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 Toughest Soldiers are Given the Hardest Missions
So, how do you parent a child that was an “A” student (now cannot go to school without a public panic attack and missed her entire 6th grade year)…a competitive dancer (I only mention because she is more brave than most of us to get on stage and dance multiple dances in front of strangers. In two weeks we hope to get her on stage for the first time in a year for a single dance.)…and generally a child that has lived a pretty blessed life with no reason to fear or not to believe in the “happy ending” (now I am asked all the time, “Why me?” and “Am I going to die?”.) How do you parent this sudden and new reality?
You Have the Power to Move the Universe in the Direction of Beauty
So yesterday, my oldest daughter was putting on her shoes and heading to the mailbox. I asked her, “What are you doing, honey?”
She responds, “I am mailing a letter to the president.”
I paused, “Ahhhhh, what is the letter about and where did you find an address?”
She says matter-of-factly, “I googled it.” (An obvious response, but one has to admire the gumption.)
And she continues…
A Promise Not to Forget the Other Children
So why a store and why “this” product? A few have asked me…
So, as I had mentioned in my previous journal entry, on Monday (10/5) we learned our daughter had been reviewed and approved for admission into an in-patient mental health hospital in Brooklyn Park…
Love Life Now
Hi! Well, let’s just be honest up-front….I have never blogged before. And even more honest…I am rarely on social media. So, I really have no clue where to start. So…just starting…here goes nothing…
I have had to completely re-invent myself in the past six months, so why not add “writer” to my new resume. But, let’s not get to far ahead ourselves. I need to introduce myself and set the stage before our conversation can continue…