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.
Together, We Will Be…
It is a rainy Saturday evening. I am curled up on the couch quietly reading the first print proof of our book. I am quite literally holding the weight of the last two years in my hands. Our story between two covers, yet so much still unwritten. I reflect a bit on where we have been, where we are now, and where we are headed. Truth be told, the only question I can answer is where we have been.
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…