Help Titus Find Healing

Story

[ ALL INFORMATION APPROVED BY TITUS]

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds,” Psalm 147:3

If you have had the privilege of knowing TITUS LUKUMUENA, you know how amazing he is - if you have yet to meet Titus, let me just tell you that I hope that one day you get the opportunity to get to know him because he simply is the most kind human you will ever meet. Titus was born in Bakwa Mulumba, DRCongo into the most beautiful family. Unfortunate, tragedy caused a series of traumatic events to deeply affect Titus's life between the ages of 4 1/2 years old + 5 1/2 years old - events that lead to his diagnosis with C-PTSD, severe anxiety + depression.

On December 20th, Ty's traumas surfaced and led to Titus reaching a harmful breaking point that was a culmination of the trauma that he experienced in his young life. If you are not familiar with trauma, Aundi Kolber defines trauma as “an experience [that] overwhelms our nervous system's capacity to cope.“ That Tuesday afternoon, Titus lost his capacity to cope. His past experiences took over and began making his decisions for him causing dissociation. In an effort to protect his family, he thought it was best to leave and end his life. Within the stablizing unit, Ty received the C-PTSD diagnosis, along with the single episode depression diagnosis. We put plans in place in an effort to support Ty when he came home + our community helped us reach our medical fund goals within days!

Ty was on a path towards healing, working on utilizing the services of CBT, Neurofeedback, PRTMS + EMDR (when he is ready). He was doing so well (and continues to do well) with these treatments - he just hasnt' had enough time with all of the therapies YET. On January 12th, Ty decided he was ready to go back to school. We thought he was ready, he felt he was ready, his therapist suppported his decision - and by lunchtime we would see that a major trigger for Ty is anxiety. The lies his mind told him got the best of him and his brain began to dissociate. The lies caused him to not see his WORTH, VALUE + THE AMAZINGNESS that makes up TITUS. This time, when he went back the stabilizing unit, we would learn that Titus suffers form debilitating anxiety. 

WHY NOW is all of this happening? If you know Titus, you know that he has always been the most easy going kid. This quick onset of anxiety + surfacing of C-PTSD is likely due to age and maturity. He is having to let go of his childhood + letting go means letting go of pieces that are hard to release, thus causing emotions that he would rather not deal with + dissociation occurs. WHAT IS TRAUMA RELATED DISSOCIATION? Trauma-Related Dissociation is sometimes described as a 'mental escape' when physical escape is not possible, or when a person is so emotionally overwhelmed that they cannot cope any longer. Sometimes dissociation is like 'switching off'. Some survivors describe it as a way of saying 'this isn't happening to me'.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT TY is that he sees things as black and white. He is very literal. Because of this, his therapist came to the realization that when his mother died and the tribe accused him of being the reason his mother died and the harmful words spoken to him in 2 other trauma incidents - Ty took them into his heart and brain as truth and the value that his mother instilled in him diminished. Due to the age that he experienced this, they were deeply ingrained into the fabric of his soul. No matter how amazing he is, how many times we have told him of his greatness, his courage, his strength - those words spoken to him in his early childhood have taken up space for such a long time and he never really allowed us to see how he viewed himself.

ONE THING WE KNOW is that we are confident in the healing of Titus. His doctors are confident in his healing. His therapist is confident in his healing. It just is going to take time - and longer services are going to be needed.

Ty has ALWAYS been the sweetest, most amazing young man. Our family always says, "everyone loves Titus" because it is true. If you have met him, you adore him. Ty just doesn't believe this about himself, YET.

TREATMENT: Neurofeedback, CBT and EMDR (when Ty can tolerate it) will continue to be a normal part of his weekly routine as we have switched him to homebound schooling for the time being. These treatments are going to be prolonged and we once again need your help to make that happen. We are back to what feels like square one because FLORIDA has terrible mental health care coverage, thus making us pay out of pocket so that Ty can have the BEST PEOPLE ON HIS TEAM because he has far more life to live and lives to change as he bravely shares pieces of his story. We only want to work with the best people - he deserves to only have the best people on his side.

HERE IS OUR FINANCIAL NEED: 30 additional neurofeedback treatments $5782, 4 additional EMDR sessions: $800, CBT (6 Months) $3000 (our therapist already gives us a lower rate which is reflected in this number. This is 1 day a week for 6 months.) TOTAL: $9582

CURRENTLY Titus is making HUGE strides in healing. We could not be more proud of what he is doing and how he is engaging in his own healing of mental health. He is doing therapy with one of the BEST trauma therapist EVER 1x/week (we want to make it two), neurofeedback 3x/week and he is reading Try Softer by Aundi Kolber.

PLEASE HELP US REACH OUR GOALS SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO HELP TITUS HEAL AND OVERCOME THE TRAUMA. NO ONE DESERVES TO LIVE WITH PTSD STRUGGLES - let alone an amazing 15 year old who is going to change the world.