by Milena "Mila" Stankovic | Feb 17, 2023 | CPTSD, Depression, Grief, Guest Contributor, Pain, Trauma
I spent my childhood terrified of the word “death”. I can remember lying in bed feeling my heart swell in my chest every time the thought of death crossed my mind. I feared death because my parents were much older than the parents of my peers — the thought of losing...
by Milena "Mila" Stankovic | Feb 1, 2023 | Guest Contributor, Healing Codependency, Recovery
There are life lessons our parents teach us, life lessons we learn on our own, and also life lessons that only our best friends can teach us. Best friends are essential for anyone’s life. You understand relationships are when you’ll be able to truly count on a few...
by Milena "Mila" Stankovic | Dec 29, 2022 | CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor, Healthy Relationships, Hope
Why do we believe that we don’t deserve better? I will tell you a universal secret: we do deserve better. Love doesn’t hurt. Broken illusions hurt, not sorting your codependency hurts. But True Love, my dear readers don’t hurt. I’ve been in very toxic...
by Milena "Mila" Stankovic | Dec 20, 2022 | Guest Contributor, Pain, Parental Alienation, Toxic Relationships
Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is a term that was coined twenty years ago by Richard A. Gardner, the MD an American psychiatrist. Working with families primarily involved in custody struggles, he noticed a sort of brainwashing occurring at the hands of one...
by Milena "Mila" Stankovic | Dec 16, 2022 | Parental Alienation, Relationships
What Is TAR? Toxic Abusive Relationship (TAR) is one that makes you feel unsupported, misunderstood, demeaned, belittled, and makes you lose your own sense of identity. On a basic level, any relationship that makes you feel worse rather than better can become toxic....