A podcast with a more serious discussion. Lee Lander discusses life growing up with a father who suffered depression and eventually left, and a mother who suffered severely from schizophrenia.

Lee openly describes her childhood and life growing up in this atmosphere, her inability as a child to understand, while needing and wanting the love and care of a mother not normally available to her.

What were the effects on her life as an adult… her struggles with multiple divorces and attempts to cope, her desire for suicide… Lee explains how she has taken this dark, nightmarish segment of her life and turned it into a success… Artinology.

There’s a lot going on here, alot to take in. One lesson for the listener… we never know what another person has been through or is going through in life. There are lessons in life here as we listen and learn about Lee’s journey.

Intro: Discuss Mental Health and Mental Illness “Dirt Under the Carpet”

2:55 - Currently Lee and her husband are dealing with his cancer; likens mental illness to cancer in that people hesitate talking about it.

4:00 - Mom was schizophrenic, hallucinated often, radical changes daily, making life as a child very hard/weird; As a child she lacked understanding... just wanted a mom.

11:00 - parents got divorced because father couldn’t help her and fell into depression.

12:45 - growing up she and her family were poor; often her mother would just disappear, leaving them home, alone, with no electricity and/or no food. Reading the bible was her escape, then drinking, and as an adult working…

17:00 - everything changed when she became a mother and had kids, but still had problems due to all the prior issues… she married and divorced twice… realized she “was still a broken person”, suicidal.

23:00 - in recovery, she began to understand what her mother’s life, which changed her life. Her LESSONS:  1) accept who she is, accept herself 2) accept others for who they are/were 3) accept she can’t control everything…

Pitch: got into creativity (writing music, photography, art)... Looking for beauty wherever she is. Found her calling. Her photography started to sell. Then became an abstract artist, painting. Photography now is geared toward nature.

https://www.artknowlogy.com/

Want to know more about your bowtied host? LeeRowley.com!

Full episodes available at LeeAfterDark.com.