids are counting on us. We are our kids' biggest advocates. We are our kids' biggest cheerleaders, and we know our kids better than anybody else.
So if you ever are feeling like that fearful moment, or you don't know what to do, where too much is coming in at you, this is what I always do. I literally just don't do anything for maybe two to three days and I just let it sink in. And I get that kind of courage in my gut. And then I really try to listen to my gut.
And I swear nine out of 10 times, you already knew that you wanted to try that three days ago, but now you can move and take that step with, so much more confidence because. you're not alone. What I love about Justin's company is he's absolutely right, man. I felt bad for them because I was emailing them on battery on Friday night, [00:20:00] Monday morning at two o'clock in the morning.
Like I was like, I didn't expect them to answer me at two o'clock, but I knew that when they saw the email, they were going to answer me and I didn't feel alone. I felt like they were out there. They were cheering for me and they weren't going to let me down because they were. believing in what they were selling and gosh, am I still going?
God, I'm so happy that I took that leap of faith.
Justin Benton: Well, we are too, and it's just been incredible watching your story we've been there every step. The way with you. And we've partnered actually with an organization that you're the president of, which is the autism hope alliance.org. If you maybe want to talk a little bit more about that, and, let them know what you're doing there.
And especially becausethis particular episodes, obviously we're talking a lot about autism and, you've done so many incredible things. and the reason I decided to partner with you. Was, you guys had just an incredible program of giving products out and you had just incredible social media and, emailing and, you guys were the leaders, in the [00:21:00] industry for, , natural foods and supplements and autism.
And you were the only ones that, that I ever came across that actually gave education. And it was a no brainer for us to work together. So, and that was many years back, but. I do want to make sure that people know how to reach you and your organization, and then all the great things that you guys do as well.
Kristen Selby Gonzalez: Absolutely. so yeah, we are, the autism hope Alliance. You can go to autism hope alliance.org. you can sign up for our, what we call our library card. It's a free membership. And every week we are constantly producing new educational videos. It's free our partners like Justin to help make sure that, we can continue to give that out and make sure that it's there for you guys.
and so, like I said, each week, there's different topics. and you can watch it or listen to it either on a podcast like this, or you can watch it on our, website, which is amazing. We also have a, what we call our sample program. And so, as we get older, we're over 10 years old now, we're constantly evolving to kind of see what [00:22:00] works best for our families.
And, the program that we're doing currently is a sample program. We partner with over 50 partners in the natural products industry that basically. we love them. They're all. Gluten-free dairy-free as the foundation of any products we recommend and we range anywhere from things like CBD to probiotics, to enzymes, to, multivitamins, to gluten-free dairy-free foods and even music therapy.
I mean, the list goes on and on. And what's amazing is our partners are so generous and what they do is each quarter, we put out an email and we're about to do one the end of this month again. and basically we ask the families, what are you interested in? And what categories are you interested in the families, then just check the categories.
and then we provide those names. To each of the companies that want to provide, whether it be education, a sample of their product or a deep discount. And it's been a, it's been a great relationship. it's a great way for us to introduce [00:23:00] partners, choose families that, might be benefited by their, whatever their thing is.
And it's great for families to learn about companies that care. And that's really what it's about for us. Lots of them help alliances the first nonprofit to emerge from the natural products industry. And we believe if a kid can feel good, then a child can do good. And we also believe, and I say this often is that we believe it can go at any age.
I don't care if they're two or 52, we believe there is no window. That, that we, we hear that often, right? Like, Oh, they have to be, improving by the age of five or six or whatever the new number is today. We don't believe that we believe that, at any age, I've met families that their kids said their first word at 22.
and so I get so excited because like I said earlier, autism still is so new in the way of what we're learning that helping our families. And so if you're out there and you're listening and you're like, Oh my gosh, I've tried everything. I promise that you haven't go to our website and you can download even.
we have a resource [00:24:00] booklet, that's called autism with experts know, you can download that for free. I call it the cliff note version of a lot of stuff. So each category has 1500 words or less. You can read about that and then decide if you want to learn more about that particular subject. and as I said, we have our library, And that you can join as well.
And so again, we never know everything, right. And we don't know what we don't know. And so we're constantly learning. So that's what we're here for. We're here to hopefully be a trusted source. And if we can save a hundred hours off of Google and I joke about this, but I'm a hundred percent serious. If we can save any time off Google for you guys and help navigate you to where it might be, another step on your journey, with her for that.
Justin Benton: and I think you, from all the families that you've helped and all the families that you will help, and I've love being a partner in collaborating with you over these years. And there's so much more, that we can do and just like the miracle plant.org.
I mean, just like this [00:25:00] podcast. It's just about sharing the stories as you'll hear from other people and, and we'll have a lot more guests to tell their stories is there was a time when there wasn't a lot of hope and the name of Christine's organization is the autism hope Alliance.
And that's what we're doing here is giving families, giving mothers and fathers hope that there is hope out there for autism. And there is hope out there for dozens of other health ailments that we're starting to see come to the forefront because this miracle plant helps our bodies find homeostasis or balance when it's taken in that whole plant.
, formulation, which whole plant it's just the whole plant. So people call it a full spectrum, but really whole plant means you use the whole plant. You don't take anything out. And that's where dr. Raphael Meshulum and dr. Ethan Russo have both proven and shown this entourage effect of these synergistic properties of everything in the planet, working together like a beautiful symphony.
So, Kristen, I just wanted to thank [00:26:00] you for coming on, sharing your incredible story, being a partner with me over these years. And helping us educate these families.tip of the cap to you and, I could think of no one else I'd rather have on the share such a beautiful journey than you for our first episode of the miracle plan podcast.
So thank you so much for coming on.
Kristen Selby Gonzalez: Well, thank you for having me and, again, thank you for all you do for families. I mean, you are just a huge champion and a huge hero in our community, so nobody else I'd rather partner with as well. So thank you for again for having me.
Justin Benton: Absolutely. Well, on the way out, I wanted to make sure that as we wrap up. That everybody knows that, as we pay it forward here, we're all about giving this product through education. Through seeds, through product is to reach out and there'll be a link in the show notes, or reach out to the website, the miracle plant.org and ask us questions and try this product because really.
That's why we're here is to [00:27:00] help people understand more about the miracle plant. We'll even send you some seeds in the mail and show you how to grow them on a YouTube channel video, grow them in your backyard, and answer all your questions with, with online zoom. consultations are free. it's a blessing that we found this plant and it answered our prayers and answered Christine's prayers.
And you're going to hear from so many more people, their stories directly from their mouth and how this miracle plant helped them and their families. So thank you everyone for joining us. On the miracle plant podcast edition one. And we look forward to seeing you next week to share another amazing story.
How this miracle plan take care, everybody. See you then. Okay.