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.
Change that Start with Us
I have not written for months…I needed to find my voice again…a different voice. I have quietly been observing and learning from others. Overtime I have found a more confident voice and wider perspective. Hospitals and insurance providers are starting to reach out - interested in our story and perspective. So, I bravely share it…
What have I learned through our own experience and listening to others? Our children are in trouble - statistics tell us this, but in our hearts we also know it to be true. Specifically, our girls. Sadly, the reasons are obvious…and so is the solution. It starts with us - each and every one of us. This is not about them…it is about us.
I Wonder if Our Daughter Realizes…
As parents we watch for glimpses or indicators (with the same hope and diligence you might wait for a baby’s first word or first step) that our daughter is making progress - her abilities to cope, manage and live with her anxiety, trauma and panic getting stronger. Often unfairly disappointed because our expectations are not always fair or reasonable.
But then this week our daughter shares the following…
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…
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……