by Dr. Mozelle Martin | Mar 24, 2026 | Anxiety, Borderline Personality Disorder, CPTSD
In clinical and forensic settings, I have observed evaluators confuse intensity with diagnosis. High emotional amplitude is persuasive. It pulls focus. It pressures the room. But intensity is not structure. Presentation is not etiology. If we fail to separate the...
by Dr. Mozelle Martin | Mar 5, 2026 | Addiction, Body Chemistry, Brain Chemistry, CPTSD, Self Regulation
I have never been a drinker. Most people assume that means I didn’t like the taste or that I grew up in a strict household. The truth is simpler and more human. I was adopted at birth and raised as an only child by two functioning alcoholics. Nothing about that...
by Dr. Mozelle Martin | Sep 4, 2025 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional, Recovery
Let’s just be real: recovery from trauma isn’t linear, and it sure as hell isn’t symptom-free. People love to pretend healing looks like morning yoga, green juice, and “letting it all go.” But most of the folks I’ve worked with wake up every day with flashbacks,...
by Dr. Mozelle Martin | Jun 5, 2025 | Boundaries, CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Healing from Toxic Shame, Mental Health Awareness, Mental Health Professional, Polyvagal Theory and CPTSD, Self-Acceptance, Symptoms of CPTSD
It often looks like compassion. It often gets praised as loyalty. But for many trauma survivors, the behavior known as the fawn response isn’t about kindness—it is about survival. The fawn response is the least recognized of the four primary trauma reactions: fight,...
by Shirley Davis | Dec 4, 2023 | Addiction, Complex PTSD Healing
Every year, survivors face a world gone mad. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s bring with them countless traditions, and people buy things they cannot afford as gifts. When you are a survivor of severe and repeated childhood abuse, you often equate the...
