recovery

The Hardest Part Of My Depression Is Knowing That It Will Come Back

Here’s the thing about depression: it cycles. Even when I’m on medication, going to therapy and doing everything I’m able to do in order to stay healthy and keep it at bay, it bleeds in and out of my soul.

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"If I’m being totally honest with you, I feel a burst of pride whenever someone tells me I look too put together to have been given this diagnosis."

What Not To Say When Someone Tells You About Their Personality Disorder

When someone denies my personality disorder, it makes the process of identifying and challenging the thoughts and behaviors that disorder causes even more difficult. There are broken parts of me that I can’t see. I’m working very hard to uncover them and heal them in a way that improves the quality of my inner and outer life. I don’t need anyone else muddying the waters of my trauma; I do that enough all on my own.

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Sometimes, I have to stop and cry and wail and moan for a weekend, but then I get back up.

I Get Depressed Every Summer. This Year, I Decided To Find Out Why.

I don’t want to spend another summer waiting for winter. It took years to realize this, and even more years to act on it. This is the work of healing that no one mentions: you have to find the wounds you didn’t know you had.

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Hungry For Connection: How Opening Up About My Eating Disorder Still Left Me Isolated

For me, eating is like going to the dentist. I know I have see the dentist, but I don’t enjoy it. Eating three meals a day is like going to the dentist three times a day. For other people, a good meal is something to look forward to, and eating is a pleasure. For me, it’s work, it’s anxiety-inducing, and it’s not even sort of enjoyable.

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The pain of the past can be summoned up in something as small as a phone call.

My Parent's Mental Illness Still Affects Me

“You have nine new messages.”

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Since my battle with breast cancer in the spring of 2013, my life changed forever.

Compassion Is Complicated After Cancer

Upset you lost your keys? Try losing your breast. Pissed off about missing that train? Try missing your son’s 8th grade graduation because of a horrific infection from fluid buildup in the previously-mentioned missing breast. See what I mean? It kind of puts life into perspective.

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image credit: Shelby Eckard

Dear Daughter, I Let You Down

Most days I am confident with how I look and how I feel, but I worry I may never be able to completely banish those thoughts about my flaws and imperfections. I know that every time you catch me focusing on my physical insecurities, you learn a lesson that could hurt you, or force you into this battle I face.

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The ramifications of long-term addiction become sharper and often more devastating as people get older.

Ask Erin: Help! My Best Friend's Addiction Is Out Of Control 

She’s made all the mistakes, so you don’t have to…Ask Erin is a weekly advice column, in which Erin answers your burning questions about anything at all.

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