This year at the KT conference, a professional in the mental healthy industry spoke about emotional health/mental illness in relation to having a chronic condition, especially one as bewildering as KTS. From what I heard, it was the first time a mental healthy segment had been added to the Saturday portion of the scheduled line-up over the years.

As someone who has struggled (and still does) with clinical anxiety and depression these past few years, I was especially interested in hearing what the speaker had to say in regards to this topic matter.

When one is in a constant state of physical pain, it is going to impact their overall well-being emotionally. Of course the caliber in which this impacts a person varies due to several noted variables as demonstrated in numerous studies(genes, particular circumstances, environment, etc. The list could go on and on).

Say that one is able to eradicate their source of physical pain; maybe a new medicine has started to work, or perhaps some surgery was performed that helped in easing it.. Well, the physical pain is gone, but there is going to be emotional residue leftover.

All too often, people think that once their physical pain is eradicated, they will be happy and return to a peaceful state of mind

That's why it is equally important to treat not only the physical components of chronic illness, but the emotional ones as well.

I hope that the presentation inspired those who may be struggling emotionally to speak up and ask for help; hopefully they realize they are not alone and that there is help out there. Personally, I know it would have been of great benefit to me to see a presentation of that sort when I was a teenager.

While at the KT conference, I had numerous people (mostly parents) come up to me and mention my old blog, KT Fabulous, to me. A lot of them shared kind words about how it helped them, and how much they appreciated it. Never had I imagined that my words could come of such comfort to others dealing with similar experiences - whether it was the patient themselves or the family members.

It was weird to hear this in person, but truly awe-inspiring. Then, on Saturday, I am presented a certificate which was awarded to me bases upon the writings I did for the blog. When Mel (one of the main organizers of the KTS meeting, runs K-T.org) , the person presenting the certificates, called me name, I was in utter shock. Never had I thought my writings had made such a deep impact on the KT community that their essence would be remembered long after I had deleted them. If anything, though, the whole experience encouraged me to keep writing. For me, there is one essential component in every single piece of writing I do, heart. Without heart, what's the point?

Maybe that is why people related to my old writings so much – I wasn't scared to strip down to my naked emotions. I rarely held back in regards to my experiences and lessons, and I can honestly say that for me it was worth it.

So whether or not you may have read the old blog or this is your first time ever reading something of mine, I hope I can at least be of a little inspiration to you or somebody out there. I cannot guarantee the type of KTS related topics I will be mainly writing about; I will probably switch around. However, I can say with great certainty that they will be genuine, just as all my old ones were.  

A few days ago, I returned back home from the biennual KT conference in Minnesota. To put it simply, I had the best time!

Meeting everyone in person for the first time was a surreal experience, to say the least. It was as though we all had this instantaneous connection; we all bonded so quickly. I genuinely felt as though I was amongst longtime friends and extended family members.

Also, I must say that never have I been exposed to such pure love and kindness. I honestly can think of no other way to put it. I miss everyone so much, but I know we will all continue to stay in contact.

I will write more about my time there in future posts.