"I survived and you can too" The story of our Founder and CEO, Elise Riannen
After 30 years experiencing first hand how society at times can treat those with invisible illnesses differently, Elise Riannen was absolutely fed up. Elise had worked in the healthcare setting since she was 17 years of age, starting out as a volunteer receptionist, working her way up quickly to become a practice manager, business development manager and finally government manager specialising in improving the mental health and primary health sector.
This meant she understood how the health system worked inside and out and dedicated her early career to helping over 2000 GP's improve their medical practice's with aim to provide better patient outcomes across the state. Elise started her career as a junior medical receptionist and worked her way up very quickly into practice management in both primary and mental health care settings, eventually managing state-wide accreditation responsibilities and working directly with practices assessing where they could do better. Although she was able to work, when Elise started experiencing sudden onset widespread pain as a young person who looked fine on the outside, everything changed.
The medical system she had supported for 10 years turned it's back on her with statement's like "it's all in your head" "lose weight, exercise and you will be fine". She felt broken as her entire body was in agony day in, day out flaring like it was on fire and bruised. After surviving extensive childhood trauma watching her parent's struggle with family violence, alcoholism and suicide, then surviving recurrent domestic, physical, emotional, sexual and financial violence as a young adult in her relationships, it was enough for her to want to her end her life completely.
She was tired. It wasn't that she necessarily wanted to die, it was that the feeling of being so burnt out by recurrent never ending trauma outweighed her desire to keep fighting another day. She was always the bubbly, kind and loving person to everyone she knew, but she no longer felt anything, let alone wanted to feel the pain she was unable to process. She wanted to numb it all away.
Elise, a struggling single mum to a young daughter chose to end her pain by overdosing on high dependent sleeping tablet's, the ambulance was called and when she woke up the security guard on suicide watch explained that she coded and almost lost her life.
She couldn't understand why as a young woman and mum, she so desperately wanted her life to end, especially knowing what it felt like as a child to watch her own mum go through the same thing when she had to revive her own mum at 7 years old to the same cause - overdose. All she knew was that the world as it existed was not a world she felt able or willing to bare.
"I felt like I was never enough. Everything was hard. I was absolutely exhausted and felt as though the violence and hardship in my life would never end. I lost who I was completely."
This surprisingly wasn't the epiphany she was looking for though with her chronic pain and domestic violence journey continuing for another 3 years with countless medical professionals discounting her pain and her employer's and fellow community members discriminating against her because she looked perfectly healthy on the outside. The amount of times she was abused for using her disability parking permit because she looked able and well externally was relentless and soul crushing.
Elise was left with no choice but to find the fight within and take on the health system completely alone having to advocate for her experiences quite loudly after doctors refused to look for a diagnosis, eventually receiving confirmed diagnosis by scans that she was living with over 20 different invisible but very painful conditions. Condition's that were way more than just "in her head" and were proven by scans that doctors had previously refused to run due to the assumption it was all in her head.
By her mid 20's Elise was diagnosed with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Fibromyalgia, Spinal Sclerosis, Bilateral Sacroiliac Arthropathy, Bilateral Bone Marrow Edema, Vasculitis, Costochondritis, Joint Narrowing Disease, Joint Dysfunction, Obesity, Sacroiliitis, Osteoarthritis, CSF Leak (caused by a negligently performed lumbar puncture which left her paralysed for 7 days), Chronic Migraines, Bilateral Sciatica, Bilateral Bursitis, Meniere's Disease, Endometriosis, Adenomyosis, Cervical Lesions, PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) and ADHD which affects young girls and women very differently than the disorder is typically known for.
"I had to stand my ground and find the strength to keep advocating for myself against all the odds. My life revolved around pain killers and weekly doctors appointments and I couldn't continue living my life that way"
It was during the peak of her pain when she was sitting on the couch crying at how hard it was to take care of herself and frustrated with the fact she had to go to multiple doctor's multiple times a week and multiple shops to find the products that she needed that she realised it should all just be in one place. A one stop comfort experience.
"Why does it have to be so difficult to take care of yourself?" It was that day that Elise made a promise to herself that she was going to make it easier not just for her but for everyone she knew who was suffering the same existence and she held her glass of wine in her hand and said a cheers "Here's to Strength".
She worked hard every day to figure out what Here's to Strength meant, she started designing custom comfort products like heat packs and motivational clothing/giftware and began building the vision of what Here's to Strength would offer invisible illness sufferers.
Suicide reared its head again when Elise received a goodbye letter from her mum. Elise's world turned completely upside down again when her mum who had also suffered invisible illness her entire life including recurrent physical, sexual, emotional and financial trauma, mental health, recurrent suicide attempts, chronic pain, complete neuropathy of the feet, liver failure, kidney failure and regular pseudo non epileptic seizures, chose to successfully end her life in August of 2021.
Some of her mum's final words were "I feel like I can be a better mum to you on the other side. Here's to Strength is your motto - live and breathe it." a sentence which Elise has held onto everyday since.
Elise's father who has also suffered ongoing trauma since childhood is another reason Elise set her mission to change the way self care is managed, with his diagnosis of Early Onset Parkinson's Disease in his early 50's, among many other challenges he now lives with that has prevented him from enjoying the rest of his life that he worked so hard to survive.
Both parents have been and continue to be incredible inspirations for Elise to keep fighting. Although due to the trauma's both parents were facing, her childhood was very unpredictable, she looks back at how lucky she was to have been loved by two strong individuals that taught her every skill she now uses today.
Elise's recovery didn't really start until she finally met her new GP in the South of Adelaide who introduced her to Medicinal Cannabis which ultimately turned her life completely around including not only her physical health but her mental health as well.
Elise went from experiencing immense daily pain, disabled, unable to move, 160kg, administering over 12 high dependent prescription drugs of addiction all day every single day to completely functional, minimal to no pain, 60kg lighter and eventually able to start and solely run her own business working 7 days a week and 14 hour a day's on her feet all without pain.
So after a few years of personal growth and self initiated healing, Elise finally felt ready to launch her first Community Wellness Hub. A community safe space dedicated to not only her journey but everyones invisible struggle journey.
She opened her first hub in 2022 as a small family business, met her partner and rebuilt her life once again. In 2024, Elise later established a not for profit charitable organisation called Here's to Strength Community Wellness Collaborative with four other founding members Braden Murphy, Kelly Slater, Gabrielle Enright and Kristy Maurice-Jones who are collectively working to grow Elise's community wellness vision using her blueprint to operate the Here's to Strength Community Wellness Hub, the Here's to Strength Community Pantry and Here's to Strength Community Support Fund.
At the hubs you immediately feel at home, safe, heard and validated with features of the space designed to comfort and motivate everyone who comes in.
Onsite there is an all day cafe serving mostly organic locally grown food and specialty coffee, a self care retail store selling locally made or designed products that make you laugh, comfort you or inspire you, theapy animals with ducks and bunnies that roam around our child friendly backyard, adult calm spaces in our courtyard gardens, practitioner rooms with over 50 sessions a week of medical, wellness and self care services, a free community pantry that operates 24/7 providing free donated food directly to the community in a discreet and empowering manner, and staff who are available to have a chat when you are feeling overwhelmed and can connect individuals in crisis to services that may be able to assist.
It's a calm vibe that just feels good with calming music, an invisible illnesses advocacy mannequin, motivational quotes and people that genuinely care. Self care is different for everyone, this is why there are so many modalities and activities to support mental wellbeing is accessible in one place.
As another solution to accessibility, Elise also had a vision to make it easier for individuals and service providers to find services and crisis resources in one place online and she designed an online concept where everything as located in one directory in live time nationwide. In 2024, Elise and her partner Braden established an online company known as the Here's to Strength Self Care Directory.
Elise built Here's to Strength as a genuine small business journey with absolutely no money in her pocket, paying expenses week to week. Her drive and passion for change and lived experience knowing what its like to want to give up is what helped her push through the long days and nights. With the help of her partner Braden who joined the vision soon after opening and the unconditional support from her friends, they were able to continue to build her vision leaving a legacy for not only their family but that of generations to come proving that healing truly is possible and there is always a reason to keep fighting.
Life started to turn around for Elise. She realised the hard work she had put in to prioritising her self care was the right path for her when after 8 years of infertility and miscarraige she fell pregnant with her son Lucas, an unexpected miracle baby.
"Once I learned how to prioritise my self care, I found not only myself again but realised my whole life had different possibilities. I was living with purpose, following my dreams, met the love of my life, worked in alignment with my passion everyday. I discovered the impossible was possible and every minute was in fact worth living. I was gratefulI chose to live"
Elise realised in her dream for Here's to Strength that every single trauma and difficulty she had survived was for a reason so she could fulfil this purpose and very quickly understood living in gratitude was the ultimate manifestation power. Her trauma is what she calls her superpower now. She understands life at a realistic level which equips her to tackle the obstacles we face in society to ultimately end the stigma around self care, invisible illness, positive body advocacy and suicide prevention.
With a vision to open 100 community wellness spaces around Australia and establish the Here's to Strength Self Care Directory as Australia's leading digital technology healthcare solution, Elise and her partner/co-director Braden are only just at the beginning of their journey to end the stigma around mental health and wellbeing, knowing that with time the conversation's which are now starting to ignite will save countless individuals from the desperation so many close to them have felt first hand.
Elise is now what she calls in remission from suicide and has now dedicated her life to setting up a new way forward for those who are still suffering and need self care skills to empower and work through their own healing journey.
Here's to YOUR Strength...
In support of her mission to end the stigma, Elise has been invited to speak about her journey at various public community events, schools and workplaces in hope that self care is prioritised and understood on a real level for generations to come. To invite Elise to speak at your event, please contact our team.
