by Madelon Wise | Jan 17, 2023 | ACEs, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Guest Contributor
My brother, Mike, was 8 years older than I, and he could remember when we were a happy family. It was as though he had grown up in a different family than I had. I remember nothing but screaming, fighting, and terror. My mother was a binge drinker, and she and my...
by Shirley Davis | Jan 16, 2023 | CPTSD and PTSD, Hope, Men's Mental Health, Mental Health Advocacy
**Trigger Warning** This article will be tough to read and may trigger some people. Caution is advised. Suicide is tricky to write about because it brings up so many negative connotations. Writing about male suicide is even trickier because I am not a man; in some...
by Laura Buchenlicht | Jan 13, 2023 | Brain Chemistry, CPTSD, Family Estrangement, Generational Trauma, Guest Contributor, Narcissistic Personality Disorder
This blog originally appeared: at YouTube: If someone had told me just one year ago that I’d be running a YouTube channel with videos of me giving talks and reciting my own poetry in twelve months’ time, I wouldn’t have believed them. I was the youngest child in...
by Shravani Bojja | Jan 12, 2023 | CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor, Trauma
The Oxford Dictionary defines intersectionality as “the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage”. Intersectionality is the...
by Elizabeth Woods | Jan 12, 2023 | Combat Trauma, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
As we wave goodbye to 2022 some of us are filled with nostalgia looking back on a year full of happiness and challenges. I don’t think anyone can achieve true happiness every single day but hey… What do I know? Challenges, however, I do know about. Life is full of...
by Jeff Spiteri | Jan 10, 2023 | ACEs, CPTSD and Self-Harm, Guest Contributor, Sexual Abuse
My journey with mental health has always been a revolving door of experimentation with practices and tools. Just as we change inevitably so do our needs and the tools we use to meet those needs. For me, grounding has been paramount to my healing and day-to-day health...
by Shirley Davis | Jan 9, 2023 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD and PTSD, Men's Mental Health, Mental Health Advocacy
Society is funny. On the one hand, they act like mental illness is contagious and shun those who live with it, and on the other hand, they say that they are angry that taxpayers must foot part of the bill to help people get well. In either circumstance, stigma, aka...
by Elizabeth Woods | Jan 6, 2023 | CPTSD and PTSD, Grief, Guest Contributor
The Damage of Abuse Childhood abuse is one of the worst forms of torture a person can endure. It feels like being in a war zone, imprisoned by cruel dictators and forced to live under their every will and command until the law “says” you are old enough to have your...
by Sunny Lynn, OMC | Jan 5, 2023 | CPTSD, Depression, Dissociation and CPTSD, Guest Contributor
The Downward Spiral of Flashbacks & Dissociative Episodes (as published in The Friday Edition of HeartBalm Healing at https://heartbalm.substack.com) Recently, a very painful and triggering event dropped me into a deep hole of flashbacks and dissociation. Over the...
by Rebekah Brown | Jan 4, 2023 | Complex PTSD Healing, Guest Contributor, Holiday Stress, Surviving the Holidays, Symptoms of CPTSD, Trauma, Trauma-Informed
What is Life Management? In general terms, life management is a framework for living. Do you feel constantly under pressure? Are you always short of time? At the end of the day, do you almost always feel like you haven’t accomplished anything? Those are the types of...
