There’s something that’s always puzzled me: the need people seem to have to constantly reinvent themselves. New year? Reinvent. Breakup? Reinvent. Got bangs? Reinvent. It’s like we’re all supposed to be our own PR team, constantly rebranding to stay relevant, like some sort of personal SEO strategy. (See what I did there? Threw in some […]
CPTSD Recovery: Embracing Feelings to Heal and Grow
I used to think being in my feelings was a weakness. Especially living with CPTSD and trauma. That if I let myself feel anything, sadness, anger, even happiness, it meant I was giving my trauma a seat at the table. Like feeling was the same as surrendering. So I armored up. Numbed out. Laughed things […]
When Therapy Turns into an Emotional Excavation
When I started therapy, I thought I just needed a tune-up. I knew there were things inside me I needed to work on. What I got instead was an emotional excavation. Turns out, growing up in chaos teaches your brain some pretty creative survival strategies, hypervigilance, dissociation, people-pleasing, and the uncanny ability to anticipate everyone’s […]
Loving Someone with CPTSD: A Survival Guide
Loving someone with CPTSD means, first and foremost, loving someone with a complicated past. We might not always say it, but we crave connection, deeply. Sometimes more than we know what to do with. And yet, every so often, we flinch. We pull back. We get quiet when things get too close. It’s not because […]
Is CPTSD Considered Neurodivergent? Here’s What I Found
The other day, I fell into one of those classic spirals: trauma vs. identity crisis vs. internet rabbit hole. You know the ones. It started innocently enough, I was trying to figure out if CPTSD counts as neurodivergent. Before I knew it, I was eight tabs deep, reading about brain scans, childhood trauma, and how […]
Healing from CPTSD: When Hurt People Hurt People
There’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot: hurt people hurt people. Sometimes it’s said with compassion, sometimes as a defense, and sometimes as a throwaway line. But for me, it’s a truth I’ve had to look directly in the eye. Because I was hurting. And I hurt people. I was one of them. […]