In my 21 step journey through ASCA (Adult Survivors of Child Abuse) I have identified one of my least favorite sayings: “We will allow everyone to take the lead in deciding what the past means for them.” I believe I have found the right therapist for me at this time…

A letter to hope might be the hardest letter to write. Hope has been evasive. As someone who has survived and lived with childhood medical neglect, C-PTSD, chronic pain and depression, and anxiety — hope is something that faded away and isn’t allowed anymore. My stress about writing about hope…

From the beginning of the year in January, I made a promise to myself to write about the things that I didn’t want to write about. That includes not just the things I am afraid of, but the things I am embarrassed by boasting about. Despite having gone through three…

Depression and Anxiety were things that never left me in my 30s. I was haunted by trauma and PTSD from my childhood and thought I had managed through them in my 20s. During my early 30s, I had a lot of environmental fluctuation, changing jobs, becoming the full-time caregiver for…

Going ‘No Contact’ may sound harsh. Established relationships with friends and family are crucial bonds that are needed among humans. There are very good criteria for stepping away from relationships, and that doesn’t mean reconciliation can’t occur in the future. Going no contact is not about punishing the other person…

A continuing daily experiment with a lifelong commitment I have often struggled with the idea of a safe place to land. I have struggled with childhood bullying, verbal and emotional abuse as well as medical neglect. It has been a long road for me to self-soothe and learn what works…

This is a piece from my personal journal. Some context: I have suffered for many years from repeat infections of my Bartholin gland, which has turned into a non-cancerous cyst. It has caused me so much trouble over the years that I recently had a terrible experience in the Emergency…

I have had a complicated relationship with food. I was an athlete in high school and college, bullied in elementary school and at home about my weight, forced to go to the school psychologist without my parents knowledge, compulsively weighed my clothes separately from weighing myself, took a weight loss…

Normalizing my period to save a life Five years ago I had a period that would not stop for three months. Between December and March, I had a period that would start with dark blood, which is “old blood”. Then it would tapper off after 2 or 3 days. …