Season 1 Ep. 7 | Overcoming Trauma and Embracing Life

Trauma.

That’s a strong word. If you’ve never been through a traumatic experience maybe that word doesn’t resonate with you. But if you have, just reading that word is enough to take your breath away. It carries weight.

The idea for this episode came to me after realizing many of the rare disease parents whom I’ve interviewed still struggle to this day when thinking about their child’s newborn screening experience. I’ve heard so many stories from parents who will never forget receiving that phone call, shutting themselves away while they try to process what’s just happened, and learning to cope with a completely different world than the one they thought they live in.

But I also realize that there are other life experiences that overwhelm you and influence every area of your life. Your physical health, your emotional health, and your mental health all influence and are affected by every aspect of your life, including your rare disease experience. And when you experience a trauma, it affects all of you.
This episode represents my attempt to pull all of this together, and try to figure out how to move forward in life when life throws you an experience that hits you in the chest and takes your breath away.

About Never Give Up: A Rare Disease Podcast

This is a storytelling podcast. I'm not interviewing guests or telling news that affects our community. Other podcasts do that extremely well. I just want to tell you some stories. Stories about hope. Perseverance. Self-worth. Self-care. Stories that hopefully inspire you to keep going. And to never, never, never give up.

Contact Kevin Alexander

Website: PKUJournal.com

Instagram: @kevinalexander_pku

Facebook: @pkujournal

Email: kevinalexander@pkujournal.com