What happens when the story you were given about your life might not be the real one?

In this episode of Who’s Even Listening ?, we sit down with Valerie Reilly for a powerful conversation about adoption, identity, mental health, and what it feels like to search for answers that may never fully come.

Valerie was found on a street in Korea as a baby, adopted, and raised into a life that left her with questions about her name, her family, her past, and where she truly came from. She opens up about the emotional reality of adoption, the stories adoptees are sometimes told, and how complicated it can be when the truth is missing or unclear.

We also talk about her mental health journey, including psychosis, treatment, stability, and what people often misunderstand about mental hospitals, patients, and the process of getting help.

This conversation is honest, emotional, thoughtful, and full of perspective on what it means to build an identity when parts of your beginning are still unknown.

In this episode, we talk about:
Valerie’s adoption story from Korea
Searching for identity, family, and truth
What people misunderstand about adoption
Mental health, psychosis, and treatment
What stability looks like day to day
Finding home within yourself

Chapters:

00:00 - Highlights

00:40 - Opening remarks

00:55 - Question 1 - What do you want people to understand about you?

01:57 - Question 2 - When do you feel most at home with yourself?

04:06 - Question 3 - How did your experience shape your identity and relationships as you grew up?

09:55 - Question 4 - What do people most misunderstand about the emotional reality of adoption?

13:30 - Question 5 - What were the earliest signs that something bigger was happening with your mental health?

19:40 - Question 6 - What do people get wrong about mental hospitals, whether it be the environment, patients, or the experience?

25:42 - Question 7 - What does stability look like in your day to day life?

29:54 - Question 8 - How has faith changed through the storms for you?

35:28 - Question 9 - What’s one thing you wish the world would stop saying about mental illness?

41:25 - Question 10 - What happened that led to your diagnosis?

42:26 - Question 11 - For psychosis, how does it begin and what are some early cues that you recognize?

49:33 - Question 12 - What’s one practical first step you would recommend to someone who feels hopeless today?

50:59 - Closing remarks

Guest: Valerie Reilly
Series: Who’s Even Listening ?
Season 2, Episode 39
Overall Episode: 64
Mental Medicine

Drop your thoughts in the comments:
What does “home” mean to you?
How much of our identity comes from knowing where we started?
And what part of Valerie’s story hit you the hardest?

#AdoptionStory #KoreanAdoptee #MentalHealthJourney #PsychosisRecovery #Identity #PodcastInterview #MentalMedicine

ELE — Everybody Love Everybody 💚

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