Victory In Every Fall: The Antaeus Approach to Overcome Disabilities
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What if your greatest challenges could become your greatest strengths?
Life has a way of knocking us down – sometimes lightly, sometimes with a force so brutal we wonder if we’ll ever rise again. But what if the very falls that leave us broken also contain the seeds of our greatest transformation?
In Victory in Every Fall, Kurt Warner, LMSW, draws inspiration from the Greek myth of Antaeus – a giant who gained strength each time he touched the earth. Like Antaeus, Warner shows us that every time life knocks us down, we have the opportunity to rise even stronger. Through five deeply personal and life-altering experiences – a traumatic brain injury, severe OCD, bipolar disorder, profound grief, and chronic back pain – Warner reveals how each “fall” was not an end, but the beginning of something powerful.
With raw honesty and vivid storytelling, Warner demonstrates how adversity can become the source of unforeseen strength. He shares how, by embracing the struggles that seemed to overwhelm him, he found resilience, empowerment, and ultimately, triumph. His story is a testament to the Antaeus approach: when we hit rock bottom, we can find new strength by grounding ourselves in the struggle and using it as a foundation for growth.
This is more than a memoir of survival – it’s a guide to overcoming even the most overwhelming obstacles. Whether you’re battling illness, mental health challenges, or personal loss, Victory in Every Fall offers more than hope – it offers a roadmap for transforming pain into power and weakness into wisdom.
Falling is inevitable. But what comes after is up to you. Will you stay down? Or will you rise, like Antaeus, stronger than ever before?
About the author
Kurt Warner
Kurt Warner graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English literature from King’s College in Pennsylvania and graduated with a master’s in social work from Binghamton University. He won both of the English awards in his class and has been published in the King’s College literary magazine, Disability in Society, Cortland Standard newspaper and Same Time Next Week: True Stories of Working through Mental Illness. Warner was the writer for the Mental Health Association of Cortland County and is currently working as a psychotherapist with individuals struggling with mental health issues.
The ancient Roman poet and satirist Juvenal stated that people were distracted by “bread and circuses” rather than engaged in their civic duty. Juvenal argued these bread and circuses, or basic needs and entertainment, consumed the thoughts and lives of the average Roman no matter what was happening in the Republic around them. The powerful political forces in society used many different forms of distraction to enable them to do what they wanted unimpeded by the masses.
‘False Idols: How Diversion Is Destroying Democracy’ picks up where Juvenal left off. The book is a journey through contemporary America and it illustrates how the concept of “bread and circuses” is as powerful and as relevant now as it was in the days of ancient Rome. It examines the deliberate distractions that are created by the cultivation of false idols. The distractions include the adoration of celebrities and parasocial interactions, the economic culture and the implicit belief systems contained within it, sports and the adoration of athletes, the political system and structure, the art, music, and literature we spend our time listening to and watching, the internet and social media that occupies so much of our time, and the video games that occupy the minds and much of the lives of so many people. As long as everybody is chasing and distracted by these bread and circuses, they are willfully negligent to the goings-on in the very fabric of the social network that is of our society, government, and country. The more negligent they become, the more the democracy continues withering and dying. This book systemically deconstructs a modern society that seems designed to consistently pull us away from rather than draw us toward the creation of a better existence for all.
Other Works
Click below to view previous publications from Kurt.
Same Time Next Week - Contributing Writer
The Dictator in My Head
Kurt was a contributing writer in this book. He wrote a chapter called: The Dictator in My Head.
Disability & Society Journal
Mentalism, disability rights and modern eugenics in a ‘brave new world’
Kurt also co-wrote a published article in Disability & Society, titled: Mentalism, disability rights and modern eugenics in a ‘brave new world’