This Is What My Life Is Like Living With Cerebral Palsy
People with disabilities are people first. We are not defined by our disability as one-dimensional. Forty weeks. That’s what my mom was supposed to get. Forty weeks to feel the swell of her belly, have...
View ArticleTo All The Women Silently Suffering Through Anxiety: I Feel You
You’re not alone. Last weekend, a friend invited me to come and spend the holiday weekend at her parents’ beach house. She asked me because she knew I was going through a particularly rough patch of...
View Article4 Types Of Toxic Friends You Need To Cut From Your Life Right Now
A bad friendship can actually shorten your life. Friends are the flowers in the garden of life, according to a cheesy plaque I once saw in a gift shop. But in fact, some friends are more like stinkweed...
View Article7 Things I Learned About Myself When I Quit Alcohol
Most people don’t understand why someone would choose not to drink anymore. I started drinking in my late teens and drank until I was forty; that’s a lot of wine! When I left my stressful job I could...
View ArticleI Sat In The Dark With A Dead Body For 8 Hours To Cure My Fear Of Death
Spoiler alert: maybe not the best idea I’ve ever had. I was eight years old when I first realized I had a fear of death. I was visiting my grandparents for a weekend along with my sister and my mom. My...
View ArticleI Talked To A Behavior Expert And Learned So Much About My Anxiety
Two years ago, I barely knew what anxiety was. Today it permeates most of my life. My first panic attack was sickening and confusing. That vivid moment of gripping at my chest and feeling my body go...
View ArticleThe One Word That’s Sabotaging Your Entire Life
You should really stop saying it. When I was little, I had a teacher who used to tell our class there was no such word as can’t. If we thought something was too hard, or we felt like giving up, we were...
View ArticleI’m Happy In My Fat Body, But I Miss Being Thin
Content notice: dieting, weight loss, eating disorders Are you a thin kid who became a fat adult? Did you spend your youth eating anything and everything paying no attention to the warnings of the...
View ArticleMy Scars Are A Constant Reminder Of My Violent Rape. But I’m Still Here.
Content Notice: Sexual Assault I’m what you might call a rape victim. Twelve years ago, I was assaulted in an attack so brutal it left me with some of the most serious injuries ever seen on a live rape...
View ArticleWhat I Wish People Understood About Living With PTSD
Imagine living the worst moment of your life over and over again. I feel my stomach drop. My body starts shaking; and all of a sudden, I just can’t calm down. I’m finding it hard to breathe; my hands...
View ArticleWhat It’s Really Like To Love A Woman With Severe Anxiety
If you already have a tendency to obsess, adding another person to the equation doesn’t help. Ever worry when you have absolutely nothing to worry about? I do. I sometimes envy anyone who doesn’t...
View ArticleMake All Your Loved Ones Read This If You’ve Ever Had A Panic Attack
We may not be able to tell you what we need. But we don’t want you to leave. It starts gradually. Your chest slowly begins to constrict, until you realize you’re no longer able to take a full breath…...
View ArticleDaisies Grow Through The Cracks: Losing A Friend To Suicide
Content Notice: Suicide I knew before I truly knew. When the icon revealing the new Facebook message from Daisy’s brother flashed on my screen on a hot July evening in 2017, my heart fell to my feet....
View ArticleI Thought I Was “Too Young” For Mental Health Problems
I wish I had realized there was no such thing as being too young to have mental health issues. “You’re not pregnant,” a stranger told me in the mall food court. I was standing with my co-worker,...
View ArticleWhat It Really Means To Be An Asexual Woman
I had no interest in sex with anyone. This edited extract originally appeared on Role Reboot. Republished here with permission. As a deeply religious teenager, I mistook my lack of sexual interest for...
View ArticleSometimes, You Need To Embrace The Crapstorm Of Life
“Acknowledging the complexity of life may be an especially fruitful path to psychological wellbeing.” One of my earliest memories is of being a little kid at nursery school, sitting in a circle and...
View ArticleThese Pics Of My Double Chin Helped Me Dump High-Angle Photos Forever
About a year ago I took a big leap: I decided to stop taking high-angle photos once and for all. When it’s time to take group photos someone almost always seems to suggest that we take a photo from...
View ArticleAntidepressants Have Changed Who I Am And That’s Okay
Content Notice: Suicidal ideation “I feel like I’ve lost myself. I don’t know what’s me anymore,” I quietly said to my therapist during one of our sessions a few months ago. I had been on my current...
View ArticleMy Parents Stole My Identity. I Won’t Let Them Steal My Future.
It didn’t matter where we lived, or how much money we made (my parents made enough to support us); every day was a crisis. You will have to file a police report against your father. I knew it. I just...
View ArticleDear High School Friends, You’re Not Invited To My Lesbian Wedding
Had my high school friends always been so buttoned-up? If I were to tell my younger self that I have only one friend from my high school years spent in Westport, Connecticut attending my wedding that’s...
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