Happy Girl Winter: How to Overcome Seasonal Depressive Disorder
‘Fight, Flight, Fawn’: How Growing Up with Domestic Violence Shaped My Responses as an Adult
One would think that our lives were back to ‘normal’ and on the up. It was only later in life that the cracks began to show in my psyche; I was prone to anxiety (both a low-level strum inside my chest and, rarely, full-blown panic attacks). Now in my late 30s, and after many therapy sessions, it is clear to me that there is still a residual effect from the events that I witnessed…
‘Loneliness is the Ebb and Flow of an Unsettled Tide’: PTSD and its Repercussions on Relationships
Symptoms of the disorder include distressing dreams, flashbacks, hypervigilance, negative beliefs about oneself, reckless behaviour, persistent negative emotional state and dissociation, to name a few. See, my loneliness doesn’t relate to anyone in my social circle; that’s the challenging part to understand. It relates to my trauma. I can be surrounded by people that love me and still feel detached and misunderstood by every single one of them…
‘I Began to Question My Sanity’: Dealing with Abusive Relationships and the Aftermath of Trauma
My heart yearns to give, help, and fix. Often, it went unnoticed or unwanted. Patterns of unhealthy, unstable friendships and relationships emerged with the same lesson every time. Yet I still couldn’t grasp what I was doing wrong. It was like Einstein’s Theory of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I was pouring from an empty cup, abusing myself by denying myself the simple things I needed…