Turning hurt into help

The decision to become a nurse is often driven by a passion to help others. For many, it is a calling to relieve suffering and provide comfort. In some cases (like mine), our personal experiences set us on the path to nursing, allowing us to incorporate those important life lessons into our care.

I have always been passionate about mental healthcare, being someone who has struggled with anxiety and experienced the impact of addiction in my family. Along my nursing journey, I purposely sought out work in long-term care, acute inpatient psychiatry, and addiction treatment for exposure to the gamut of mental health disorders. Learning as much as possible seemed the best way to provide the type of care I wanted to give. The combination of my lived and working experiences led me to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner and nursing instructor.

My work has afforded me insight into the struggles associated with mental illness and its impact on the patient and their loved ones. As a provider and instructor, the life experiences recounted by my patients and students struck a chord with me. Through their stories, I was transported back to my childhood and the experience of feeling very different from my friends.

I was not aware that families like mine were common. Addiction was taboo, so it wasn’t discussed. As a child of a parent recovering from alcohol use disorder, I had few resources available to help me process the guilt, sadness, and loneliness I felt. There was no one to help me process why I was not enough of a motivation to be sober. Despite being an avid reader and searching the library, I found no books at that time to give voice to my situation.

I learned to cope adaptively, but I often wondered what my life would have been like with someone else’s perspective. And now, how can I be that person, beyond those who cross my path in a treatment setting? So, even in the face of vulnerability, I again stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to write books for others.

I wrote and self-published two children’s books about having a parent in recovery. Titled My Mommy Is In Recovery and My Daddy Is In Recovery, these stories are written from the perspective of children experiencing the effects of parental addiction first-hand. Both take the reader through life before the addiction, during the addiction, and into the beginnings of recovery. They provide a relatable story for those experiencing this common situation. The stories also lend themselves to caregivers starting difficult conversations about these experiences.

The feedback I have received from these books has been overwhelmingly positive. Taking this step has allowed me to provide mental healthcare on a broader scale. I am no longer relegated to only treating patients at the bedside or providing nursing insight to a limited number of students.

This can be the case for other nurses, too. I am not unique in being able to reach a wider audience. You can provide your specialty of care on a broader scale. Your empathy and insight should know no bounds. Your life and career experiences matter outside of the practice setting. You simply need to consider what has felt important to you based on these experiences and consider ways to broadcast your insights, opinions, and lessons to larger populations.

This could occur through starting a YouTube channel, writing a blog, selling items on a retail platform, or applying to give a TED Talk. They could also serve on a board or deliver a speech at a symposium to provide a nursing perspective. There is no incorrect means of passing on your knowledge and support—you just need the courage to pursue an idea.

As a Sigma chapter president, I hope to lead others by example. This extends to our members using their creativity, empathy, and expertise to touch as many lives as possible. I am hopeful that each member of our proud organization will give some thought to their potential reach, and that they will consider being vulnerable and stepping beyond their comfort zone to bring their brand of care to the world at large.