Hello! Let me introduce myself.
My journey has been hard but rewarding. When I was 20 I lost a friend to suicide. The event was traumatic to me. I was not willing to come to terms with my own depression and how it was impacting my life and the lives of my family.
I didn’t want my life to end like Jeff’s did. I ignored my symptoms and told myself that I would be fine. Even the mention of the word “depression” would cause me to panic and freeze. I self medicated when things got hard. I covered my pain with drugs, sex, alcohol, work, and people pleasing. These patterns of escape were magnified with the birth of my son, Tyler, who was born with special needs. My wife Krystal was doing her best to plug all the holes in the ship of our lives, but she couldn’t keep up with my self-destruction.
My patterns that I mentioned above eventually caused there to be a shift in the dynamic of our relationship. I lost my deep fulfilling connection to my loving wife and my kids no longer looked at me with adoration as they did when they were young. I was devastated by the loss. I swore to myself that I would figure out what happened to my life and my relationships and find my way back to them.
One day a few years after the shift in the dynamic of my relationship with Krystal, she had a breakthrough. She found the Holistic Psychologist on Instagram who spoke of healing mental illness and the journey back to one’s self.
“You know how you have always told me that healing depression was possible and that one day you would heal,” my wife said. “Yeah,” I said with hopefull aprehension. “Well, there’s a psychologist on Insta who believes that, too. She no longer has clients. She has dedicated her life now to eductating her audience through Instagram that the way to heal is to learn how to love yourself through something called ‘reparenting,'” Krystal said.
I immediately pulled up Dr. Nicole LaPera’s (The Holistic Psychologist) Instagram feed. My healing journey began. I knew I had found my path. I knew that I would heal and that one day I could make my way back to the people that I loved.
It has been a long journey back. Krystal and I went to theray with our kids. Tyler began ABA therapy. I learned how to listen. I overcame my addictions and came home to myself. Love returned to my marriage and my kids adore me.
There are hundreds of stories along this journey that I will be sharing here on my site. I’m here because I want to share what I have learned so that you, too, can find your way back to yourself and the people that you love. Thank you for being here.
-Daron