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
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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.
The Last and New Chapter
I feel like I have exhausted all that I can currently share about our journey/our story…successes and failures, disappointments and discoveries, emotional rollercoasters, and days of pure exhaustion followed by triumphs. Many of you have journeyed alongside me/our family for nearly two years and would no doubt agree that every rock has been overturned and every corner rounded. And for all your love and support - I/we will be forever grateful.
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.
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.
No One Else Could Do It Better
It is Father’s Day today. So, today’s blog is dedicated to my husband and all the other fathers/father figures out there that love unconditionally and give daily. A special note to all the fathers and grandfathers that support a loved one that has fallen ill - physically or mentally. Your job is unfairly harder…requiring extra strength, patience and care…despite extra doses of exhaustion, worry and fear.
Someday We Will Understand
Our 13-year-old daughter was sitting on my lap just moments before in tears again missing the life she once had. Telling me how alone she feels. Her experience not well understood…terrifying…and lonely. She is right. I am always at a loss despite a willingness to move mountains.
But there is one thing I can do…I can share her story.
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……
Heart and Compassion
Mental illness is rarely rational or predictable. You cannot rationalize something that is irrational, nor can I advise how our daughter’s illness might present this afternoon, tomorrow or a year from now…or why.