Take It From Us with Kent Johns
If you're navigating mental health struggles, addiction or recovery — your own or someone else's — you'll hear what actually worked, what didn't and what people wish they'd known sooner.
Take It From Us features real people sharing their own journeys, unscripted and unfiltered. No theory, no talking points — just the honest, specific version of what recovery actually looks like.
Host Kent Johns is a broadcaster and health coach who believes everyone has a story worth hearing if someone takes the time to really listen. Each episode is that time.
Press play — you might hear your own story in someone else's.
If you need support, click here for helpful links, phone numbers and resources: https://ember.org.nz/resources/in-a-crisis/
Take It From Us with Kent Johns
Heidi McIlroy: A book for young people who can't find the words
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Heidi McIlroy teaches kids who can't make it into a regular classroom. They're too anxious, struggling with their mental health, autistic - kids who carry shame because they think they're broken.
She gets it because she's been there. Years of agoraphobia, hiding it, convinced something was wrong with her.
So she created a book called "This Is How It Feels". It's not advice or expert opinions. It's just real people explaining what their struggles actually feel like - a kid with anxiety, someone who self-harms, what withdrawal feels like, what panic looks like.
The impact has been real. Parents reading it and finally understanding their kids. Teachers using it. Young people picking it up and going, "Yes, that's what I'm trying to say."
You can pick up a copy of Heidi's book here.
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If you need support, here are helpful links, phone numbers and resources: https://ember.org.nz/resources/in-a-crisis/
