About this episode

Victoria Arlen shares her miraculous recovery from a four-year vegetative state and her journey through mental health challenges.

***TRIGGER WARNING*** This podcast contains discussion of suicide. Listener discretion is advised. It's a miracle that Victoria Arlen is still here. Before the age of 10, she entered into a vegetative state after getting diagnosed with two rare neurodegenerative diseases. From there, the Exeter, N.H. native lived incapacitated for four years, with doctors and nurses instructing Arlen's parents to accept that their daughter wouldn't live much longer. Then, on a day that continues to baffle medical professionals everywhere, she emerged from this state. And since then, against all odds, she's taken the world by storm in the form of gold medals at the 2012 Paralympic Games, a run on ABC's Dancing With The Stars , a stellar motivational speaking career, a 10-year tenure as an anchor for ESPN, and now, a two-time author. The 31-year-old's most recent book, The View Is Worth It , published in the spring, and it's her firsthand account of how she's navigated anxiety, depression, and the weight of expectations placed upon her when she was asked to be hero without ever having worn a cape. From The Unmuted Room in Newington, N.H., Arlen joins host Troy Farkas for a wide-ranging discussion…

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