by Mari Stewart | Nov 18, 2021 | Anxiety, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor, Holiday Stress, Self Care
Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. Putting my family together with the expectations of a celebration to rival the covers of the Saturday Evening Post never worked out well. It was more like a production of The Crucible. For many years, and I know I’m not alone...
by Jeff Spiteri | May 26, 2021 | ACEs, Childhood Sexual Abuse, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor, Healthy Relationships, Men's Mental Health
We always have choices, sometimes the choice to make a change or take on a quest or journey can be the scariest decision of all. But it is when we leave behind what is familiar that we make space to see with a perspective where we were. While the journey itself can...
by Wendy Hoke | Apr 30, 2021 | CPTSD and Parenting, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Depression, Dissociation and CPTSD, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor
Greatest myth of all time: “Children are resilient.” Wrong. Children are fragile. They break easily. My maternal grandfather broke me. I was 7 or 8 when the sexual abuse began. The psychic damage was extensive. I am now 58, and I am proof that having competent doctors...
by Cassie Sands | Mar 11, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Family Estrangement, Grief, Guest Contributor
I started writing as a way to process and talk about exceedingly difficult things I knew I needed to discuss in therapy but was unable to even begin to make sense of myself. For such a long time, I wasn’t able in any way to discuss much more than I had been...
by Cassie Sands | Feb 24, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor, LGBTQ and Complex Trauma Healing
Like many others in the LGBTQ community, coming out was a painful and difficult experience. For someone like myself, who comes from an abusive family of origin as well as a strict religious community, this process was especially complicated. After I came out to my mom...
by Cassie Sands | Feb 3, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor
When I was fifteen, my mom got me my first cell phone – a black Nokia flip phone. Texts were character limited and cost 25 cents both to send and to receive. I still have it, along with its charger, in a box in my second bedroom, nestled among other...
