I need a sign that... things are gonna be okay and I know whatever you're gonna put in my path right now this is just where I meant to be and whether that's entertainment it's not entertainment it's just wine it's being a mom and maybe working down the street whatever it is like I know you're just I'm gonna see that sign and it's gonna be there did you have that like after December or when

Absolutely.

If Thelma and Louise did.

My mom, we had a good temper tantrum.

We called it our toddler temper tantrum at God.

And then it was interesting because I feel like I had to hand it all over.

You do.

What was your inspiration to write it? Like, where did it come from?

What happened this past December?

So I had – so the two conditions I had, you're not supposed to relapse from them, but also you weren't supposed – I wasn't supposed to survive from them.

So I love going and meeting with my doctors, and they go, how you doing? Like – We don't really know what to say because you're not, you recovered from something that you weren't supposed to recover from and survive something you weren't supposed to survive.

So we've kind of been, I'm a unicorn apparently, which who doesn't love unicorns? Would love some buddies on the island, but you know, it's fine.

But so it's something that you were never supposed to relapse.

And then I had a relapse in 2022 and then in 2024 and then two in 2025.

And the one in this past December, I was literally hosting a show.

Can you take me back to that now?

Let's return to the story.

[laughs] It was a lot.

It was heavy.

I mean, I, I know we say tomorrow isn't guaranteed, but my tomorrow was almost guaranteed to not come.

So I think every day I woke up, I was just like, "Still here" you know? And for me, it became a game 'cause I was a kid, you know? It became a game of the goner's still here.

I had this one moment where, you know, my nose itched, and I realized I couldn't scratch my nose and, and, uh, then I very quickly was like, "I could go down this path of all the things that I can't do, or I can get excited for the day I get to scratch my nose" and I started looking at the world like that, that every day I woke up, as bad as it was, as hard as it was, I'm still here.

I've got a family that loves me.

Here again is Victoria with the rest of her story.

Can you explain it?

Yes, absolutely.

So I, you know, with this book in particular, I was very adamant that this is not the story you know.

And it really is, you know, my first book, Locked In, was really just about the whole journey to even just coming back to life.

But no one talks about, you know, when you're expected to die, what happens when you live.

And so for me, I really, my story was shared when I was 17 without my permission.

So it kind of became a superhero cape that I wasn't equipped for and that I didn't ask for.

So he would

Like, how do you actually live with all of that under the surface?

I think for a long time, uh, I didn't really know how to.

I think I was, uh, I was kind of in denial of what had happened, so I just thought I could, I could move on, and...

But it always was in the back of my mind.

But I feel like I, you know, my mom and I have always said you can't have faith and fear in the same sentence.

And so I was, I was trying not to live in fear about it, but it always just loomed.

And then, you know, I never imagined you could have relapses and, but the doctors, you know, they're like, "You are one of the worst documented cases.

... and you end up suffering incredible consequences because of it?

Could we just like begin there? Even if it's briefly who someone who doesn't know your story about what happened to you when you were a child and how that

ended up shaping the trajectory of your life.

I was a normal kid up until the age of 11, normal up until the age of 11.

And then I didn't feel good one day.

And I started having a lot of questionable symptoms that Doctors couldn't really figure out.

And so I really declined pretty quickly.

So within three months, I lost the ability to walk, talk, move, and function.

Because

To join in the celebration and to hear some of the stories of people whose faith journeys have been impacted by all the writings of Sarah Young, head over to JesusCalling.com.

I truly don't know if there's anything scarier than waking up one day and realizing, you know, you can see and hear, but everyone's talking over you and doesn't know that you're in there.

Especially when doctors behind my parents' back were saying, can you believe this kid's parents think she's going to make it? This kid's a goner.

Let's begin with Victoria's story.

I am Victoria Arlen.

I am a TV host.

I'm an author.

I'm the co-founder of Victoria's Victory Foundation.

When do you first really remember experiencing anxiety and depression?

Very early on, I feel like even when I was like swimming, like it was very like I remember just always being nervous and always feeling like, why can't I feel like really happy or really like, like really, you know, it was like there was kind of this numbness, but I didn't know any different because, you know, before this, I was 11.

So, you know, I was just this like whimsical kid.

So I feel like it was.

looming ever since I came out of the vegetative state.

And then all of a sudden, probably my like mid twenties, I remember just not being okay.

Like all these big things were happening and I didn't feel anything.

okay.

Mm.

"How did you make the world a better place?" So I was always very aware that there was something bigger than myself, and I think even my mom, she would o- she would come down.

Because we were brought up Protestant, very typical Protestant, so you go to Sunday school and you... color pictures of Jesus and that's it.

But I had a children's Bible, so I was always just very curious about- Mm ... my faith and- Mm ... or at the time I didn't even know it was called my faith.

Yeah.

But my mom said she would come down and she was like, "This kid's been here." Like she knows some stuff that she is- Wow ...

like telling me.

Yeah.

Hmm.

She goes, "I'm gonna hand you this manuscript, and I want you to read it not as the writer but as the reader you wrote it for." And I read it, and it was something that, you know, I was almost then giving myself a master class on what I had written, and I would've been doing a real disservice if I didn't, you know, start taking into account resting, taking care of myself, being proactive with my health.

And so it was just, it's crazy how God works in such mysterious ways.

But in that moment in particular, you know, reminding myself my worth is not defined by my work, and continuing to reestablish those new ways of thinking, those new pathways, and I think it was very habitual for me to define how worthy I was with what I was achieving and doing.

And then at that point, like, I went dark on social media for a good month or so.

So in that way, would you recommend people always have someone to talk to al- e- e- even if it's not a professional but at least, um, a good friend, a relative? What would you recommend they reach out to at, you know, when things are actually kind of sa- of calm?

I feel like you just have to have a safe space, whatever that may look like.

If it is, you know, a, a, a faith mentor, if it's a friend, if it's a family member, if it's a therapist, having a safe space because if you keep it bottled up, it eventually implodes and/or it shows up in being a workaholic, being constantly stressed, self-medicating.

She knew what God started, he was going to finish.

[applause]

If you receive it, can you say amen today?

[applause]

Oh my God

... and I just was at this point where I was, I was just cr- I was paralyzed.

I was curled up on the floor and, um, and all this stuff was going on.

So much good was going on.

And I told my mom, I was like, "I can't do this.

I, I don't, I don't know what to do." And, and um, and she was kind of calming me down and, and um, she goes, "Ask for a sign." She goes, "Let's, let's say a prayer together and let's ask for a sign." And so I go down and I get myself together.

I de-puff my face with some cold spoons, and I, and I go down and I give this speech, and it was all that I had left in me.

[laughs]

I agree.

I think it was done very tastefully.

And look, I'm not a Swifty per se.

I have an interesting story that made me a fan of Taylor Swift, but more so as a person.

And you kind of understood, oh, wow, she actually... she's a really cool human.

And that was a couple of years ago.

And, but she is someone, and so it's Travis Kelsey.

What am I missing here as far as the defensive drop-off that he's talking about that would cost them so drastically that they wouldn't even be on your short list of contenders to go defend their title? To me, that's ludicrous.

What are you looking forward to most this college football season? I

think the fact that it's pretty wide open right now.

I think last year we spent half the season just trying to figure out the 12-team playoff, and I think this year teams know what they need to do.

Teams know how they need to shape up to get into the 12-team playoff.

But I'm surprised we're not talking more about Clemson and the fact that we've given Dabo so much chagrin, if you will, of the fact that he doesn't like the transfer portal and – He's been in this development season and Clemson was the team from 2016, 2018, 2019.

They were that title contending superstar team.

I think that's the team we're looking at right now.

So

It just so happened that the cameras caught him doing that.

I I'm first here for the pettiness.

I really am.

I think given what he's been going through, the we'll obviously talk more about the the Jerry drama that Jerry keeps doing.

I I do think he was trying to be a distraction, though, in a sense of obviously.

Him showing up, he's the only guy without a jersey on.

He doesn't have his pads on.

Victoria, what do you make of Caleb Williams and the preseason thus far?

But to say that he's forgotten about it or doesn't think that much about it, I don't know if I'm buying that from the artist formerly known as Travis Kelsey, the Chiefs tight end.

No, I don't think at all.

I mean, I think when you lose, it's one thing.

Like you said, when you lose in the embarrassing fashion that the Chiefs lost last year, that's another thing.

Now, mind you, this is a very different Travis Kelsey we're seeing at training camp.

He's a lot more dialed in.

He's lost weight.

But when you have that power as an old, foddering man that he is, and you keep putting microphones in front of his face, you shouldn't be having an unexpected reaction when he's going to say the same thing over and over again when it's all about the value of Jerry Jones more than anybody

Winning a playoff game is the bare minimum, and it shouldn't be the bare minimum in a place like Pittsburgh, but it is because they haven't

done it in the last five, six years.

They haven't done it since 2017, January 15th to be exact.

So they're 0-5 when it comes to playoff wins.

Wins.

Just a win in the playoff.

But you make a good point because it isn't just winning a playoff now.

Can Illinois, tread lightly here, make the college football playoff?

What's your read on the situation? Probably is not definitely.

Let's be honest.

And also, let's not forget that just a few weeks ago, they waived his friend, Damian Lillard, and Giannis was very quick to say, I'm not happy.

So there has been this very... what appears to be this toxic push-pull.

But Giannis, he's not dumb.

He's not going to say nah or yes because he wants to play his cards right because the Bucs are playing their cards right.

And I think there's becoming this bit of a power struggle.

Well, good one.

If the Jets and Aaron Glenn and Justin Fields can clean up the mess that Aaron Rodgers left, that to me would be an unbelievable story in the NFL.

I think the AFC East is in for a shakeup.

And I think the Jets and Justin Fields could be the team to do it.

Because Justin Fields is a player that really hasn't had his moment to quite truly shine yet.

He had his stint in Chicago.

He had his stint with the Steelers.

But he hasn't really had a team that's fully been like, we're in.

If Jackson Dart is the one that steps in, he has success for the Giants this season, and he essentially saves two people's