When You Can’t Afford to Fall Apart: Grief, Fatherhood & Starting Over with Lee Ehlers
About this episode
Lee Ehlers shares his journey through grief and fatherhood after the loss of his wife while navigating his career in Hollywood.
What happens when everyone needs you to be okay, but you’re barely surviving yourself? Hollywood screenwriter and producer Lee Ehlers spent years learning how to survive rejection, but nothing prepared him for the loss of his wife, Erin, or for discovering that sometimes the strongest thing you can do is stop pretending you’re okay. Lee’s professional breakthrough and personal devastation collided when his feature film EXES was finally being made as his high school sweetheart and wife of twenty years was dying from breast cancer. Suddenly widowed with children who were just 10, 7, and 5, Lee found himself trying to grieve while becoming the person they still needed every day. We talk about the private cost of performing the “strong dad,” the period when alcohol became the only way he could sleep through overwhelming grief, and the moment he finally admitted, “I’m not okay. I’m struggling.” In this episode: Grief after the death of a spouse Widowed fatherhood and raising children through loss Performing strength when you’re falling apart Depression, isolation, and asking for help Self-medication and coping with acute grief Why grief doesn’t follow a predictable process Supporting…
People in this episode
Guest: Lee Ehlers
Topics covered
- grief
- fatherhood
- loss
- mental health
- self-medication
- identity after loss
Keywords
- grief
- fatherhood
- loss
- depression
- self-medication
- Hollywood
- identity
- support
- resilience
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: EXES
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