From Foster Care to New York City | Lisa Miller

Warning: This episode includes discussion of suicidal ideation and a suicide attempt. Lisa Miller was born in Detroit to a mother living with addiction. Before she was 10, she and her two older brothers had been through what she calls the year of hell with their biological father, in rural Appalachian Virginia, then a group home and separate placements. She was eventually adopted, moved out at midnight on her 18th birthday and became a mom at 21. Then the years piled up. Her youngest son, Luke, arrived at 30 weeks and was diagnosed with autism at 2. Her oldest brother, Ryan, moved in with the family and died months later in a motorcycle accident. At 28, Lisa got sick with Sjögren’s, an autoimmune disease that scarred her lungs and kept her on oxygen for a year and a half. Doctors kept telling her she looked fine. At 32, with life finally looking good on paper, she told her husband she needed help. Lisa tells Erica Brinker what that help looked like, including the ketamine infusions and trauma therapy that led to a diagnosis she didn’t expect: complex PTSD and anxiety, not depression. Almost three years ago, she sold the house in Knoxville, signed a lease on a Brooklyn apartment she’d only toured on a screen and moved her husband and three kids to New York City. Now she documents it all, silly and dark, as @LisaMillerInRealLife and is writing a memoir. Her advice to anyone at their own brink: give yourself a yes year. If you or someone you love is struggling or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7 in the U.S. Executive Producer: Sara Glassman Follow At the Brink: Instagram @at.the.brink.media · YouTube @AtTheBrinkPodcast · LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/at-the-brink-media Follow Erica: Instagram @official.erica.brinker Follow Lisa: Instagram @LisaMillerInRealLife · TikTok @lisamillerinreallife www.atthebrinkmedia.com · [email protected] Here you go: At the Brink is a premium podcast hosted by Erica Brinker featuring raw, intimate conversations about defining moments — the question at the show's core: was there a moment when your story split into a before and after? New episodes every Wednesday. Website: www.atthebrinkmedia.com Email: [email protected] Instagram: @at.the.brink.media Executive producer | Sara Glassman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.