Welcome. This is the story of a mom, daughter, and family on a mental health journey.
Welcome to the La Vie Est Belle blog. Written by our founder, Kristin Rohman Rehkamp, and guest contributors on similar journeys,
it seeks to serve as a testimony to life braving pediatric or youth mental health and illness.
Inspired by Kristin’s Blogs…
Finding Us: A Mother’s Memoir of Braving Mental Illness with Her Daughter is now available in our shop and launching with major national and international retailers (Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, Walmart…etc.) on October 15, 2022!
Kristin gives a memoir that is personal and passionate; it is contemporaneous, insightful and wise. “Finding Us" is unerringly truthful to the experience for those who have never had mental illness in the family, and those who HAVE will recognize their own stories within it. -Dan Parnell, NAMI Affiliate Leader
Back Cover Preview
Kristin was terrified she was going to lose her daughter. Her daughter could not breathe, her chest hurt, and she was experiencing loss of sensation in limbs, dizziness, and disorientation…all rolling up to a state of terror she had never before witnessed. It was September 16, 2020 and her life changed, suddenly and without warning, with her daughter’s onset of a panic disorder.
Living with a mental illness is a journey that is messy, complicated and often misunderstood. Despite our best efforts, an experience we cannot control, but instead bravely learn to live with, learn from, and feasibly teach others.
In Finding Us, Kristin Rohman Rehkamp shares her story to educate and bring visibility to what living with a child braving a mental illness looks like and feels like. Her hope is that her memoir normalizes the mental health conversation, while providing others comfort and support in knowing their unique challenges and journey are understood.
Welcome to our collection of blogs. Raw testimony, unique insight, shared perspectives. We hope they provide hope, inspiration, and comfort. Please know, you are not alone. We hear you, we see you, we are standing next to you.
These Are Our Children…
I am once again reminded and remind others the importance of advocating for a loved one who braves mental illness. We ultimately know them best and in a world that struggles to understand mental illness, and often exhausted by it, too easily moves past leaving those that battle with few good answers and little support. If there is one thing to learn…do not give up on our children.
No Greater Love and Commitment…
I know a number of others parenting a child living with mental illness struggle balancing commitments outside the home and feasibly dedication (even personal character) questioned. I struggle as well. My response and advocacy for others…
Lost in a Memory
Our daughter mentioned that over the past two years of trauma and life not “feeling real” (both a symptom and trigger of panic), she is experiencing a sense of “this cannot be real/I do not deserve this”. As life presents some resemblance or reminders of “life before/happiness”, our daughter is feeling anxious and unsure of her value and deservedness…
The Other Side of Every Fear is Freedom
I watched from afar as our children climbed up and down the beautiful rock formations of the Badlands, SD. I teared up as I watched our oldest summit one of the tallest, throw her arms up, and shout; “I did it!”
I Took the One Less Traveled by…
When I was a young girl, I was asked to recite a poem for a class. I chose The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. I did not choose this poem because it was popular, easy to recite, short…or any other reason a child might choose a poem to memorize for a class assignment. I chose it because there was a familiarity or meaning I did not yet understand, but already appreciated. How could I have possibly known its relevance later in life? A road I often traveled alone, but now as a wife and mother; I travel it for my children…my husband…my oldest daughter who braves a panic disorder. Hoping along the way we continue to find courage and strength while empowering others.
Her Illness Does Not Define Her
Our daughter is not a child with behavior issues. Our daughter’s behaviors that are a manifestation of her panic disorder do not define her. She is not a mentally ill child, but instead a child that courageously lives with mental illness. This small but significant difference is the change that will be the catalyst for a different future...for our daughter…and for so many others.
Welcome To Holland
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
By Emily Perl Kingsley. c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved.
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability [or medical condition/mental health condition/different ability] – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……