Natalee King

Hey, I’m Natalee. 👋🏻

I’m a USAF Veteran and Gold Star Widow.

I was diagnosed with Major reoccurring depression, ADHD, PTSD and Anxiety at age 21.

In my 35 years of life, I’ve seen a lot of heartache and tragedy. In 2008, my sister Niki died from a drug overdose and in my search for meaning in that grief, I joined the Air Force. There, I met the love of my life and had a son, but in 2013, when our baby was 8 months old, my husband was killed in an accident— leaving me a single mom and a Gold Star Widow.

The next four to five years were the hardest of my life thus far. After my husband was killed, I struggled with addiction. At first it was Xanax pills, but I shortly moved onto meth when I was introduced to it by people I went to rehab with. I was struggling through every aspect in life and no matter how many times I went into treatment, I would always relapse. One night I decided to try and take my own life by crashing my car into a light pole, totaling it. I had signed custody of my son over to my parents just in case my addiction ended my life and so I really felt like I had nothing left to live for. When this attempt didn’t work, I was then institutionalized. This would be just one of the many institutions I would see throughout this time.

I was in this deep, dark depression and addiction for almost five years. With no end in sight.