Hello, My story is not unique, unfortunately. So many young boys are brutalized by family members and go on to live in chasms of despair, confusion and self-hate unnecessarily. Silence is a killer. Victims must feel free to speak up without fear of reprisal or subjugation. My abuse was at the hands of my father [...]
My girlfriend and I have been together for quite a while and I'm proposing soon. It's going very well and we're very happy, but both of us are traumatized, and continuing to be so due to where we live, and that can cause some issues. Here's a little insight on the problems caused by two [...]
On bad days, I don’t know where the anxiety stops and the chronic pain begins. The tightening in my chest could be warning of a panic attack or of a fibromyalgia flare that will spread across my chest, down my arms and into my hands, rendering me unable to write – both my work and [...]
I had just transferred colleges and moved two states away. It felt like it'd be a comfortable environment, just four hours away from the town that I grew up in, but it wasn't going to stay that way for long. The school was a dream come true, as far as administration and student accommodations went. [...]
The faces of mental illness put forward by the world never match mine. They’re nearly always white rather than brown, as I am; they’re generally wild eyed or in the context of violence or out of control. That’s not how the people in my life describe me, and even those closest to me often miss [...]
The day I disclosed the abuse to my supervisor at work, it had already manifested as a critical issue that needed to be addressed. She and I were alone in that office as I sat in silence staring at the floor, too ashamed and too frightened to force the words from my mouth. He was [...]
I was taken advantage of -over and over again- at points in my life that I needed to be supported and protected. Started with age three until eight, I'm raped and molested. Funny thing, PTSD. It does a great job at hiding the screams of the innocent child, stuffed inside the adult. I grew up, but screaming [...]
WHY DO MENTAL ILLNESS AND ADDICTION SEEM TO SO OFTEN GO TOGETHER? _______________________________________________________ The day I asked myself how I had travelled so deeply into my depression—when all I wanted was to get out—I wore an anti-suicide smock and cried in a basement jail cell in Williston, North Dakota. I write that I travelled to [...]
Joy lives here by Christy Abram I won't go... They told me I have to... I dug my heels deep in the earth to escape his strength ... Stop...you can't take me..I won't go... Crooked smiles passed as he led the way... I resisted sprouting obscenities and pulling at his scratchy coat... I won't go, [...]
Trigger Warning: Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse I still remember my first sexual encounter. I was 4 years old. I remember every detail, as if I was a spectator, rather than the child. I don’t remember the physical sensations, but I do remember every word spoken, every scene enacted. Since it’s with me more than [...]
