Tara Smith Johnson

Defeating Dysautonomia Tara Smith Johnson

It takes a story like Tara's to touch our heart, teach us empathy, and to trust God more than we ever imagined possible.

-Tammy Whitehurst




Author Tara Smith Johnson swallows nine hundred pills a month and daily drinks over two quarts of liquid and eats three tablespoons of salt-just to keep from passing out. Navigating life with dysautonomia is no laughing matter.




While the natural body works as it should, a body wracked with dysautonomia-an autonomic nervous system disorder-does not.




For years Tara sought answers for why she kept falling and reacting to environmental elements, to no avail. When bedridden for a season, she began color coding Bible passages, which helped her listen to the Lord as her professional healthcare team worked to find hope, healing, and a solid plan for maintaining a manageable lifestyle. She wasn't going down without a fight-and a plethora of prayers and Scriptures.




Defeating Dysautonomia: One Spoon at a Time with Faith, Hope, and Love is her brave, resilient story, and each insightful chapter




- accompanies clinical responses from various medical professionals who have helped her along her arduous journey, offering a common-sense approach when experiencing symptoms associated with chronic illnesses and autoimmune diseases;

- weaves comforting, empowering Scriptures, helpful, healing solutions, and thoughtful clinical responses from the doctors who have walked with her;

- offers the chronic illness community encouragement that they too can find hope and healing toward a manageable lifestyle.




Tara Smith Johnson founded the national and global nonprofit Hope for Team Tara, where she educates others about dysautonomia and offers advocacy for the chronic illness community.