by Shigeko Ito | Feb 19, 2025 | CPTSD and PTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor, Recovery
On Valentine’s Day 2025, our 30th wedding anniversary, we celebrated by bringing home an 8-week-old labradoodle puppy. Thirty years together, and we’re still making questionable decisions… like starting all over with a dog infant. I dubbed her my “luvdoodle,” and we...
by Shigeko Ito | Nov 18, 2024 | Anxiety, CPTSD, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor
On the evening of Election Day 2024, I was so emotionally invested in the outcome that I couldn’t sit still next to my husband as we watched the coverage unfold. Instead, I paced around the house shouting, “We are on track to win!”—repeating...
by Shigeko Ito | May 28, 2024 | ADHD, Anxiety, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
The other day, I listened to the Mel Robbins podcast about her delayed diagnosis of ADHD at age 47, which was her accidental discovery in the process of getting her teenage son evaluated for ADHD. She said she was flabbergasted and wondered why she hadn’t...
by Shigeko Ito | Mar 31, 2023 | Anxiety, CPTSD and PTSD, Depression, Guest Contributor, Shame, Trauma
Sometimes I wonder what might have happened to me had I stayed in Japan. Might I have joined the million-plus ranks of hikikomori (shut-ins withdrawn from society) that exist in Japan today? This is an unsettling thought. It’s difficult to dismiss the hikikomori issue...
by Shigeko Ito | Mar 7, 2023 | ACEs, Anxiety, Attachment Trauma, CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Generational Trauma, Guest Contributor
Growing up in Japan with a workaholic surgeon father, an often-absent socialite mother, and two older brothers who were seldom around, I was mostly raised by a revolving door of caregivers. This unstable home environment likely made me a melancholic, anxious child...
