Hi there! My name is Elysha Broadbent. I am a licensed cosmetologist, A wife, and a mother of 2 boys. I’ve always been pretty happy with my life. I feel like I had a good life compared to other stories I’ve heard. I’ve definitely been through some hard times and today I am going to tell my story about my second postpartum journey.
This story starts when I was around 6 months postpartum in 2018. At the time my fiancé, now my husband, and I agreed that I would continue being a stay at home mom because it was working out okay for our family. My husband made enough money to take care of us, and I was doing sort of okay doing the stay at home mom thing.
We had a fairly regular routine by now. The baby was sleeping through the night, I would take my 7-year-old to and from school and just take care of the baby at home during the day while my husband worked.
I remember very vividly it was a Wednesday night in July I think. Haha, I just said vividly now I can’t remember if it was July or August. Anyways. I laid in bed all night long, awake, my head and body had a feeling that it was buzzing and shaking but when you looked at me you couldn’t tell. So it was just a feeling on the inside. And it lasted throughout the next day. I called and told my husband I didn’t feel good, I told him I wanted to go see a doctor. So he came home and watched the baby while I hurried over to a doctors office that was squeezing me on that day.
The doctor told me I had postpartum depression and anxiety. I didn’t know quite what that meant. She gave me a couple of prescriptions. 2 or 3 actually. Some I took in the morning then one I took at bedtime.
So because I didn’t know what this all meant, I posted on Facebook to my friends and family about my doctor visit. I had a lot of friends and family comment that they were sorry for me and if I ever needed anyone to contact them.
I remember Elysha posting about this. I wanted to just wrap my arms around her and give her everything I knew to help her through it.
A few days went by. I was barely sleeping. So I went through those comments on a Sunday telling everyone I didn’t feel good, I didn’t know what to do. Talesha Carter was one of the many that commented on my post. I didn’t really know Talesha at the time. I had her as a Facebook friend because we were in the same health and fitness group.
Talesha messaged me back asking what I was feeling. I told her I didn’t know, I just felt yucky. So she dug a little deeper. And I told her I felt like I was a bad mom. That I was weak for my family. That I was letting them down. She asked me if that’s what I believed. I told her well I’m told by others I’m not. She said, “what do you personally believe?” And I told her I didn’t believe I was a bad mom, I believed I was a good mom. That was the moment my life started changing.
This day will forever be imprinted on my mind. I did push Elysha a little bit but I felt so strongly that she was believing things about herself that just weren’t true. And that those beliefs were damaging her self worth.
Talesha snapped me out of my funk right then! I asked her how did she do that and she said that’s what I do for a living is help women! I told her I wanted her to help me! She said let’s do a phone interview on Monday and we’ll see if we’re the right fit for each other. I remember thinking she can’t turn me down! Haha. I knew I needed her in my life at this time!
Doesn’t this just give you the feel goods. Elysha is such an incredible woman who shows me still today how dedicated, loving and real she is. I love her through and through.
So the phone interview went well, I started working with her 5 days a week for 12 weeks.
A week after I saw that doctor I just felt really scared about the pills I was on so I decided to go see another doctor that I had known for 17 years. He agreed I needed to be on some pills but he put me on different ones. While I was visiting with him the last thing he asked me was if I was spiritual at all. I asked him did he mean like if I went to church? He said yes. I told him no. He said statistically people that are spiritual deal with depression and anxiety better than people that weren’t. At that moment I thought haha okay. I’m doing just fine. At the time I didn’t really believe in god.
About another week passed. And it was time for my first video session with Talesha. Up to that point, we were just text messaging. That video session was when it hit me, hard! It hit me, I knew in that video session that god was real!!! And that he was there to help me! Writing this is bringing the moment back and I have happy tears flowing out right now! I was filled with all certainty that he was real, not wondering about his existence anymore.
This to me is incredible, she came to this realization all on her own. And that to me is beautiful. No matter what you believe having that realization that you’re not alone and loved by God or a higher power being is one of the greatest experiences to have in a lifetime.
I knew in order to keep working on my healing I needed to work on a relationship with him. So in doing so, I went to a building of the faith I was raised in. Because that’s what I knew to do, that’s what I was taught.
After getting there one Sunday, after song and prayer, I sat down. In that instant, my body wanted to panic. My body wanted to instantly cry and run out of there! I thought this is weird! My body had never reacted in such a way in my life! I got myself calmed down, only for it to happen about 5 minutes later! My body wanted to jump up and run out so fast! And I started to cry! I got myself calmed down again. The talk the brother was speaking was actually about anxiety! So I did get some notes written down.
The next week I chose to listen to the religious meetings over the phone instead of attending. They have meetings over the phone also on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I listened over the phone for I think about three weeks. I tried so hard to listen and pay attention but there was this weird resistance! My mind did not want to hear it! It wasn’t working for me! So I prayed about it.
I remember vividly this time this part of my story. It was a Wednesday morning this time, and I had a thought in my mind to go to a specific religious website. I followed along with the thought thinking to myself sure why not, life couldn’t be any worse right now. I’m not afraid to do this. I was taught as a child to fear all religions except for the one I was raised in. So I went to the website, and right away on the first page, it asked if I wanted to request a free Book. So I did. And then I received a phone call from a missionary that did online work for that faith. She asked me if I wanted to meet with missionary’s and I said sure I wouldn’t turn it down.
My experience with the missionary’s and this faith that I and my 8-year-old son are now baptized and a part of I will never forget! There were several WOW moments, comfort, knowledge that made total sense! Heavenly Father showed me the way and let me know, he told me with words and feelings that this faith was true and that I was going to be okay!
Working with Talesha through this new change in my life everything just kept getting better! Working with her and Heavenly Father has been extremely healing! Literally, my healing has surpassed what I ever imagined! I am flourishing into a better version of me I never imagined! I’m so happy for myself and most importantly to me I’m so happy for my family! I still have some moments of depression and anxiety but it’s nothing like when I first started going through it. Talesha taught me how to help myself in those hard moments beyond what any of my family and friends could do for me. She is one of my best friends for sure and we’ve only seen each other in person twice! We live hundreds of miles away and I’ve never felt closer to someone. Thank you Talesha for everything!
The greatest thing this teaches me is that it’s never too late to heal. That love is unconditional, and blessings flow even in moments of deep trial and struggle.
I am ready to work with Talesha too!Elysha, had real physical challenges but despite that she learned tools and was able to find relief and skills that will not only benefit her but her family and future clients. Oh! Did I tell you? Elysha is currently learning how to use this healing technique I created! I’m so proud of her and the successes of peace she has experienced in this past year. It didn’t happen over night but in such a short amount of time goodness came.