This episode of The Just A Mom podcast features Tracey Yokas, author of the book Bloodlines: A Memoir of Harm and Healing (https://www.amazon.com/Bloodlines-Memoir-Self-Harm-Healing-Generational-ebook/dp/B09CD4F614). In the book, Tracey explores her relationship with her own mother as well as the family dynamics of a child with mental illness.  Tracey’s daughter’s battle started with the death of Tracey’s mom in 2013 when her daughter was 13 years old and going into 8th grade.  It started one day with “I’m really not that hungry” and soon after that her daughter was diagnosed with disordered eating and depression. 

In this episode, Tracey chronicles the myriad of treatments they tried—counseling, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient treatment, and eventually in-patient treatment. Tracey shares vulnerably how a big part of her journey was learning all of the things inside her that needed healing, and that she couldn’t control her daughter’s healing. Tracey also talks about how she felt so many of the things that many of us have felt—she didn’t want to share with people what was going on with her daughter, and she isolated herself a lot because of this. 

While so many of us talk about self-care as a vital part of maintaining our mental health, Tracey takes it a step further and challenges listeners to learn about themselves to become our best true selves.  She also emphasizes the importance of educating yourself about mental illness.