EMDR, PPD & Self Compassion... Every Monday I have my therapy appointment. This is for my new therapy that I started a few months ago, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). If I tried to explain the exact technique, I think I would confuse you further. What I can say, is that it is hard. [...]
I was working as a paramedic in Long Island and preparing to go to medical school. My father has a condition called Mitral Valve Prolapse, which resulted in him having a surgical procedure. Because the condition is hereditary, I opted to have a voluntary surgical procedure on my heart to preserve my overall health. 95 [...]
Free The first time I thought about killing myself, I was seven or eight years old. My parents had recently separated. With their separation, the thin film that had kept me from falling into a dark hole wore through. In fact, I had reoccurring dreams about it, about a hole, in our front yard, sucking [...]
EMDR: For People With PTSD So often one of the first questions I am asked when people learn that I am therapist specializing in trauma work is "What is trauma and how do you really know you have PTSD?" So let me first start by explaining these terms, as they are too often misunderstood, with [...]
Inside My Head – Part III It would seem that I’ve hit the trifecta of brain damage. First, I told you about the one I don’t talk about: anxiety and panic. Then, I told you about the one I talk about all the time: concussions and post-concussion syndrome. Now, I’m going to tell you about [...]
Hello From The Outside (I Am A Hypocrite) I grew up in a loving home, with a father and a mother that were seemingly happy together. We went on family vacations and my siblings and I never went without. My parents sacrificed everything for us, and I will always be thankful for that – for [...]
When I was a child, I was told to fear strangers; that they were the threat to my innocence. Unfortunately, I was never told that real danger would come from someone in my own family. When I was 10 years old, my great grandfather molested me. It wasn’t enough that he stole my innocence from me, [...]
I’m one of the lucky ones. Mental illness enslaved me when it locked its sturdy chains around my hands and feet in the late 1990s. But I fought back – strongly and fiercely. Not only against the curse of the illness itself, but against the curse of the stigma it uses to plague its victims. [...]
For many years I was caught up in the vicious cycle of alcohol, anxiety and depression. If I was anxious, I drank. If I was depressed, I drank. Then I would sober up and the anxiety and depression were still there, only now I felt even worse. I suffered from social anxiety. I just wanted [...]
Trigger warning *talk of suicide I’m a walking. talking contradiction…at least in my mind. Living with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder makes me feel like a complete hypocrite because of my contradictory thoughts. I’m simultaneously stressing out about all the things I want and need to do while I have many thoughts that [...]
