1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:10,120 Speaker 1: Family Secrets is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 2: I'm Danny Shapiro and this is family Secrets, the secrets 3 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:18,079 Speaker 2: that are kept from us, the secrets we keep from others, 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 2: and the secrets we keep from ourselves. My guest today 5 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 2: is Kimberly Warner. Kimberly is the founder, director, and producer 6 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:32,199 Speaker 2: of Unfixed Media, a production company with a focus on 7 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:38,559 Speaker 2: people with chronic, uncurable conditions. Kimberly's is a story of 8 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 2: an unfolding life that contains within it big secrets and 9 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:48,319 Speaker 2: big consequences. It's also a story of courage, resilience, and 10 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 2: making meaning out of very hard things. And by this 11 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 2: I don't only mean personal meaning, though that would be plenty, 12 00:00:56,680 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 2: but rather the meaning that comes from illuminating and changing 13 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 2: the lives of others through advocacy, generosity of spirit, and art. 14 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 2: Tell me about the landscape of your childhood. 15 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,800 Speaker 3: I grew up in Wisconsin in the mid seventies and eighties, 16 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 3: and everyone thinks of Wisconsin, and we think of football 17 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 3: and cheese. But we were more like the tofu eating 18 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 3: goddess groups type of family, so we didn't quite fit in. 19 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,040 Speaker 3: My dad was a cardiac surgeon in a small college 20 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 3: town in Wisconsin, and my mother was a psychotherapist, and 21 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:45,400 Speaker 3: they through a tumultuous slash growthful marriage. 22 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 4: They went through about. 23 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 3: Five wedding bands, which might explain the sense that they 24 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 3: were falling out of love with each other, breaking commitments 25 00:01:57,400 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 3: to each other. They actually had five years where they 26 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 3: or exploring other relationships in an open marriage and made 27 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:09,080 Speaker 3: it through all those years, but also learned a lot 28 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 3: of tools, and so they became kind of leaders. And 29 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 3: I knew this as a child. This wasn't a secret 30 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,679 Speaker 3: to us. So I knew that my parents were very 31 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 3: much into teaching conscious loving workshops and growing through the 32 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 3: pain that they had experienced together. So there was a 33 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 3: lot of growth, a lot of yelling, a lot of 34 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 3: big emotions. 35 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 4: In the house. 36 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 3: That said, we also were sort of the perfect family. 37 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 3: And I'm making air quotes as I say that, because 38 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:46,560 Speaker 3: of the status of my father and my mom and 39 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,520 Speaker 3: the sort of the leadership roles that they carried. My 40 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 3: brother was very popular. I was a straight A student 41 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 3: in Ballerina. 42 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 4: We lived in a. 43 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 3: Beautiful log home on a lake. We were kind of 44 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 3: looked at as the perfect warners, and I shied away 45 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 3: from that big time it was very scary to. 46 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 4: Feel that label. 47 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 3: I didn't feel it in myself, and that is probably 48 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 3: where most of the truth lies. It's just there was 49 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 3: a really big schism between this deep onnoored sense that 50 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 3: I felt in my own identity, in my own being, 51 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 3: and the confidence with which our family was presented to the. 52 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 2: World as a child. How did you understand that schism 53 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 2: inside of you? You know, sort of the outsides not 54 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 2: matching the insides. 55 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 3: That's a great question. What I did is I buried it. 56 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:51,040 Speaker 3: I became a people pleaser. I validated myself through my 57 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 3: surroundings instead of through my own intuition. I made sure 58 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:02,240 Speaker 3: that everyone else around me was valid and happy, and 59 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 3: I would became so good at it that I really 60 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 3: didn't feel that schism myself. Eric is three years older, 61 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 3: and it was a very popular, charismatic, just social guy, extroverted, 62 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 3: and I couldn't have been more opposite than that. 63 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 4: I was the introvert. 64 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,360 Speaker 3: In fact, we were just speaking the other day and 65 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,599 Speaker 3: he said when our parents would argue, when it would 66 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:34,240 Speaker 3: just blow up downstairs, he found an escape route through 67 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 3: his window, and that was his way of dealing with 68 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 3: it because it was just too much to tolerate, and 69 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,920 Speaker 3: I remember those arguments too. But my technique was to shrink. 70 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:47,240 Speaker 3: I call it sort of the shrink wrapped version of 71 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 3: myself or the fight fight er freeze. 72 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 4: I was the freezer. 73 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 3: So I would just freeze and shrink down as a 74 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:55,480 Speaker 3: coping mechanism. 75 00:04:56,040 --> 00:04:59,800 Speaker 2: So your brother would literally leave the house and you would. 76 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,200 Speaker 4: Of yourself exactly. 77 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:06,280 Speaker 2: It's kind of an amazing irony that your parents were 78 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 2: leading these conscious loving workshops and at the same time 79 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:14,159 Speaker 2: had this really volatile relationship themselves. I mean, I don't 80 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 2: know what a conscious loving workshop is. Did you know 81 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 2: as a child? Did you Were you aware of kind 82 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:24,240 Speaker 2: of what your parents were doing as leaders in that community. 83 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:30,039 Speaker 3: Partially I knew that it was very psychological. My mother 84 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:32,720 Speaker 3: would bring in that aspect of it through her marriage 85 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,960 Speaker 3: and family counseling training, and it was also a lot 86 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:41,280 Speaker 3: of stress management techniques that my father was bringing in 87 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:45,360 Speaker 3: through his work with as a cardiac surgeon. But extending 88 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:49,840 Speaker 3: beyond that into more of the energy medicine, biofeedback, some 89 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 3: of the things that are more common now, breathing exercises, 90 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,520 Speaker 3: they do, these crash courses of Okay, we've got a 91 00:05:56,560 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 3: weekend workshop coming up at Wagging Wheel, and we need 92 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 3: to bullet point what we're going to be discussing with 93 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 3: our couples, and so I would these large, colorful blodderboards 94 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:12,720 Speaker 3: and they would basically have exercises, techniques, a lot of 95 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 3: eye gazing, a lot of journaling, a lot of truth telling. Later. 96 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 3: I know that my father got involved with the Tantra 97 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:26,599 Speaker 3: community in Hawaii, and while they didn't teach Tntra, I 98 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 3: know that my dad was learning a lot from that 99 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:34,320 Speaker 3: community as well. My mom was a little more hands 100 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 3: off with it and so it wasn't brought into their 101 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:40,159 Speaker 3: work as leaders, But I know that my dad was 102 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:41,920 Speaker 3: learning a lot from that space as well. 103 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 2: Tell me about your mom, I mean, the mother of 104 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:46,960 Speaker 2: your childhood. 105 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:49,560 Speaker 4: Oh my mom. 106 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:54,360 Speaker 3: Well, this is hard to talk about because I love 107 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:59,360 Speaker 3: her dearly and she was young. You know, she was 108 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 3: a good Christian when she met my dad. 109 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:03,200 Speaker 4: In fact, she was. 110 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 3: Called Parson Larsen at university and their first kiss Haddock 111 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 3: Bible between the two of them. So for them to 112 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:17,200 Speaker 3: abandon Christianity, study Buddhism, make a meditation room. 113 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:19,760 Speaker 4: You know, in the progression. 114 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 3: Of her evolution as a spiritual, loving human being, was 115 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 3: quite dramatic. What I remember from her reminds me a 116 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:34,680 Speaker 3: little bit of Betty Draper from mad Men. There was 117 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 3: so much pain beneath the surface, but she had to 118 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 3: keep it all together. My dad was very chaotic with 119 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:49,240 Speaker 3: his emotions, with his schedule, his commitments, and so for her, 120 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 3: she did her very very best to raise a good family, 121 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 3: help Eric and I feel safe, but at the cost 122 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:04,160 Speaker 3: of feeling like there was a truthfulness in her own 123 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:08,320 Speaker 3: being and therefore, by default me feeling like it was 124 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 3: safe for me to feel truthful with my feeling like 125 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,120 Speaker 3: it needed to be a certain way in order to 126 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 3: keep up the appearances of this, because if one thread 127 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:25,480 Speaker 3: was pulled, the whole thing would unravel. And she, to 128 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:31,400 Speaker 3: her credit, dug deeply into this place of forgiving over 129 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:34,880 Speaker 3: and over again with my father because of the affairs 130 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,440 Speaker 3: and trying to grow herself with this. This is my partner, 131 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 3: this is what he's going to be doing, so okay, 132 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,120 Speaker 3: then I might as well do it as well. And 133 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:46,560 Speaker 3: let's open this marriage up, let's go to therapy, let's 134 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:49,320 Speaker 3: figure this out. And if you're going to have affairs, 135 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 3: then I'm going to have. 136 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 4: A relationship too. 137 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 3: And she needed to grow herself. And I know she 138 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,679 Speaker 3: said that, but I think my brother calls it we 139 00:08:57,679 --> 00:09:01,000 Speaker 3: were a little fearal, if that makes it, because there 140 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 3: was so much drama in their relationship. My mom did 141 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,160 Speaker 3: a great job at making sure the meals were there, 142 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 3: the ballet classes were paid for, the family trips were planned, 143 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 3: the house was beautiful, But emotionally, I think my brother 144 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 3: and I were pretty fearal, left to figure it out. 145 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 4: On our own, if that makes sense. 146 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:27,719 Speaker 2: Kimberly doesn't just freeze and leave herself as a teenager. 147 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 2: She starts to exhibit some pretty severe anxiety symptoms and behaviors, 148 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 2: only she doesn't know what she's anxious about. After all, 149 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,360 Speaker 2: despite her parents' arguments, they are seen as a model 150 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:42,800 Speaker 2: couple and the Warners are a model family looked up 151 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:46,160 Speaker 2: to by their community. All is perfect on the surface, 152 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:50,680 Speaker 2: but definitely not perfect on the inside, so Kimberly is 153 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:52,840 Speaker 2: left to come up with her own solutions. 154 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:59,319 Speaker 3: My solution was to control everything within myself, because if 155 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:02,200 Speaker 3: something was even though it didn't appear on the surface, 156 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:04,600 Speaker 3: then I decided it must be me. The thing that's 157 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:06,800 Speaker 3: wrong must be me, And I know I'm not alone 158 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:10,600 Speaker 3: in that. When you can't identify the trauma out in 159 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:11,600 Speaker 3: the world when. 160 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:12,640 Speaker 4: The secret is buried. 161 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,679 Speaker 3: I don't think it's the only way, but I internalized 162 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 3: it and said, something's wrong with me. So I did 163 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 3: a pretty good job for a while until I couldn't 164 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 3: fixing the thing that was, whatever that flavor of the 165 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:30,840 Speaker 3: month was that was wrong. I had a few earlier 166 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 3: traumas with my body with a developmental need disorder, but 167 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:37,920 Speaker 3: that eventually passed. But I remember the first thing that 168 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:43,200 Speaker 3: really got me was when I started getting pimples, and. 169 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:45,920 Speaker 4: It was so. 170 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:53,280 Speaker 3: I felt so helpless, and I would lock myself in 171 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:58,680 Speaker 3: the bathroom for hours and hours and hours and pick 172 00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 3: at my skin, tried masks and scrub and I even 173 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:08,239 Speaker 3: started taking my brother's tetracycling, even though it wasn't my prescription. 174 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 3: I just popped them like pills because I heard that 175 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:11,959 Speaker 3: was supposed to help. 176 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 4: I would plead at night. 177 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:19,800 Speaker 3: I would leave the bathroom after just an inflamed face 178 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,440 Speaker 3: of skin picking and scrubbing, and I. 179 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:23,559 Speaker 4: Wanted nothing more. 180 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:26,680 Speaker 3: Deep down, I couldn't tell this to myself, but deep 181 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,800 Speaker 3: down I wanted to be held and loved for who 182 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,680 Speaker 3: I was, for the big mess that I had just created. 183 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:34,479 Speaker 4: I was like bringing the mess. 184 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:38,640 Speaker 3: Inside out to the surface, and I wanted to be 185 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 3: witnessed in it, and I wanted to be loved in it. 186 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 4: But of course that's not what I did. 187 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:46,360 Speaker 3: I would belining it straight to the bedroom and make 188 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:48,959 Speaker 3: please with the universe that my skin would get better. 189 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:55,160 Speaker 3: And this tormented me for years. And I'm not even 190 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 3: I didn't even have acne. I mean, this is to 191 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:01,320 Speaker 3: the level where I would probably we talked to junior 192 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:03,959 Speaker 3: high friends and high school friends and then goa, what 193 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:06,840 Speaker 3: you didn't have skin or whatever. 194 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:10,280 Speaker 4: So I was really really. 195 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 3: Anxious and agitated and becoming more and more hyper vigilant 196 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:18,720 Speaker 3: around any sort of tiny little change that I would 197 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 3: sense in my body because that was the only thing 198 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 3: I felt like I could control. 199 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:26,600 Speaker 2: Did you know it was anxiety? Did you have that 200 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:30,360 Speaker 2: language or that knowledge or it was just you know, 201 00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:36,200 Speaker 2: these kinds of obsessions and compulsions and behaviors that were 202 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 2: like I have no idea why I'm doing this, but 203 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 2: I have to keep doing it. 204 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:43,040 Speaker 4: That's exactly what it was. 205 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 3: And it was really just goal oriented. It was I 206 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:50,720 Speaker 3: have to fix my skin. I mean I didn't even 207 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:51,839 Speaker 3: allow room. 208 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:53,120 Speaker 4: For why am I doing this. 209 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:58,520 Speaker 3: I would feel the pain afterwards of why did I 210 00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:04,000 Speaker 3: do that, But in the compulsion, it was just this, 211 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:08,320 Speaker 3: I have to fix it. There's no option here to 212 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 3: be broken. 213 00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:12,880 Speaker 4: There's no option here to feel the. 214 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:17,960 Speaker 3: Chaos that I feel inside. And I think that was 215 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 3: a direct mirroring that my mom was feeling. There is 216 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 3: no option for me to feel this absolute chaos in 217 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:28,440 Speaker 3: this marriage because I have to hold it all together. 218 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:32,800 Speaker 2: And what were some of the other ways in which 219 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:38,319 Speaker 2: the anxiety expressed itself during those years you've talked about, 220 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:41,360 Speaker 2: you know, sort of the freezing up, the inability to 221 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:46,040 Speaker 2: make decisions, that making yourself as small and invisible as 222 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:47,040 Speaker 2: you possibly. 223 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:51,800 Speaker 3: Could yeap and really getting a sixth sense for what 224 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:57,920 Speaker 3: other people wanted to hear and feel and see. And 225 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,880 Speaker 3: so I aversion of the shrink wrapping. Nobody probably would 226 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:06,760 Speaker 3: say I was introverted, because I also developed a really 227 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:11,640 Speaker 3: good social extroverted self in order to please the people 228 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,199 Speaker 3: that needed me to be that way. So I definitely 229 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:22,200 Speaker 3: had a chameleon quality that was ultimately the goal was 230 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:29,680 Speaker 3: to protect that fragile, vulnerable truth that was me, and 231 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:32,880 Speaker 3: that was the part that was never allowed to surface. 232 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,200 Speaker 4: The chameleon could surface. So it varied. 233 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:40,560 Speaker 3: The techniques varied based on the environments that I was. 234 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:48,400 Speaker 2: In during this fragile and vulnerable time. In Kimberly's teenage life, 235 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:50,280 Speaker 2: she and her mom are on a walk one day 236 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 2: when her mom tells her in a very blunt and 237 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,840 Speaker 2: academic kind of way, that it's possible her father isn't 238 00:14:57,960 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 2: in fact her biological father. 239 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:09,160 Speaker 3: So I was seventeen, and the way my mom tells 240 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:16,360 Speaker 3: it is that my dad had had one night experimental 241 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:20,760 Speaker 3: situation with person after they had already closed their open marriage, 242 00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 3: and so he was feeling ashamed, and on the heels 243 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 3: of that, he said, well, I think you need to 244 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:34,280 Speaker 3: tell Kim about the possibility that I'm not her father. 245 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 2: So this is something that your parents kind of sort 246 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:44,200 Speaker 2: of had a inkling about, but then shoved that inkling 247 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 2: away and didn't really discuss it with each other. Certainly 248 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:48,800 Speaker 2: didn't discuss it with you. 249 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:51,160 Speaker 4: No, and they but I also get the sense that 250 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:51,920 Speaker 4: they put it. 251 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:58,760 Speaker 3: Away the night that the conception happened in Canada. My 252 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:00,840 Speaker 3: mother came home the next day. I told my dad 253 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:06,800 Speaker 3: I was born eight months later, and it was buried. 254 00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:08,200 Speaker 4: At that point. 255 00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,600 Speaker 3: My dad remembers once looking at me as an infant 256 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:17,320 Speaker 3: and feeling like wishy mine, and he felt like, psychically 257 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,360 Speaker 3: or something that he was worried. I could hear his 258 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:24,480 Speaker 3: thoughts or feel his insecurity, and so he put it away. 259 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 3: You know, of course nothing gets put away that easily. 260 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:31,520 Speaker 3: But the way that I've been told, and up until 261 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 3: the age seventeen, it was not discussed. There was there 262 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 3: was not even a question in my mind you know 263 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,720 Speaker 3: who my dad was. I have a pretty good delete 264 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:48,720 Speaker 3: button on some memories in my life, so I guess 265 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:51,080 Speaker 3: you couldn't call the memories if I'm deleting them. But 266 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 3: I remember that it was around the lake, and I 267 00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:00,120 Speaker 3: remember that it was an overcast day, and I I 268 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:04,239 Speaker 3: was a little confused by why my mom wanted to 269 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:07,280 Speaker 3: take me for a walk, because usually it was more 270 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:10,639 Speaker 3: of a jogging type of thing where she took the 271 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:13,119 Speaker 3: jogging movement happened in the eighties and she took that 272 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,360 Speaker 3: on and so that's usually how we would. 273 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:20,439 Speaker 4: Spend our time together. And this was a walk. 274 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,679 Speaker 3: And I remember as we sort of turned the corner 275 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:28,879 Speaker 3: around closer as we emerged towards High Cliff, which is 276 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 3: got like a golf course and a country club. She said, 277 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:36,679 Speaker 3: I your father wants me to know that there's a 278 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:42,400 Speaker 3: chance that he's not your father. And in that same breath, 279 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:48,359 Speaker 3: she said, but isn't it wonderful knowing that you belong 280 00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:55,200 Speaker 3: to the mystery? And I sensed a very strong need 281 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,919 Speaker 3: for this to be a happy story, for this to 282 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:02,440 Speaker 3: be a positively beautiful thing. And of course she's trying 283 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,600 Speaker 3: to protect me. Ugh, I mean, okay, I've got to 284 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:12,480 Speaker 3: tell my daughter this. So I don't think there was 285 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,159 Speaker 3: a fraction of a second where I allowed myself to 286 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:19,760 Speaker 3: really fall into what she had just said. I quickly 287 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 3: went to how am I supposed to respond to this? 288 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:24,280 Speaker 3: And she gave it to me. She fed it right 289 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 3: to me. She said, well, it's cool you belong to 290 00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:29,439 Speaker 3: the mystery. And I'm like, yeah, that's cool. 291 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:30,200 Speaker 4: Right. 292 00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:35,720 Speaker 3: It was as if the executive functioning of my brain 293 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,560 Speaker 3: turned off, and you know, just tell me what to say. 294 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:46,200 Speaker 3: So later in life, you know, my mother says that 295 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:50,080 Speaker 3: that's actually not what happened. That it was me that 296 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:53,360 Speaker 3: said isn't it cool that I belonged to the mystery. 297 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:58,480 Speaker 3: I just don't remember saying that. But I also don't 298 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:03,439 Speaker 3: leave that as out as a possibility, because again, I 299 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,320 Speaker 3: was trying to read what I needed to be in 300 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:09,119 Speaker 3: this situation, and I very clearly knew that I needed 301 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:12,879 Speaker 3: to be optimistic and positive and that this is a 302 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:14,479 Speaker 3: beautiful story. 303 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:15,920 Speaker 4: So that's where it was left. 304 00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:18,760 Speaker 3: And I truly I don't remember talking about it with 305 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:23,119 Speaker 3: my dad, none of my friends. I don't even remember 306 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,320 Speaker 3: thinking about it after that walk, Right. 307 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 2: You put that beautiful story away. 308 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 4: I put it away. Yeah, that lovely story away. 309 00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 2: So was that lovely story tucked away? Life in the 310 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:42,639 Speaker 2: Warner family continues in its usual fashion, school dinners, the 311 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:46,359 Speaker 2: planning of trips, but then tragedy strikes. 312 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:54,520 Speaker 3: In my senior year, spring break, we have a family 313 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 3: vacation to go to Mexico. My brother's meeting us from 314 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:01,560 Speaker 3: Colorado University of col Colorado. He's there and he's going 315 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 3: to fly to Cancun and meet us all there. 316 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 4: My dad. 317 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:09,280 Speaker 3: The night before we are to drive to the Milwaukee airport, 318 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,120 Speaker 3: which is about a two hour drive, he was at 319 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:14,679 Speaker 3: a retirement party for one of the nurses at the 320 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 3: hospital and he had. 321 00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:18,760 Speaker 4: To or was dressed up as Willie Nelson. 322 00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:21,280 Speaker 3: His two partners were also dressed up, and I think 323 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,960 Speaker 3: they sang some tunes, and of course there was drinking. 324 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 4: And. 325 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:29,919 Speaker 3: Somebody from the party actually asked if he would like 326 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:33,879 Speaker 3: a drive home because they noticed he'd been drinking more 327 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:38,160 Speaker 3: than usual. And they said to us that he grabbed 328 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:40,359 Speaker 3: the keys and said, I'm my own man. 329 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:43,879 Speaker 4: And I thought that was interesting. 330 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,919 Speaker 3: That was a choice that he made to take it 331 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 3: on and be responsible for his commitment to just being 332 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:55,280 Speaker 3: the man that he thought he was supposed to be. 333 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:58,320 Speaker 4: He got in the car and he drove home, which. 334 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:00,960 Speaker 3: Is probably a twenty minute drive, and we had already 335 00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:07,000 Speaker 3: left because he was late, and my mom in a frenzy. 336 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:10,560 Speaker 3: I remember gathering our bags in the house and it's 337 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 3: almost it's two am. You know, we're supposed to be 338 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 3: at the Milwaukee airport at four am. And he's not here. 339 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:18,439 Speaker 3: He's not here, he's not here. She scribbled off a 340 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:22,400 Speaker 3: note that said meet us at the airport. I'm pissed 341 00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:27,360 Speaker 3: and underline, underline, underline, and left it on the counter 342 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,240 Speaker 3: or on the bed or something. He got home about 343 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,640 Speaker 3: thirty minutes later and found that and threw a bag together. 344 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:42,720 Speaker 3: So he got on the highway and I think he 345 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,639 Speaker 3: was nearly to the Milwaukee airport. It was probably forty 346 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:54,640 Speaker 3: five minutes from there, and he got tired, and as 347 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:56,679 Speaker 3: my mother said he would do when he was tired, 348 00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:58,879 Speaker 3: he would put his hand through the sun roof and 349 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:02,840 Speaker 3: sort of get some fresh air on his hand. Happened 350 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,119 Speaker 3: to be that the sun was rising at that moment, 351 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:08,680 Speaker 3: because the car behind him had seen this. He waved 352 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,360 Speaker 3: at the rising sun and then swerved over and hit 353 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,119 Speaker 3: a mac truck head on and was killed. 354 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 4: We did not know. 355 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:24,720 Speaker 3: We got on the plane and received a little napkin 356 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:27,080 Speaker 3: on the plane that said call this number. 357 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:29,399 Speaker 4: It was this is the flight attendant had given it 358 00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:30,000 Speaker 4: to us, and. 359 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:32,720 Speaker 3: You know, we just thought it was some one of 360 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:35,160 Speaker 3: the cardiologists saying Dave will be late. 361 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:36,120 Speaker 4: He'll be on the next light. 362 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 3: So when we finally got to the Cancoon Airport and 363 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:42,120 Speaker 3: got through customs and my mom was able to call 364 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:47,080 Speaker 3: the number, this I do remember, maybe clearer than any 365 00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:52,080 Speaker 3: memory I have from childhood. She turned to me and 366 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:58,720 Speaker 3: her beautiful mouth, with her lipstick stained lips, said, Dad's dead. 367 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:06,200 Speaker 3: If this was the coroner's office from Fredonia, Wisconsin. And 368 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 3: you know, that was the end of chapter one in 369 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:14,200 Speaker 3: Kim's life. That moment, that something ended there, and. 370 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:16,600 Speaker 4: Of course. 371 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:22,520 Speaker 3: I didn't know how to feel. That my coping was denial, 372 00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:26,080 Speaker 3: and I denied it all the way home. We waited 373 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 3: for my brother to arrive, watched him fall to his 374 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:35,480 Speaker 3: knees and scream and felt all of their very open emotion, 375 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:38,879 Speaker 3: which made me feel smaller and smaller and smaller, because 376 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,960 Speaker 3: I didn't have space for my way, nor did I know. 377 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:44,840 Speaker 4: What my way was, but it wasn't their way. 378 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 3: So I went into denial and then also justification, and 379 00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 3: just decided, well, he's closer to me now because he's dead. 380 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,120 Speaker 4: I really didn't leave room for. 381 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:03,800 Speaker 3: Any pain or sadness, real pain or sadness. 382 00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,760 Speaker 5: I went through the motions, I went to therapy, I cried, 383 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 5: I wrote letters to my dad, I shared something during 384 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:17,920 Speaker 5: his memorial service, but I didn't really feel the deep, 385 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,160 Speaker 5: deep ache and chaos. 386 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,879 Speaker 4: It was too much. It was too much for me. 387 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:33,280 Speaker 2: Did you in the next period of time did you 388 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:39,359 Speaker 2: return to the question of whether he was your biological father? 389 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,480 Speaker 2: Or did that lovely story stay buried for that period 390 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:43,200 Speaker 2: of time. 391 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 4: Gone. 392 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:51,840 Speaker 3: Totally gone, not even if there was any bit of 393 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,680 Speaker 3: it that was still lingering in my psyche even before 394 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:55,399 Speaker 3: his death. 395 00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:58,120 Speaker 4: His death obliterated it. 396 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,400 Speaker 3: I can remember walking through all the different stages of 397 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:08,359 Speaker 3: losing him and then grieving him when I went to college, 398 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,720 Speaker 3: and it was my alliance was one hundred percent to him, 399 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 3: and in fact my confirmation of our similarities and how 400 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,520 Speaker 3: I was going to live out his destiny and you 401 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:28,160 Speaker 3: take his DNA where his abbreviated life couldn't take it. 402 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 3: I was all on my shoulders and that was a 403 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,520 Speaker 3: way for me to stay close to him. 404 00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:39,800 Speaker 2: So those years in college, how would you characterize the schism? 405 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:48,440 Speaker 3: Well, fortunately I did early on connect with my first love, 406 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:54,080 Speaker 3: my first lover, i should say, and we were together 407 00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 3: for three years. 408 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,359 Speaker 4: And he also lost to father. So a lot of 409 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,080 Speaker 4: our bond was around, and. 410 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:05,040 Speaker 3: You know, writing letters to our fathers and making them 411 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:10,080 Speaker 3: larger than life and speaking with them and burying the letters, 412 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 3: and the Colorado Rockies, and so there was a way. 413 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 4: That this gives them got bigger. 414 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:25,359 Speaker 3: The sense of my truth and my ability to feel 415 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 3: what was going on inside, I think would come forward 416 00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:33,080 Speaker 3: every once in a while through the tumultuous love that 417 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,920 Speaker 3: I'm talking about. With this man named Ali. He was violent, 418 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,639 Speaker 3: he was aggressive, he was passionate, he was everything that 419 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,760 Speaker 3: I wasn't and so I would feel bubbles of my 420 00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:49,679 Speaker 3: own truth coming forward, just because it had. 421 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 4: To in that kind of relationship. 422 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,359 Speaker 3: But ultimately it was like little firecrackers, you know, just 423 00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:58,200 Speaker 3: the little ones that you put out on the pavement, 424 00:26:58,280 --> 00:26:59,360 Speaker 3: not the big ones. 425 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:00,919 Speaker 4: Just the little ones been around it circles. 426 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:03,080 Speaker 3: It was like I would have these little berths of oh, 427 00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,040 Speaker 3: this is how I feel, and then water would get 428 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:06,800 Speaker 3: poured on top of it and it would go far 429 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,600 Speaker 3: far away. The schism and the sense of who I was. 430 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:12,119 Speaker 4: It got buried. 431 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 3: Also because I declared my major the first month I 432 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:17,159 Speaker 3: was there, and I was going to be a doctor. 433 00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,119 Speaker 3: My job was to live my dad's life. I was 434 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:22,760 Speaker 3: at a wonderful liberal arts school that had all these 435 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:28,440 Speaker 3: incredible creative classes and professors. I didn't touch those outside 436 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:33,240 Speaker 3: of the requisites. You know, I had this deeply creative 437 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,679 Speaker 3: life inside, but I didn't allow that to come to 438 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,640 Speaker 3: the surface because I was supposed to make my dad 439 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,000 Speaker 3: happy in the afterlife. 440 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:44,399 Speaker 4: He did not want that for me. 441 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,920 Speaker 3: This was not something I ever felt the pressure from 442 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 3: the outside. This was something I created myself. 443 00:27:54,040 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 2: We'll be right back when Kimberly is twenty one she's 444 00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:22,919 Speaker 2: just graduated from college when she's diagnosed with something called 445 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:27,960 Speaker 2: autoimmune Graves disease, an affliction which in many ways results 446 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 2: from being in a near constant, hypervigilant stress state. 447 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 3: It is one hundred percent like being on twelve cups 448 00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,360 Speaker 3: of coffee. I didn't drink coffee to this day, I 449 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:44,360 Speaker 3: can't even drink green tea. But my nervous system was 450 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:51,160 Speaker 3: so wired into the sympathetic state that my brain at 451 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:52,960 Speaker 3: that point was feeling like something. 452 00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 4: Is always wrong. 453 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:58,280 Speaker 3: I wouldn't cognizantly say something is wrong, but my nervous 454 00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:01,800 Speaker 3: system was on a red al alert all the time. 455 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:06,480 Speaker 3: And I'm sure you know I read books. When I 456 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,360 Speaker 3: first was diagnosed with Graves disease, of course. 457 00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:10,120 Speaker 4: I wanted to fix it. 458 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,640 Speaker 3: That was my solution, and their solution in the nineties 459 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,480 Speaker 3: is to cut the thyroid gland out and medicate for 460 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:21,280 Speaker 3: the rest of your life. I was losing weight rapidly 461 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:25,520 Speaker 3: and eating just gobs of calories every day, and it 462 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:33,040 Speaker 3: just was not handshaking, armpit sweating, just not sleeping, insomnia. 463 00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:38,200 Speaker 3: It's almost as if I was lifting off senator. So 464 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,480 Speaker 3: the solution was to cut it out, but I did 465 00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:44,480 Speaker 3: not want that, and I attacked my mom and dad's 466 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:51,120 Speaker 3: library of natural health cookbooks and gosh, herbal books and 467 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:57,280 Speaker 3: psychotherapy everything on their self help shelves, and I took 468 00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:01,240 Speaker 3: some dietary measures, but I also read some where I'm 469 00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,160 Speaker 3: not sure if it's medically valid, but I also read 470 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,040 Speaker 3: somewhere it's probably Louise Hay actually, I want to say, 471 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,320 Speaker 3: because she would take diseases and then connect to them 472 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,400 Speaker 3: with the psychological attribute or that what potentially was. 473 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:18,200 Speaker 4: The cause cause of that? And she said it was grief. 474 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:20,720 Speaker 4: And at the time, all. 475 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,040 Speaker 3: Of this was the bible to me because it was 476 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:24,280 Speaker 3: a form of control. 477 00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:27,840 Speaker 4: Oh it's grief, Okay, well, then I better go do 478 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:28,720 Speaker 4: more grief work. 479 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:34,800 Speaker 3: What wasn't being talked about was trauma, PTSD, nervous system 480 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:37,960 Speaker 3: that's stuck in sympathetic. 481 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:39,160 Speaker 4: Mode, and none of that was being talked about. 482 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:40,760 Speaker 3: It was more about how do we control this and 483 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:46,840 Speaker 3: how do we eliminate the cause. So, yes, Graves disease 484 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:54,200 Speaker 3: is something that I managed, but erratically managed, and then 485 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:58,520 Speaker 3: it definitely hit its worst state when I was twenty 486 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 3: six and my cortisol levels dropped to zero and I 487 00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:04,200 Speaker 3: was unable to stand up. 488 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,440 Speaker 4: It was a nightmare. 489 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 3: Fortunately, I was in Portland at the time and I 490 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,480 Speaker 3: had a really good physician who was also trained in 491 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:17,400 Speaker 3: naturopathic medicine. He gave me steroids because he said, you 492 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,960 Speaker 3: have no cortisol in your body, which was a result 493 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:25,400 Speaker 3: of the thyroid just running, running, running, running, running, And 494 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 3: within two days of being on steroids, I felt like 495 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:32,400 Speaker 3: a normal person again. My nervous system had burned me out. 496 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:35,520 Speaker 3: And some would say, oh, yeah, the grief that caused that, 497 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:40,200 Speaker 3: but I think this pattern was set way away earlier, 498 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 3: the hypervigilance and the anxiety. When I moved to Portland, 499 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:50,360 Speaker 3: Oregon in two thousand and one to start the naturopathic 500 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:54,960 Speaker 3: medical program, I just took a Craigslist job. It was 501 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:58,960 Speaker 3: at a documentary film company, and I knew nothing about film. 502 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:04,080 Speaker 3: But they handed me a box of phs and CDs 503 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:08,040 Speaker 3: and said, watch all of these and log them. And 504 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:11,360 Speaker 3: what they were creating was a twentieth anniversary video for 505 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:15,320 Speaker 3: the Dougie Center. The Dougie Center is a wonderful international 506 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:21,800 Speaker 3: organization that's based in Portland for breathing families, and I 507 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:26,440 Speaker 3: would spend eight hours a day watching children talk about 508 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:31,880 Speaker 3: their father's dying of suicide and murder and cancer and 509 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:35,680 Speaker 3: watching mothers deal with it, and the woman who founded 510 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 3: the Dougie Center would discuss sort of the background of grief, 511 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:44,800 Speaker 3: not necessarily the stages, but the importance of being able 512 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:49,120 Speaker 3: to vocalize and find community through grieving. I was watching 513 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:54,680 Speaker 3: one of her talks and she was discussing with a 514 00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:58,440 Speaker 3: group of teachers what to watch for, and she said, 515 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:00,480 Speaker 3: I'm not too worried about the kids that are acting 516 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 3: out after a parent or a close loved one dies. 517 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:08,200 Speaker 3: And I'm not too worried about the ones that sort 518 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,280 Speaker 3: of withdraw because we can identify that they're suffering. 519 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,440 Speaker 4: There's something happening. She said. The ones I worry. 520 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:19,360 Speaker 3: About the most are the perfectionists, the ones that actually 521 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:24,400 Speaker 3: become overachievers and they do everything right and nobody notices 522 00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:27,760 Speaker 3: them because they are continuing to excel in everything that 523 00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:28,160 Speaker 3: they do. 524 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 4: Of course, if this were played. 525 00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 3: In a movie, this is when everything would slow down. 526 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:36,760 Speaker 3: As I'm watching this and hearing over and over again 527 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:41,760 Speaker 3: her talk about me, and she said, these are the 528 00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:46,520 Speaker 3: people that usually five ten years later end up their 529 00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:47,440 Speaker 3: body's breakdown. 530 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:50,440 Speaker 4: And that was the. 531 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,920 Speaker 3: Summer when my thyroid went bsserk, and that was the 532 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:58,200 Speaker 3: summer that I found that doctor that saved my life, because, 533 00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,480 Speaker 3: like I said, at that point, I was I so lightheaded. 534 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:04,800 Speaker 3: Every time I would stand up, my heart would shoot 535 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 3: up to one hundred and fifty beats per minute, and 536 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:12,560 Speaker 3: it was a scary time. But I knew that I 537 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:16,120 Speaker 3: was going to natropathic school in the fall and everything 538 00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 3: was going to work itself out. Because that's what I 539 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,640 Speaker 3: still was doing. I would just go through the motions. 540 00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 3: I did sign up to train with the Dougie Center. 541 00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,680 Speaker 3: I wanted to be a facilitator. I was still skirting 542 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,880 Speaker 3: around the truth of me. I was doing everything on 543 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,640 Speaker 3: the outside that looked like, oh, kid's really dealing well 544 00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:41,480 Speaker 3: with life and grief and everything, but I was still 545 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,440 Speaker 3: doing a really good job at burying it. So I 546 00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:50,400 Speaker 3: started naturopathic school and a month later, nine to eleven happened, 547 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 3: and I used that as an excuse to drop out 548 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:59,840 Speaker 3: because I didn't want to be there. And I still 549 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:04,360 Speaker 3: this day don't really that doesn't sound like me, you know, 550 00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:07,319 Speaker 3: like I'm still a little puzzled as to how I 551 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:11,720 Speaker 3: felt so convinced after all these years of training and applications. 552 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 4: I just wow, Okay, I dropped out, and. 553 00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:20,120 Speaker 3: I'm proud of myself when I think about that thing. 554 00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:22,279 Speaker 3: Good for you, because that probably was one of the 555 00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 3: first things I ever did that might have been a 556 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:29,520 Speaker 3: little bit of my own gut telling me what I wanted. 557 00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes a strange kind of sense. And also 558 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:37,320 Speaker 2: I think that when there's a tragedy on a mass 559 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,040 Speaker 2: scale like nine to eleven was, there's a way in 560 00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:46,120 Speaker 2: which if there's been, you know, a tragedy in an 561 00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:50,440 Speaker 2: individual life or suddenly and there's this collective grief, this 562 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:54,400 Speaker 2: national global grief, there's a way that it can ship 563 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,759 Speaker 2: away at and create kind of a ripple effect with 564 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:06,520 Speaker 2: individual grief. After Kimberly drops out of her program, she 565 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,720 Speaker 2: ends up dabbling in the film industry again. She isn't 566 00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 2: certain that this is the right path for her, but 567 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,440 Speaker 2: an editing job comes along and she takes it. During 568 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:19,439 Speaker 2: this time, she begins to develop another dangerous compulsion born 569 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,759 Speaker 2: from her perfectionism. She develops an eating disorder and disappears 570 00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 2: into boleimic behavior, purging toward an impossible goal, as she 571 00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:30,200 Speaker 2: had done in the past with her skin picking. 572 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:32,600 Speaker 4: I wanted to be empty. 573 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,400 Speaker 3: There is a stillness that happened after I would purge, 574 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,400 Speaker 3: where I would look in the mirror and I would 575 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,279 Speaker 3: feel myself again. I would feel the pain and I 576 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:42,920 Speaker 3: would feel. 577 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:47,560 Speaker 4: Like, oh, what did you do? But I would feel. 578 00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:51,279 Speaker 3: Like I was looking at myself and in a weird way, 579 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:57,200 Speaker 3: it connected me with that person. It quieted things down. 580 00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 3: So the behavior would come and go. It was usually 581 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,399 Speaker 3: around my period, and then sometimes it would be gone 582 00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:07,000 Speaker 3: for months and then it would rear its head again. 583 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,000 Speaker 3: But it definitely had a sense of like, wow, I 584 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,000 Speaker 3: thought this was over, and then here it is again. 585 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,760 Speaker 3: So that was a period of two and a half 586 00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 3: three years where I was flirting with the bulimia, working 587 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:24,960 Speaker 3: in the industry a little bit, and also reapplying. 588 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,080 Speaker 4: To go back to a naturopathic school because I didn't 589 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:29,640 Speaker 4: know what the hell am I doing. That's also when 590 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:34,959 Speaker 4: I started modeling, just locally for fashion. 591 00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:38,839 Speaker 3: Shows and catalogs and things like that. But it ended 592 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,440 Speaker 3: up being a good source of income and I actually 593 00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 3: enjoyed it. I enjoyed finding that part of myself that 594 00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:52,400 Speaker 3: wasn't ashamed and it felt playful and joyful. It was 595 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:55,960 Speaker 3: more of like the athletic Portland's full of athletic catalogs 596 00:37:55,960 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 3: and stuff. So it was playful, joyful, goofy. Not nobody 597 00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:05,200 Speaker 3: was talking about herbs or pills or supplements or medicines. 598 00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:11,040 Speaker 3: It was just frivolous, and I found some freedom in 599 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:15,640 Speaker 3: that s as I took my life so seriously, so 600 00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:20,640 Speaker 3: there was actually some joy. Strangely enough, that came the 601 00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:25,359 Speaker 3: authentic joy that came from just doing something that I 602 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:26,799 Speaker 3: never would have allowed. 603 00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:28,840 Speaker 4: Myself to do six years earlier. 604 00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:33,759 Speaker 3: So between thirty and forty, I drop out again. I 605 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,840 Speaker 3: go to this naturopathic school, transfer to the Chinese medicine 606 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:38,640 Speaker 3: school and do two and. 607 00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:39,520 Speaker 4: A half years. 608 00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:43,440 Speaker 3: There, and then drop out again, and then fall in 609 00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:44,960 Speaker 3: love with my current husband. 610 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:49,120 Speaker 4: We developed a deep bond together. 611 00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:54,160 Speaker 3: I navigate his intellectually disabled daughter, who was eleven at 612 00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:54,840 Speaker 3: the time when. 613 00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:56,880 Speaker 4: We meet, and we sort. 614 00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:02,319 Speaker 3: Of navigate that chaos and also so grow into a 615 00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:07,200 Speaker 3: pretty thriving modeling career and mostly as we joke, kind 616 00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:11,000 Speaker 3: of like midwestern old lady catalogs. 617 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:14,640 Speaker 4: But boy, we had fun and just travel. 618 00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:19,200 Speaker 3: The world and met some wonderful human beings and enjoyed 619 00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:24,040 Speaker 3: that part of being a woman and celebrating my body 620 00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:30,640 Speaker 3: in a way i'd never had before and having friendships. 621 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:34,880 Speaker 4: That felt deep and rich. So that was all happening 622 00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:36,319 Speaker 4: for those ten years. 623 00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:42,040 Speaker 2: Do you think that you're you know, thriving modeling career? 624 00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:46,320 Speaker 2: I mean during that period of time, were you dialed 625 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,480 Speaker 2: way back in terms of you know, self harming behaviors 626 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:52,320 Speaker 2: or those kinds of behaviors. Did that Did that change 627 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,239 Speaker 2: during that time? And if it did, what would you 628 00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:56,040 Speaker 2: attribute that to? 629 00:39:56,760 --> 00:40:01,520 Speaker 3: Yes, all of it went away. It literally went away. 630 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:06,640 Speaker 3: I still carried a lot of anxiety, but I attribute 631 00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:10,880 Speaker 3: it partially to finally exiting the pressure I was putting 632 00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:14,279 Speaker 3: on myself to become a physician, and even more so 633 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:19,040 Speaker 3: to the partner who is now my husband, because he 634 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:23,080 Speaker 3: really rejected the fix it world. In fact, I did 635 00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:24,920 Speaker 3: it with his daughter when I first met her. Oh 636 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:26,759 Speaker 3: she's got an election disabilities. Let's put it on a 637 00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:30,000 Speaker 3: gluten free diet. What's her you know, Let's take her 638 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:32,200 Speaker 3: to get reikie, Let's do all these things. 639 00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:33,560 Speaker 4: Let's fix her, fix her, fix her. 640 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,360 Speaker 3: And he was like, I want to love my daughter 641 00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:40,960 Speaker 3: the way she is. And I was really attracted to 642 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,960 Speaker 3: that part of him. I always described him as like 643 00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:49,920 Speaker 3: this warrior in the forest, but his sword was down 644 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:54,400 Speaker 3: and he was dented, you know, his gear was dented 645 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,239 Speaker 3: and bruised and dirty, and he was not running, but 646 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,799 Speaker 3: he was looking at the trees and noticing the light 647 00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:04,440 Speaker 3: pouring through the trees, and there was something that was 648 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:09,960 Speaker 3: I was really drawn to this man who was very 649 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:16,080 Speaker 3: surrendered to a pretty hard story and not happy a 650 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:18,920 Speaker 3: lot of the time about it, either really in pain 651 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:22,560 Speaker 3: about it, but not trying to make it anything else either. 652 00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:26,080 Speaker 4: So I wasn't doing it myself yet, but I was. 653 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:29,399 Speaker 3: In his presence and it was teaching me, little bit 654 00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:30,400 Speaker 3: by little bit. 655 00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:31,560 Speaker 4: How to be that way. 656 00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:35,359 Speaker 3: I also picked up photography, absolutely fell in love with 657 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,680 Speaker 3: being on the other side of the camera and finding 658 00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:42,400 Speaker 3: my creative life, finding that part that was the ballerina 659 00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:46,520 Speaker 3: who wanted an outlet and needed to express myself. I 660 00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,800 Speaker 3: began in those ten years to express myself. The modeling 661 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:53,480 Speaker 3: was like one way, but that wasn't the real joy 662 00:41:54,160 --> 00:42:00,040 Speaker 3: that was coming from filmmaking and photography and discovering a 663 00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:04,040 Speaker 3: language that made sense to me and often was a 664 00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:08,760 Speaker 3: preverbal language that was more about composition and light and story, 665 00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:13,640 Speaker 3: the story that came with the image. So I think 666 00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,640 Speaker 3: I was finding something inside of me, finally that knew 667 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,000 Speaker 3: how to express herself. 668 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:25,960 Speaker 2: Kimberly's dented Warrior is named Dave. In twenty twelve, she 669 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:29,719 Speaker 2: and Dave take up cycling together. They spend their weekends 670 00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:33,200 Speaker 2: biking a twenty six mile loop around Portland, stopping to 671 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:36,719 Speaker 2: lie in the grass and enjoy each other's company. When 672 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:39,319 Speaker 2: winter comes, it's too cold to ride, so they take 673 00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:42,680 Speaker 2: a break from their weekend ritual. In fact, Kimberly has 674 00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:46,239 Speaker 2: another winter time ritual ever since her dad passed. She 675 00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:50,279 Speaker 2: and her mom spend a week together in Mexico. 676 00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:54,960 Speaker 3: So February of twenty fourteen, we were in Mexico taking 677 00:42:55,000 --> 00:43:00,400 Speaker 3: our morning long walk and she starts RETI telling the 678 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:03,920 Speaker 3: story which we've heard before, of this wonderful one night 679 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:08,640 Speaker 3: stand she had in Toronto at the Maripos and Music 680 00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:14,080 Speaker 3: Festival with a man named Charlie. And of course this 681 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:17,359 Speaker 3: is post her telling the story around the lake. When 682 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:19,600 Speaker 3: there's a chance that your dad isn't your dad, this 683 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:22,400 Speaker 3: was tied, you know, this story that she would tell 684 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,439 Speaker 3: about Charlie and Toronto was tied to that. So if 685 00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:28,000 Speaker 3: there ever was a father that wasn't your father, this 686 00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:32,440 Speaker 3: would be the man. And I ended up just listening 687 00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,920 Speaker 3: to her tell the story, but she brought out so 688 00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:36,000 Speaker 3: many more details. 689 00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:38,560 Speaker 4: On this walk. She remembered his last name. 690 00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,680 Speaker 3: She remembered that he had a television show in Wisconsin 691 00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,080 Speaker 3: and it was called Long Ago Is All Around? 692 00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:49,240 Speaker 4: And I was like, what an interesting guy I remember. 693 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:51,040 Speaker 4: On the flight. 694 00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:56,239 Speaker 3: Home, I had a layover in Denver and I googled 695 00:43:56,239 --> 00:44:00,759 Speaker 3: his name finally the full name. Was never able to 696 00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:04,360 Speaker 3: google the full name before, and up pops. 697 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:04,960 Speaker 4: One of his albums. 698 00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:08,279 Speaker 3: He was also a musician and a poet, and the 699 00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:12,719 Speaker 3: album picture took my breath away because it was the 700 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:13,680 Speaker 3: male version of. 701 00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:16,920 Speaker 4: Me, and I didn't say anything. 702 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,720 Speaker 3: I flew home the last leg, pulled up the photo 703 00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:22,760 Speaker 3: as soon as Dave picked me up at the airport, 704 00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:24,960 Speaker 3: and I didn't without any context. I showed it to 705 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:26,600 Speaker 3: him and I said, who does this look like? And 706 00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:28,640 Speaker 3: he said, I don't know, but it could be your dad. 707 00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:34,520 Speaker 4: And something opened up in me of like, hm, I 708 00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:36,800 Speaker 4: need to investigate this more. I have more information. 709 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:42,840 Speaker 3: And so fast forward to Mother's Day of that year. 710 00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:46,640 Speaker 6: I visit my mom for Mother's Day and on the 711 00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,440 Speaker 6: way home again, I guess I do a lot of 712 00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:53,239 Speaker 6: things in the airport finding out the producers of that album, 713 00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:56,600 Speaker 6: and it was the University of Wisconsin, and so I 714 00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:58,400 Speaker 6: called the University of Wisconsin. 715 00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:00,160 Speaker 3: Mibray from the airport, and I said, can you find 716 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,280 Speaker 3: I had any more information about this man named Charles Brower? 717 00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:06,120 Speaker 3: And she said, oh, it's you know, eight o'clock at night. 718 00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:07,719 Speaker 3: I have nothing else to do. Let me get on it. 719 00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:11,279 Speaker 3: I received an email that Monday morning that had his 720 00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:16,960 Speaker 3: obituary in it. Charles Brower's obituary. He died in a 721 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:21,200 Speaker 3: sailing accident in nineteen eighty five when he was thirty 722 00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:25,239 Speaker 3: six years old, so I was ten years old, and 723 00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:26,320 Speaker 3: he was never found. 724 00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:30,799 Speaker 4: His body was never found. He started to go through 725 00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:33,200 Speaker 4: the roof that week. 726 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:38,919 Speaker 3: Breathlessly, almost impulsively, trying to get as much information when 727 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:42,440 Speaker 3: I could about this person. 728 00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:59,280 Speaker 2: We'll be back in a moment with more family secrets. 729 00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:04,560 Speaker 2: Remember Dave and Kim's bike rides. Well, the weather is 730 00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:08,000 Speaker 2: nice again, it's springtime in Portland and they're on their 731 00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:11,000 Speaker 2: first ride of the season. It's been a whirlwind of 732 00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:14,160 Speaker 2: a week for Kim making all these discoveries about her 733 00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:17,640 Speaker 2: biological father, so she's happy to detach for a bit 734 00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:21,440 Speaker 2: and get outside. But things don't go exactly as planned. 735 00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:28,240 Speaker 3: We were going down the main straightaway before we pulled 736 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,600 Speaker 3: over to get onto the waterfront path, and a young 737 00:46:31,640 --> 00:46:36,440 Speaker 3: woman opened her car door in the bike lane and 738 00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:40,440 Speaker 3: I flew over the door and landed in the street 739 00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:45,160 Speaker 3: and cracked my pelvis and hit my head and had 740 00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:50,120 Speaker 3: a concussion. And that ends chapter two. If the other 741 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,680 Speaker 3: one was my dad said this one ended chapter two 742 00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:57,720 Speaker 3: because everything changed after that point. I was on deadress, 743 00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,840 Speaker 3: so I had a lot of time to digest this 744 00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:06,160 Speaker 3: and think about it. I corresponded with the librarian a 745 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:06,879 Speaker 3: little bit more. 746 00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,600 Speaker 4: She sent me a few of his TV shows that 747 00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:10,480 Speaker 4: I watched. 748 00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:17,800 Speaker 3: This suspicion grew inside of me, and as the suspicion grew, 749 00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:21,720 Speaker 3: I started to feel like what it was the hyperthyroid 750 00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:25,480 Speaker 3: symptoms before, like I started to feel this deep vibration 751 00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:29,680 Speaker 3: that wouldn't settle, even as I was on twenty four 752 00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:33,919 Speaker 3: hour by address. It wasn't until August of that year 753 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:36,760 Speaker 3: and I'm still at home in Portland and Davis making 754 00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:40,680 Speaker 3: me smoothies and scrambled eggs every day that I took 755 00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:41,720 Speaker 3: the DNA test. 756 00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:43,680 Speaker 4: My brother got it for. 757 00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:47,640 Speaker 3: Me, but I also remember him handing it to me, going, yeah, 758 00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:51,719 Speaker 3: you know, like really, what are the chances? And so 759 00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,840 Speaker 3: that's weird to say, because on the one hand, my 760 00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:58,120 Speaker 3: body's vibrating and on the other hand, my brain is 761 00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:05,920 Speaker 3: going no way, not chance. And the DNA test came back. 762 00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:09,200 Speaker 3: It was like three weeks and it came back as 763 00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:10,919 Speaker 3: my brother was my half brother. 764 00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:17,040 Speaker 6: And that was a shock for everyone. 765 00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:20,440 Speaker 4: People have asked me, was I a shock for your mom? 766 00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:26,640 Speaker 3: Yes, it was a shock for everyone. I went upstairs 767 00:48:26,719 --> 00:48:29,839 Speaker 3: actually when I first got the email, and I just 768 00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:33,560 Speaker 3: brought my phone up with me, and I straddled Dave 769 00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:35,640 Speaker 3: because he was still sleeping, and I just. 770 00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:37,960 Speaker 4: Shoved at the phone in his face and it. 771 00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:41,920 Speaker 3: Said half brother, Eric Warner, half brother. And I think 772 00:48:43,160 --> 00:48:47,640 Speaker 3: what I do when I feel so unmoored and so ungrounded, 773 00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:52,680 Speaker 3: as I again try to find other people's responses and 774 00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:56,600 Speaker 3: find how am I supposed to respond here, you know, 775 00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:02,040 Speaker 3: And also fortunately he's porous and bigger boned, and I 776 00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:05,480 Speaker 3: just like my body needed something to ground me. So 777 00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:08,160 Speaker 3: I just wrapped myself around him and the weight of 778 00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:11,640 Speaker 3: his response because his response wasn't gonna be like whoa, 779 00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:16,800 Speaker 3: holy shit, wow, you know, his response was huh, okay, 780 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:22,640 Speaker 3: you know, like, let's digest this. So I needed him 781 00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:29,400 Speaker 3: desperately to ground this experience for me. That's when the 782 00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:33,840 Speaker 3: dizziness started. The dizziness did not come directly after the 783 00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:37,359 Speaker 3: bicycle accident, unfortunately, because a lot of the doctors. When 784 00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:40,520 Speaker 3: it did come, which started in March of the next year, 785 00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:45,000 Speaker 3: a lot of doctors were like, well, concussion syndrome, you know, 786 00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:48,520 Speaker 3: delayed concussion syndrome, something with your neck that happened. Everyone 787 00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:52,600 Speaker 3: was pointing to the accident because there was nothing else 788 00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:54,640 Speaker 3: for them to point at. 789 00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:56,000 Speaker 4: I would bring up. 790 00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:59,120 Speaker 3: This, you know, well I also got the DNA test, 791 00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:01,680 Speaker 3: and you know, just would just scratch his head and 792 00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:07,000 Speaker 3: dismiss it. So unfortunately that delayed the diagnosis for me 793 00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:10,640 Speaker 3: big time. But the dizzyness started intermittently. I remember walking 794 00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:13,920 Speaker 3: on the sidewalk and it was like dropping out underneath me, 795 00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:18,520 Speaker 3: and then that grew from the floor of bouncing under 796 00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:22,919 Speaker 3: my feet occasionally to half a day, and then about 797 00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:27,680 Speaker 3: a month later it was all day, every day, NonStop. 798 00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:28,360 Speaker 4: Lack of sleep. 799 00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:33,880 Speaker 3: I was starting to feel out of body. This was 800 00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:39,440 Speaker 3: a scary, terrifying out of body experience, where it was 801 00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:44,040 Speaker 3: as if my body was literally running its own course, 802 00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:47,520 Speaker 3: completely dysregulated. I was terrified to go to bed at 803 00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:49,239 Speaker 3: night because I would just lay there and feel the 804 00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:53,040 Speaker 3: feelings of the bed bouncing up and down, and my 805 00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:56,560 Speaker 3: sympathetic nervous system was contracting so much that I got 806 00:50:56,640 --> 00:50:58,640 Speaker 3: up to go to the bathroom twelve times. 807 00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:01,040 Speaker 4: Over and over and over again. 808 00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:04,719 Speaker 3: It was just hell. It was just absolute hell, and 809 00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:08,920 Speaker 3: I was only getting worse. I was trying to find 810 00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:12,840 Speaker 3: doctors that would help me. They kept pointing towards concussion 811 00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:16,399 Speaker 3: syndrome or something in my neck. No one was talking 812 00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:19,640 Speaker 3: about panic. No one was talking about anxiety. No one 813 00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:24,000 Speaker 3: was talking about, you know, any sort of vestibular migraine 814 00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:28,360 Speaker 3: disorder that can come from a severe panic disorder. 815 00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:31,080 Speaker 4: So I did. 816 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:32,759 Speaker 3: The best I could with it, but then I ended 817 00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:35,440 Speaker 3: up having to get on a plane and live with 818 00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:38,440 Speaker 3: my mom for seven months because I was a mess. 819 00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:42,320 Speaker 3: I couldn't even walk across the street without someone holding 820 00:51:42,360 --> 00:51:44,640 Speaker 3: my hand, and halfway across the street, I'd say, let's 821 00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:45,040 Speaker 3: turn around. 822 00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:46,120 Speaker 4: I got to go back inside. 823 00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:48,279 Speaker 3: You know, someone would knock on the door and I 824 00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:50,800 Speaker 3: would It was as if getting shot. 825 00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:51,120 Speaker 4: In the chest. 826 00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:56,000 Speaker 3: It was frightened all the time, and in hindsight. And 827 00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:58,360 Speaker 3: I've said this many times. I should have been sedated 828 00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:02,240 Speaker 3: because my nervous system couldn't reset itself. 829 00:52:05,960 --> 00:52:08,759 Speaker 2: There's one silver lining to Kimberly living with her mother 830 00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:13,040 Speaker 2: for all those months. In all that togetherness, a moment 831 00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:17,239 Speaker 2: finally arrives in which her mother is not managing Kimberly's 832 00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:20,880 Speaker 2: reactions and telling her that it's lovely and wonderful to 833 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:25,360 Speaker 2: be part of a mystery. Instead, her mother actually apologizes 834 00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:26,839 Speaker 2: to her. 835 00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:32,799 Speaker 3: My mom doesn't cry a lot, but when she does, 836 00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:37,719 Speaker 3: it gets my attention, and her jaw starts to tremble, 837 00:52:39,160 --> 00:52:44,160 Speaker 3: and her beautiful, glassy eyes get even glassier. And she 838 00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:47,160 Speaker 3: was about six inches from my face, and she grabbed 839 00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:50,480 Speaker 3: my arms and she looked in my eyes and she said, 840 00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:51,760 Speaker 3: I'm so sorry. 841 00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:53,879 Speaker 4: I'm so sorry. 842 00:52:53,560 --> 00:53:00,000 Speaker 3: I didn't protect you, protect me, meaning tell you the truth. 843 00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:04,120 Speaker 3: Not that she even knew, because I truly believed that 844 00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:06,560 Speaker 3: she didn't know. But what they didn't do was take 845 00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:10,279 Speaker 3: that next step to find out the truth. So she 846 00:53:10,760 --> 00:53:15,879 Speaker 3: was more concerned about keeping things together than finding out 847 00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:22,279 Speaker 3: the truth and potentially having everything fall apart. So wow, 848 00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:25,600 Speaker 3: I took that in. I really took that in. Danny 849 00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:30,280 Speaker 3: it was healing and at such an overused word these days, 850 00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:34,960 Speaker 3: but it felt like a calm bath to me to 851 00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:38,480 Speaker 3: hear her and feel her and see her eyes looking 852 00:53:38,520 --> 00:53:42,400 Speaker 3: in my eyes and feel I felt her fragility. I felt, 853 00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:45,040 Speaker 3: Oh my god, you were doing the best you could. 854 00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:48,120 Speaker 3: You were truly doing and you wanted all you ever 855 00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:51,000 Speaker 3: wanted was to protect me. All you ever wanted was 856 00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:56,239 Speaker 3: to protect me under a really, really, really challenging situation. 857 00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:06,160 Speaker 3: And of course, in the magical thinking world, I would 858 00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:08,560 Speaker 3: hope that that moment would be the moment where the 859 00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:09,720 Speaker 3: dizziness would go away. 860 00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:11,160 Speaker 4: Oh I's on my feet again. 861 00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:16,399 Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be nice if everything was that neat and. 862 00:54:16,360 --> 00:54:17,920 Speaker 4: Tidy, wouldn't it? 863 00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:22,040 Speaker 3: I had a lot of those though I'm like, Oh, 864 00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:24,480 Speaker 3: this is it, here's the moment, this is it. 865 00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:27,920 Speaker 4: I'm better. But no, that didn't happen. 866 00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:32,799 Speaker 3: But it did deeply connect me to her story as 867 00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:37,080 Speaker 3: a young woman trying to figure things out, the chaos, 868 00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:43,440 Speaker 3: the insecurity, and it helped me feel compassion for her 869 00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:46,239 Speaker 3: and also for myself through all of that. 870 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:47,840 Speaker 4: It just softened everything. 871 00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:53,880 Speaker 2: When did you actually receive the actual diagnosis, the actual syndrome, 872 00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:56,240 Speaker 2: reason that this was happening. 873 00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:02,120 Speaker 3: Years later, years and years and years. 874 00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:04,360 Speaker 4: Well, it happened in the pandemic. 875 00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:06,839 Speaker 3: It was twenty twenty because I was able to find 876 00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:10,640 Speaker 3: a neurologist who specialize on this in Texas and he 877 00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:13,440 Speaker 3: was doing telemed so I didn't have to fly to 878 00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:16,959 Speaker 3: Texas to see him. And he heard, you know, listen 879 00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:19,840 Speaker 3: to me for thirty minutes and said, you have mallet 880 00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,520 Speaker 3: deparkment syndrome. And it was a spontaneous onset, and spontaneous 881 00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:27,000 Speaker 3: onset happens typically when someone goes into a deep state 882 00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:31,080 Speaker 3: of panic and the neurotransmitters just get really jumbled up. 883 00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:35,040 Speaker 4: So this was years. I found lots of different. 884 00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:38,200 Speaker 3: Ways to cope with this, but it was tormenting me 885 00:55:38,560 --> 00:55:42,239 Speaker 3: for six years total. I'm on eight years now and 886 00:55:42,239 --> 00:55:46,799 Speaker 3: now I'm I have medication that's helping tremendously. But I've 887 00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:54,560 Speaker 3: also found psychologically a way deeper relationship with the chaos 888 00:55:54,600 --> 00:55:57,960 Speaker 3: within myself and allowing it and being compassion with it 889 00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:01,160 Speaker 3: and loving it that it basically tells my brain I'm 890 00:56:01,160 --> 00:56:04,200 Speaker 3: not in danger anymore. You know, when I stopped trying 891 00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:08,080 Speaker 3: to fix myself, my brain said, oh, you're not in danger. 892 00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:16,000 Speaker 2: So you know that Charlie has died, but you do 893 00:56:16,080 --> 00:56:20,799 Speaker 2: at a certain point contact his brother, your uncle, and 894 00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:25,160 Speaker 2: begin to learn something about his family, and in fact seem, 895 00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:28,640 Speaker 2: you know, to be embraced by his brother and his 896 00:56:28,719 --> 00:56:29,400 Speaker 2: whole family. 897 00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:35,959 Speaker 3: That happened very shortly after I took the DNA test. 898 00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:38,920 Speaker 3: Like I said before, I am impulsive, and I think 899 00:56:38,960 --> 00:56:41,719 Speaker 3: that's how I learned how to deal with all that anxiety. 900 00:56:41,800 --> 00:56:44,120 Speaker 3: I would just jump in and then figure out how 901 00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:44,960 Speaker 3: to swim once I. 902 00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:47,320 Speaker 4: Was in there. So I wrote him a long letter. 903 00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:50,480 Speaker 3: I found him because he's a filmmaker of all things, 904 00:56:50,960 --> 00:56:55,160 Speaker 3: with two sisters who are artists. And I wrote the 905 00:56:55,239 --> 00:57:00,000 Speaker 3: letter to his studio and gave a lot of qualify 906 00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:02,560 Speaker 3: fires in there that said, please throw this away if 907 00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:05,680 Speaker 3: this is bringing up too much trauma. You know you 908 00:57:05,719 --> 00:57:09,600 Speaker 3: think I'm a lunatic. I'm sorry. Just hear me out. 909 00:57:09,719 --> 00:57:11,600 Speaker 3: I don't want anything from you. I just thought you 910 00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:13,920 Speaker 3: should know I won't feel have any hard feelings if 911 00:57:13,920 --> 00:57:14,760 Speaker 3: you don't reach out anyway. 912 00:57:14,800 --> 00:57:16,280 Speaker 4: Qualifier qualifier qualifier. 913 00:57:17,080 --> 00:57:21,040 Speaker 3: He read the letter, and then his sisters were visiting 914 00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:23,600 Speaker 3: a couple of weeks later. He printed it out, shared 915 00:57:23,640 --> 00:57:27,000 Speaker 3: with them and wanted to observe them reading it, and 916 00:57:27,080 --> 00:57:31,720 Speaker 3: all of their responses were. First of all, we kind 917 00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:35,160 Speaker 3: of thought this was going to happen, because apparently my 918 00:57:35,400 --> 00:57:41,920 Speaker 3: biological father was quite a ladies man, and they wanted 919 00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:47,680 Speaker 3: it to be true. They loved their brother deeply. A 920 00:57:47,760 --> 00:57:51,960 Speaker 3: couple of years ago, Dave asked, my uncle, how did 921 00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:54,080 Speaker 3: you respond when you first read that letter? 922 00:57:54,200 --> 00:57:55,560 Speaker 4: Was the very first thing you thought? 923 00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:57,680 Speaker 3: And he reached his hand out to me and looked 924 00:57:57,760 --> 00:57:59,959 Speaker 3: right in my eyes and said, I wanted. 925 00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:01,320 Speaker 4: It to be true. 926 00:58:01,400 --> 00:58:04,560 Speaker 3: You know, for this big hands and sixty year old 927 00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:06,600 Speaker 3: man to say that to me, it just shook me 928 00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:10,840 Speaker 3: to the core, Like, oh, and Matt is true for 929 00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:11,920 Speaker 3: the whole family. 930 00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:14,720 Speaker 4: It's a giant. 931 00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:17,440 Speaker 3: Family, you know, first cousins, second cousins. 932 00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:18,360 Speaker 4: I've met them all. 933 00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:21,240 Speaker 3: They all gather once twice a year. 934 00:58:21,920 --> 00:58:26,200 Speaker 4: They are deeply loving and at. 935 00:58:26,120 --> 00:58:30,440 Speaker 3: The same time really casual, you know, like there's no 936 00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:33,400 Speaker 3: big deal my family, the Warrners, let's sit down and 937 00:58:33,440 --> 00:58:35,240 Speaker 3: like light candles and psychologize it. 938 00:58:35,440 --> 00:58:40,160 Speaker 4: They're like, let's open a beer and go swimming. So 939 00:58:40,440 --> 00:58:42,040 Speaker 4: I felt at. 940 00:58:41,840 --> 00:58:44,760 Speaker 3: Home and I still feel at home with them. We 941 00:58:44,840 --> 00:58:48,480 Speaker 3: visit every year. That said, the very first time I 942 00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:52,800 Speaker 3: met them was right after the dizzyness had started, and 943 00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:54,760 Speaker 3: I had already bought the tickets for Dave and I 944 00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:57,160 Speaker 3: to go, thinking this dizziness is going to go away. 945 00:58:57,680 --> 00:58:59,080 Speaker 3: I don't know what this is, but it's not going 946 00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:01,960 Speaker 3: to last. Kept getting worse and worse and worse. The 947 00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:06,120 Speaker 3: night before our trip to visit them all, I had 948 00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:07,880 Speaker 3: to email them and say, I just got to let 949 00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:09,400 Speaker 3: you guys know, I'm not myself. 950 00:59:09,520 --> 00:59:10,600 Speaker 4: I don't know what's going on. 951 00:59:10,960 --> 00:59:13,840 Speaker 3: I haven't had a doctor's appointment yet about this, but 952 00:59:14,360 --> 00:59:18,120 Speaker 3: I feel crazy and I'm scared. And they all emailed 953 00:59:18,160 --> 00:59:19,960 Speaker 3: me back and said, we love you as you are. 954 00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:22,680 Speaker 3: Just come even if we see you for five minutes 955 00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:24,479 Speaker 3: and give you a hug and then you go sleep 956 00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:26,000 Speaker 3: the whole time, that's fine with us. 957 00:59:26,120 --> 00:59:28,200 Speaker 4: We love you know. It was just like, don't worry, 958 00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:28,919 Speaker 4: no big deal. 959 00:59:30,200 --> 00:59:33,920 Speaker 3: So we went and I was scared the whole time 960 00:59:34,160 --> 00:59:39,160 Speaker 3: and also deeply loved in that, which is kind of 961 00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:40,560 Speaker 3: cool to feel like. 962 00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:42,160 Speaker 4: When I first met them, I was a. 963 00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:46,040 Speaker 3: Mess, absolute mess. I mean I even went to urging 964 00:59:46,080 --> 00:59:47,040 Speaker 3: clinic once. 965 00:59:47,280 --> 00:59:49,080 Speaker 4: It was bad, and they just. 966 00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:50,680 Speaker 3: Were like, cool, let's go for a road trip. 967 00:59:50,760 --> 00:59:53,480 Speaker 4: Let's go drive, you know, and drop you off when 968 00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:53,960 Speaker 4: you need. 969 00:59:53,880 --> 00:59:56,520 Speaker 3: To, and here's a snack, and you know it was. 970 00:59:57,400 --> 01:00:00,320 Speaker 3: It was very sweet and healing, and that continue used 971 01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:03,480 Speaker 3: to this day to be my experience with my new family. 972 01:00:06,560 --> 01:00:10,960 Speaker 3: Meaning in purpose is really important when we are navigating chaos. 973 01:00:11,160 --> 01:00:13,640 Speaker 3: But I do feel that this I am in a 974 01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:18,680 Speaker 3: best place I've been in my entire life. And I 975 01:00:18,680 --> 01:00:22,840 Speaker 3: can honestly say that's because of all of the hardship 976 01:00:23,080 --> 01:00:28,760 Speaker 3: and the dysregulation and the pain and the suffering. It's 977 01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:30,640 Speaker 3: brought me to a place of peace now. And I'm 978 01:00:30,680 --> 01:00:33,600 Speaker 3: still dizzy, not as dizzy as I used to be, 979 01:00:33,760 --> 01:00:38,680 Speaker 3: but I am peaceful in the dizziness. And it's because 980 01:00:38,720 --> 01:00:43,240 Speaker 3: I finally stopped caring, not stopped caring about life. I 981 01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:46,680 Speaker 3: loved my life, but I stopped needing to fix myself. 982 01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:50,920 Speaker 3: I stopped needing to be a certain way in this world. 983 01:00:51,720 --> 01:00:54,880 Speaker 3: The dizzyness forced me to be exactly as I was 984 01:00:54,960 --> 01:01:02,000 Speaker 3: because I could not fix it. Twenty nineteen, I started 985 01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:06,320 Speaker 3: a documentary project called Unfixed, and this was before I 986 01:01:06,360 --> 01:01:09,360 Speaker 3: was medicated, but I was realizing that I was done 987 01:01:09,480 --> 01:01:11,920 Speaker 3: trying to find doctors to fix me because I spent 988 01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:14,320 Speaker 3: too much money and I was not getting any better. 989 01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:16,600 Speaker 3: So I thought, well, I'm just going to find some 990 01:01:16,640 --> 01:01:19,240 Speaker 3: people that are living with chronic illnesses that are doing 991 01:01:19,240 --> 01:01:21,400 Speaker 3: the same thing, because I don't know how to do this. 992 01:01:21,520 --> 01:01:23,840 Speaker 3: I don't have all I have on my shelf or 993 01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:27,240 Speaker 3: self help books, and I don't know how to un 994 01:01:27,320 --> 01:01:32,720 Speaker 3: self help myself. So my first subject was an als 995 01:01:32,760 --> 01:01:37,080 Speaker 3: patient and my second subject had tried geminal neurologya, which 996 01:01:37,120 --> 01:01:37,720 Speaker 3: is so. 997 01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:38,640 Speaker 4: Known as the suicide. 998 01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:41,960 Speaker 7: To these people that were living with excruciating and actually 999 01:01:42,080 --> 01:01:48,320 Speaker 7: terminal disorders, I was asking them, how are you embracing 1000 01:01:48,400 --> 01:01:53,240 Speaker 7: this and what does it look like when you hit 1001 01:01:53,360 --> 01:01:54,040 Speaker 7: rock bottom? 1002 01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,480 Speaker 3: What do you tell yourself? And how does your heart 1003 01:01:57,600 --> 01:02:03,440 Speaker 3: feel when the disappointment continues? And I'm just really trying 1004 01:02:03,480 --> 01:02:07,600 Speaker 3: to understand this process again, maybe in a way because 1005 01:02:07,600 --> 01:02:09,800 Speaker 3: I couldn't find my own feelings still, I'm trying to 1006 01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:12,520 Speaker 3: find what I'm feeling by hearing other people. 1007 01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:14,600 Speaker 4: Tell me and oh, yeah, that sounds right. 1008 01:02:15,120 --> 01:02:18,320 Speaker 3: And then the pandemic happened and I had twenty subjects 1009 01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:21,959 Speaker 3: for this film and I was unable to continue doing 1010 01:02:22,040 --> 01:02:26,560 Speaker 3: sort of the large film crew situation, and I was 1011 01:02:26,680 --> 01:02:30,440 Speaker 3: desperately looking for their answers. So I decided to start 1012 01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:34,160 Speaker 3: having them record their answers into their smartphones, and we 1013 01:02:34,240 --> 01:02:37,280 Speaker 3: turned it into a docu series for two years. Every 1014 01:02:37,320 --> 01:02:42,520 Speaker 3: month they would reply to questions as profound as would 1015 01:02:42,560 --> 01:02:46,280 Speaker 3: you let go of everything you've learned since you're diagnosis 1016 01:02:46,280 --> 01:02:47,320 Speaker 3: in order to be healed? 1017 01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:51,400 Speaker 4: Or as simple as what's food like for you? 1018 01:02:51,880 --> 01:02:54,280 Speaker 3: And we just finished one a couple months ago on 1019 01:02:54,360 --> 01:02:56,240 Speaker 3: sex and what's intimacy like? 1020 01:02:56,320 --> 01:02:58,240 Speaker 4: And it's just was a. 1021 01:02:58,480 --> 01:03:04,560 Speaker 3: Deep hand and shake with humanity. I got the experience 1022 01:03:04,720 --> 01:03:09,880 Speaker 3: of feeling my own brokenness in community, and while they 1023 01:03:09,880 --> 01:03:13,000 Speaker 3: were submitting their videos and answers, I would submit them 1024 01:03:13,200 --> 01:03:15,400 Speaker 3: my answers so that they didn't feel like they're just 1025 01:03:15,400 --> 01:03:18,320 Speaker 3: sending them into this black box. And so we learned 1026 01:03:18,360 --> 01:03:22,080 Speaker 3: about each other, and Unfixed became so much more than 1027 01:03:22,080 --> 01:03:22,960 Speaker 3: a documentary. 1028 01:03:22,960 --> 01:03:24,400 Speaker 4: It became a community. 1029 01:03:24,560 --> 01:03:29,800 Speaker 3: It became a way for me to unwind my nervous 1030 01:03:29,840 --> 01:03:37,840 Speaker 3: system into allowing instead of fighting. And what really became 1031 01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:42,880 Speaker 3: clear was that once I finally just allowed the brokenness 1032 01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:46,080 Speaker 3: and the dizzyness and the anxiety to just be there, 1033 01:03:47,120 --> 01:03:51,960 Speaker 3: my brain didn't feel it was in danger anymore, because 1034 01:03:52,200 --> 01:03:54,080 Speaker 3: it can only feel in danger if I'm trying to 1035 01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:57,720 Speaker 3: get rid of it, and so my nervous system was. 1036 01:03:57,640 --> 01:03:59,880 Speaker 4: Like, oh cool, it's okay. 1037 01:04:00,520 --> 01:04:03,160 Speaker 3: And that's why I can say now that, yeah, I'm 1038 01:04:03,200 --> 01:04:06,280 Speaker 3: actually quite dizzy today because I definitely get dizzier when 1039 01:04:06,280 --> 01:04:09,640 Speaker 3: i'm nervous, and I was excited about this call, and yes, 1040 01:04:09,720 --> 01:04:11,840 Speaker 3: the room of moving around, is it bothering me? No, 1041 01:04:12,600 --> 01:04:15,880 Speaker 3: because my brain knows I'm fine and I'm not going 1042 01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:17,320 Speaker 3: to do anything to try to fix it. 1043 01:04:17,360 --> 01:04:20,200 Speaker 4: I'm just going to enjoy this conversation with you. 1044 01:04:20,720 --> 01:04:26,320 Speaker 3: So this, the dizziness specifically, has been a profound teacher 1045 01:04:27,080 --> 01:04:31,600 Speaker 3: for me in allowing experiences to be as they are 1046 01:04:32,080 --> 01:04:35,560 Speaker 3: and to hold them and to love them and have compassion. 1047 01:04:35,120 --> 01:04:35,840 Speaker 4: For them, and. 1048 01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:44,600 Speaker 3: Conversely or simultaneously see and hold and loves that in 1049 01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:48,600 Speaker 3: others as well. So I feel it's such a solidarity 1050 01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:52,360 Speaker 3: with humanity now that I never. 1051 01:04:52,280 --> 01:04:54,440 Speaker 4: Ever experienced before. 1052 01:04:55,280 --> 01:05:00,840 Speaker 3: I'm calm and I'm happy and I'm peaceful. Never thought 1053 01:05:01,000 --> 01:05:03,360 Speaker 3: this was possible given the way that I used to 1054 01:05:03,360 --> 01:05:03,840 Speaker 3: feel in. 1055 01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:07,560 Speaker 4: This body mine. 1056 01:05:11,640 --> 01:05:14,600 Speaker 2: What an extraordinary way to think of it, that our 1057 01:05:14,640 --> 01:05:19,640 Speaker 2: traumas can be our profound teachers to experience them, hold them, 1058 01:05:20,040 --> 01:05:23,600 Speaker 2: love them, have compassion for them, and see and hold 1059 01:05:23,680 --> 01:05:27,640 Speaker 2: that in others as well, such beautiful and wise words 1060 01:05:27,880 --> 01:05:31,640 Speaker 2: from Kimberly Warner. To check out Kimberly's work, go to 1061 01:05:31,880 --> 01:05:52,840 Speaker 2: unfixedmedia dot com. Family Secrets is a production of iHeartRadio. 1062 01:05:53,400 --> 01:05:56,480 Speaker 2: Molly Zacour is the story editor and Dylan Fagan is 1063 01:05:56,480 --> 01:06:00,240 Speaker 2: the executive producer. If you have a family secret you'd 1064 01:06:00,280 --> 01:06:02,720 Speaker 2: like to share, please leave us a voicemail and your 1065 01:06:02,760 --> 01:06:06,160 Speaker 2: story could appear on an upcoming episode. Our number is 1066 01:06:06,240 --> 01:06:10,400 Speaker 2: one eight eight eight Secret zero. That's the number zero. 1067 01:06:10,720 --> 01:06:14,560 Speaker 2: You can also find me on Instagram at Danny Ryder. 1068 01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:17,320 Speaker 2: And if you'd like to know more about the story 1069 01:06:17,360 --> 01:06:20,960 Speaker 2: that inspired this podcast, check out my memoir Inheritance. 1070 01:06:49,560 --> 01:06:53,800 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1071 01:06:53,880 --> 01:06:55,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.