I hid my alcohol & mental health challenges... Kim Bolton LaMontagne: Speaker, Trainer, Author and Recovery Advocate EP 106

The thing I enjoyed about my conversation with Kim is, she's a great example of a large majority of people struggling with addiction or mental health challenges... they are functioning, often professional, and masters at hiding in plain sight.  They may not even know that the way they feel or the amount of substances they are using is abnormal.    Kim has always been a high achiever and with high achieving comes perfectionism... this underlying air of nothing ever being good enough.  However, this did not stop Kim from climbing the ranks in multiple organizations and always qualifying as a top-ranked performer.  One of the most profound things she said was, I was doing extremely well at work as one of their top salespeople and I was sitting behind my keyboards wanting it all to end. With the help of an empathetic Nurse Practitioner, therapy, and support groups Kim got sober and started helping others that were struggling as well.  Although getting sober changed Kim's life, it still took a while before she felt comfortable enough to be open about her challenges publically and professionally.  She said, "I hid my alcohol & mental health challenges [because] I didn’t want to be viewed as weak, incompetent, & possibly lose my seat at the table." Today Kim is a National as a State Trainer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Speaker, Teacher, an Ambassador, Speaker, and Member of the Advisory Board of Worth Living Mental Health, a Member of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Health System Campaign to Combat Stigma and Discrimination in Behavioral Health, Contributing Author and Survivor. In April 2019, she will be certified by NAMI National as a State Trainer for the NAMI, In Our Own Voice program. Oh yeah, and she retired from her corporate job and now lives anywhere she would like in the form of an amazing RV. At the time of our interview, she was posted up on the beaches of Florida! Connect with Kim Bolton LaMontagne Instagram @kimlamontagne77 Facebook @kim.boltonlamontagne Website: kimlamontagne.net/