Tuck a few Kleenex in your sleeve. Everyday living—the highs and lows of everyday life—is exactly what today’s show encompasses. Because whether we, or someone we love, is braving adult or youth mental health battles, our everyday lives continue around us. But how we cope with and support each other makes all the difference in the world. You might cry, laugh, cry again, and then even laugh out loud.

In the first half of the show, Kristin and Anna Rehkamp share their personal story about how Anna’s panic attack at a well-child check in 2020 when she was 11 years old turned into a debilitating panic disorder within two weeks. Counseling was booked months out. And their daughter was in crisis.

Although it is hard for Anna to talk about it, she and her mom bravely and candidly tell their story, with the purpose of changing and opening the current conversation and advocacy, or lack thereof, around youth mental health with parents, children, medical and mental health professionals, the community, and anyone who can help make change. 

Anna is remarkably courageous, and she is wiser than many of us when it comes to accepting people where they’re at. She and her mom continue to advocate for youth mental health initiatives.

This journey led Kristin to write and publish her book titled, “Finding Us: A Mother’s Memoir of Braving Mental Illness with Her Young Daughter,” along with opening La Vie Est Belle, her boutique in Lake Elmo, which in turn, she donates a percentage of net profits to pediatric mental health initiatives. 

I learned that there is a long line of bakers in this family, Anna and Kristin being two of them. And Kristin’s mom, Lynn (Johnson) Rohman, has taken it up a level by publishing two family cookbooks! So naturally, we thought it would be fun to talk about some of their handed-down family recipes like turtle cake, chocolate chip shortbread bars, and cinnamon rolls. 

Recipes, photos, links and Lynn’s dedication to her mom, Eileen (Klinkhammer) Johnson in the family cookbook are on https://randomsweets.com/family-recipes-and-braving-youth-mental-health-with-kristin-and-anna-rehkamp/.

This episode is NOT intended to be medical advice.

Kristin and Anna Rehkamp

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“Finding Us” 

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