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“It all started on a trip I took to Salta as part of my plans to take a vacation. As soon as I arrived, I started to feel… A lot of anxiety When you are with people. I felt Notice And it was obsessed That they talked about me. I couldn’t focus on anything. It was a feeling of not being able to get out of your head for a minute, like Detachment from the present moment. And from there I started Isolate myself and Lock me up “In my mind, I couldn’t even be with my family.”
Florencia Ventri de Leon shares with us these feelings and experiences that happened in 2018, an important year for her, as she had just given up a 12-year career in multinational companies and, at the same time, was going through a breakup with a partner with whom she shared a lot of time.
Clearly there was no shortage of reasons to feel Anxious, sad, distressed She was prey to the state of uncertainty that almost prevented her from breathing. Florence began to feel Indifference and hopelessness. She was lost, as she herself defines it. He adds that he has reached the age of thirty and with them:A very painful personal crisis may lead me to discover mazes that have no way out“.
Florencia associates this term with the fact that her life has turned 180 degrees. He no longer had a job and did not feel able to go out and look for work. “My mind got so sick that I had to stay in my father’s care and take seven medications a day. I was hospitalized Drugs Lost in dark stories that more They darkened my world. Everything seemed No Exit. meaningless. A The pain is impossible to stop And a Desire not wanting to live. I was no longer me, the happy, smiling, working woman. Nothing I knew existed in my world. It was just desperation and desire to not want to live this way. “A life without a life.”
On January 2, 2020, his first suicide attempt occurred. Florencia says she was inside Free fallWith a feeling of losing control over his life. “He stopped enjoying and sharing the simplest things she always gave him sense And the value of my existence. I have consulted many specialists without finding any improvement. My world has turned dark and… I didn’t see a way out. “I felt that I no longer wanted to continue living this way, after 30 years of life, without even the hope or desire to start a new day,” he admits.
After this event, Florencia woke up in a psychiatric hospital bed. She vividly remembers her first day in the hospital, when, before breakfast, she approached the mirror in her room to talk to herself: “Say you can do it. “Don’t be ashamed to be in a place you only knew about from the movies.”
“I felt like I had a place to belong when I saw so many cases equal or more serious than mine I feel less alone in so much suffering. We talked about what was happening to us, I had a treatment team of a psychiatrist and a psychiatrist monitoring me daily. They analyzed my condition even without a specific diagnosis. It was a month of hospitalization. Although I achieved little Building links With other people because, at least in this confinement, we shared the suffering of a mental health problem.
Her family visited her daily, and together they shared cookies. Florence cried when she saw them in that state; He confirms that their outlook has changed as much as his outlook has changed. “My heart broke when I saw them, but They gave me all their loveThey gave me the smiles and hugs they gave me Strength to move forward. The second hospitalization was more difficult, already in the middle of the epidemic, when visitors were not allowed, and the feeling of loneliness was more acute.
In February 2021, they shared with her brother the contact of a psychiatrist and psychologist to see if she could finally meet and connect with the professionals who would help her get out of the abyss.
“In the first session, he told me that he suffers from borderline personality disorder, which consists of emotional dysregulation that goes from periods of neurosis and psychosis to moments of severe anxiety and bouts of depression. It was necessary to understand, as when you get sick in your body, to understand what happened to me, its symptoms, and the treatment for my recovery. “I never heard or knew what it was.”
The treatment regimen prescribed by the psychiatrist was based on two highly stimulating antidepressants because, he explains, it was necessary to bring her out of the major depressive states into which she tended to fall. In addition, he began taking mood stabilizers and antipsychotics, which began to work on his body in the expected way. “The medicine in cases where it is necessary is like oxygen to keep you alive and to be able, in parallel, to do basic treatment like medicine. They are different spaces that go together as a team to help the patient move forward.
Florencia underwent therapy for four years (twice a week) and asserts that she never missed a session because it was her place and refuge for the pain of her soul. “It was a space for words and listening to reveal and recycle history. It is necessary.” Unleashing symptoms and traumaIt is crucial for the mind to start functioning properly. We made such a shift where he operated on us until we got to the base of everything and then we started building forward. Sweetness was strongly present as sympathy for the patient’s suffering world. It was a process Total transformation. It was mine Reconstruction He smiled, and I met the true flower that I am today.
Medication, analysis space, and her strong commitment to treatment were among the reasons Florencia began her recovery. “It was clear to me I wanted to be happy again and Enjoy the little things in lifeBecause what’s valuable comes in a small package.”
Although Florencia’s recovery path began in mid-2021, the biggest click, she says, came after her father’s death in 2023. In pain I didn’t know. I had to collect the small pieces of my heart and start over with this absence present every day. But I felt the power of His love to see how I could achieve this. My illness affected everyone in my family and was one of the hardest blows my family had ever suffered. The desire to see me happy wherever he is and the peace and happiness of my mother, who gave her entire body to my illness, is my driving force today and always.
What things have you started to change?
It was a path to an encounter with my stronger essence. Start working on my self-esteem, my way of standing in the world and in front of others. Understanding which spaces were good for me, and which were not. Learning to compassionately embrace my inner child who also had to heal and to respect myself as a resilient woman. Connections with others began to change, and communication began to become more authentic and honest. Learn that we all have a way of being in the world and that they are all valuable and worthy of respect.
What does the flower look like now?
She is a happy, cheerful woman with a big smile, sensitive and very creative. With dreams to achieve and stories to accompany them. Because my heart beats strongly in helping others, in listening with the sweetness of transforming spaces into shelters as if they were homes.
In 2022, Florencia met her current partner, Gustavo, who taught her the power of bonds Healthy and free.
“He’s a doctor and his residency is in psychiatry. Our paths have crossed to make history and our souls are connected in a way that makes everything feel… invincible. man Fullfull sensitive and sweetness“Every day leads me to be a better woman than yesterday,” she says, completely in love.
On a professional level, Florencia, who has a degree in human resources, created a profile on Instagram, in collaboration with Camila Gonzalez, who already has 23 thousand followers, a space where she accompanies people to get the job they long for.
What are the things you like?
My passion is mainly writing, but also music. Words have been my greatest revelation in healing and finding myself. They are the bridges that connect. They are an inspiration and a hug for the soul. In words all my talent is revealed, and my essence is captured like a poem. I love to enjoy the simplest things: barbecues with family and friends, walking my dog, exercising and lighting richly scented incense burners. All of this gives meaning to everyday life. I don’t save anything for later. Because in the end we have moments.
How do you define yourself?
A simple woman with a very special sensitivity that makes my heart have so much love. I’m passionate about harboring pain, that with time and the knowledge that life is one day at a time, the impossible eventually become achievable dreams. Today I embrace life more than ever before, I embrace my loved ones and my mother, without whom and without their care I would not tell my story.
What have you learned from everything that happened to you?
The importance of paying attention to mental health in all aspects of life and that every day is a new opportunity to keep trying.
What message would you like to send to people suffering from depression?
This depression must be understood as a disease that has a cure and that it is possible to move forward with the right specialists and with love for our emotions. It’s essential to ask for help when you feel like you can’t do it on your own, and by taking a step, even a small one, every day, you can feel like living fully again.