I grew up in the ballet world, so it's impossible for me to remember a time when I wasn't highly conscious of my body size. As a recovered anorexic, many people assume that ballet must be the sole cause of my years-long battle with an eating disorder — but it's far from that simple. I [...]
Stoicism Ever heard or seen the phrase “Keep Calm Carry On”? Of course you have. You’re a human doesn’t live under a rock. At least I hope you don’t. Anyway, that phrase is a Stoic idea coming from the ancient philosophy of Stoicism. Believe it or not Stoicism is all over the place. It’s in [...]
I've never been one to embrace limits, but in the past few years I've learned that doing so is a matter of maintaining emotional stability. Recently, I was asked to accompany my best friend to his sister's. I hesitated because I'd been subjected to three incidents of hair-pulling in a 48-hour period by his teen-aged [...]
Support System I struggled from the time I was fourteen to the time I was twenty-two, with something I could not name. Doctors called it a lot of things from depression to allergies, and none of the diagnoses were correct. I felt that I was fighting an invisible demon, who refused to let me go. [...]
OCD Blogging OCD to the general public seems to be conveyed as simply washing your hands too many times, or organizing objects certain ways when they bother you. People on social media are always putting pictures up saying “this triggers my OCD”, or “I’m so OCD” not necessarily knowing what OCD is for people dealing [...]
More than anything, I want to help other people around me. Ever since I was young, I always helped others before helping myself. I was under the impression from a young age that if you gave yourself self-love, or self-care that you were selfish. This is unfortunately the conditioning that we receive at a very [...]
My story begins when I was around 8 years old, I’d been ill with nausea and vomiting. I’d never knowingly been sick before. I remember feeling frightened. I remember feeling a total lack of control over my body. Over the following weeks and months I can remember becoming obsessed with making sure I wasn’t sick [...]
On April 9th 2008, I was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer – osteosarcoma of the femur. At the tender age of fourteen, I wasn’t too concerned about it. It didn’t even occur to me that I could die from it. Something was telling me that I would be just fine and my [...]
The pigeon man fills his hands, with morsels caked in time He pilfers through the garbage can, so birds will flock to dine Talons cling to threadbare skin, impervious to tears Grownups judge while children grin, as droppings drench his hair Treasured by this vagrant, is bond of bird and man I stroll on by [...]
The Call of the Void "You know when you have so much stuff to do, but thinking about it makes you stressed out, and then that stress keeps you from doing anything? Well you have anxiety, you know what I'm talking about right?" My coworker asked me while leaning against the beige wall of my [...]
