Oct 4, 2011

LSU soccer player Mo Isom finds purpose from father’s suicide and her car crash

For my Crisis Communication course I was asked to step outside my comfort zone and interview an individual that has faced a traumatic event and tell their story. Mo, thank you for sharing your journey with me.
Mo Isom is a 21-year-old college senior and division-one soccer player for LSU. She stands six feet tall and her physical strength and abilities are evident in her statuesque physique, sculpted muscular exterior and numerous athletic accolades. She is a powerhouse. But her strength is built from her adversities, not the hours of conditioning she puts in at the gym.

In January 2009, she lost her father to suicide. Ten months later, Isom nearly lost her own life in a car crash. These devastating events reeked havoc on Isom and left her emotionally, physically and spiritually damaged.

“I would not be the woman I am today without the challenges I faced. I think my scars [physical and emotional] are
beautiful and I am grateful for them,” Isom said.

Isom’s journey back to her present state of outward and inward power did not happen over night. But she emerged from the dark places she hid in her mind after her father’s death, and from the automotive rubble of her car crash. She is renewed in spirit and harnesses a fierce passion to inspire others to overcome their adversities.

“It is amazing what the human body can overcome and can heal from. But it is even more amazing what the human spirit and what the human heart can overcome and heal from. Healing is never easy and growth is always painful but it is so possible,” Isom said.

Isom fell into a deep depression following her father’s suicide.

“After my dad’s loss, there was just this big gaping hole in me. I lost my best friend and sole male guide in my life. The person I talked to 15 times a day was not there anymore. I just wanted to fill the time that he’d once occupied with something,” Isom said.

She took anti-depressants, attended grief counseling and received support from the university, her closest friends, family and church to cope with the pain. But none of these filled the emptiness inside her heart.

“Though people were sending love and sending comfort, there’s only so much you can receive at a time. And I could make strides and small improvements, but the quickest fix was just to feel good with the alcohol, feel good with the men. Feel that temporary fix. ” Isom said.

Despite the compromising behaviors, Isom kept a promise she made to herself, her mother and God and hung on to her virginity. Though she admits, she pushed those boundaries to their very limits.

“I got really good at hiding my pain because I was doing what a lot of other freshman were doing, even though they were not common behaviors for me. I even got commended for how well I was managing but I was not really ok,” she said.

Isom said it took about six months of being completely lost before she could feel anything again.

“Because of the way that I was raised, there was this little voice from the beginning saying stay true to yourself, you know who you are, don’t fall to this. But that voice is easily overshadowed by hurt, and so it took me a while to pick myself back up. But even then it was still a struggle,” she said.

Isom said the eight-hour drive from her family and closest friends made it even more difficult to heal.

“I think the environments that we can heal in are very conducive to how well we heal, and being alone at college isn’t exactly the most conducive environment for rapid healing,” she said.

Her sophomore soccer season without her dad in the stands beaming back at her with pride made moving on even more difficult for Isom but she said it helped her heal.

“The sport that my father and I bonded over for years was just the release my heart needed and I started feeling more myself,” Isom said.

Isom rebuilt her emotional strength through counseling, perseverance and the cathartic release soccer gave her, but her spirit needed more repairs and soon so would her body.

The soccer season ended and she drove toward home for the Thanksgiving break. The night air filled with a thick fog and obscured her vision.

"I was so eager to get home and see my family, later I remember being angry at how poorly I was driving," Isom said.

A deer dashed in front of Isom’s SUV and she yanked her wheel.
Isom’s Jeep Liberty rolled more than three times and collided with a tree. She landed upside down choking and gagging as her blood dripped from her mouth into her nose.

She sustained a broken neck, fractured ribs, and severe contusions to her lungs, liver and brain. The collision damaged her face, eye and jaw. The crash mangled her body, but at her weakest moment physically she renewed her faith and relationship with Christ.

“At that moment, I was so broken, I was so vulnerable, I was so consumed by pain but I felt a comfort I hadn’t felt in so long. I felt the presence of my dad and the presence of the holy spirit,” she said.

Isom said her renewed relationship with Christ gave her the strength she needed to make it through the months of recovery. She would need it. She withdrew from school and spent the next two months mostly in bed or in and out of the hospital for numerous complications.

It took Isom six months of extensive physical and neurological rehabilitation to regain her strength. The contusions on her brain left her with a stutter – a big challenge to overcome for a broadcast journalism major, she still suffers from short-term memory loss, and the pain and the healing of her bones left her exhausted and debilitated.

“I was sick from all the pain medicine until they found one that worked, and the months ahead were so difficult because I literally had to rebuild my body from scratch. I suffered from post-concussive syndrome and that was really terrifying and frustrating because I was walking around in a fog and had difficulty putting together simple sentences,” she said.

After months of rehabilitation and a renewed faith, Isom decided to use her adversities to inspire others to overcome their hardships. Isom exposed her vulnerability and made her story public.

“We have to believe in ourselves and dismiss the people in our lives that tell us that we can’t. Our lives are what we make of them, and that ability is inside each of us. Everything is very attainable it just takes a lot of heart and a lot of faith,” she said.

Her body and spirit restored, Isom is breaking team records and plans to try out as the kicker for the football team in the spring – a solid sign of her regained physical strength. She shares her story through her blog and as a motivational speaker for youth. She is a living, breathing example of conquered life-altering hardships.

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