by Belinda Pyle | Apr 7, 2023 | Anxiety, Building Resilience in Healing, Combat Trauma, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Depression, Emotional Wellness, Guest Contributor, Healthy Relationships, Hope, Life Management Skills, Post Traumatic Growth, PTSD, Recovery, Relationships, Self Care, Self-Acceptance, Symptoms of CPTSD, Trauma
The stigma surrounding medications for mental illness often drives people away from what they need most. Many people innocently say, “I hate taking medications” or “I would never take them”. Isn’t it lovely that some people have a choice? People who don’t need...
by Madelon Wise | Mar 14, 2023 | CPTSD Survivor Stories, Grief, Guest Contributor, Relationships, Toxic Relationships
We were newlyweds living in Missoula, Montana. I loved the funky town. But the best part of being there was that it was 1,300 miles away from Waterloo, Iowa, where Tom’s parents lived, and 862 miles from Greeley, Colorado, where mine lived. I didn’t know much, but I...
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...
by Madelon Wise | Mar 3, 2023 | ACEs, CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Family Estrangement, Grief, Guest Contributor
Mom died in July 1960 at the age of 42 when I was 9 years old. My father remarried a year later. They said that it was a heart attack. Later in life, my oldest brother, Mike, and I would speculate for hours on end over glasses of wine about whether she had taken her...
by Rebekah Brown | Feb 22, 2023 | Abuse, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Emotional Wellness, Gaslighting, Guest Contributor, Healthy Relationships, Parental Alienation, Relationships
A Short Childhood Story I was finally old enough to go to school and get away from my mother’s screaming, beatings, and sexual abuse. My older brother and I smiled together as we got on the school bus that day. We were both glad to be getting away. First grade was the...
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...
