It’s OK if you’re not ready to talk about it too — “I know, I look older,” I said. “You look 18 to me,” he said. It was the first alarm bell I ignored. I quickly fell into the role of the doting lover, and became an expert in seeking excuses. I’d even find light-hearted reasons for the bruises on the private…

Estrangement is painful but it can help to heal generational trauma — When my sisters stopped speaking to our parents and cut them out of their lives, I was devastated. I completely lost my identity, feeling like a character in a psychological thriller as I watched my family fall apart, trying to work out which one of them had undone the stitches…

Every story is valid, and our pain isn’t a competition — Trigger Warning: childhood s**ual abuse I’ve never had a good experience when it comes to talking about what happened to me. I was around ten years old. It only happened once; I remember freezing as he groped my chest and tried to force my hand to return those uncomfortable, dangerous…

Here’s why using turbulent childhoods as the sole reason to explain the unexplainable is false and dangerous — I’m on playground duty when a boy (let’s call him Alexander) says a swear word. The six-year-old has also been told off several times for hitting his friends. Perhaps it’s nothing to be concerned about; he’s just having a bad day, or he’s just pushing a few boundaries to see…

224 words about 27 years — 0 Hand on swollen stomach, my mother’s life begins. 1 In the photographs, I look like I’m loved. 2 I remember nothing. I’m sorry to disappoint you. 3 My parents marry. They will be together forever. 4 My big sister knows everything. I daydream instead. 5 Adults are so loud and…

They gave me all they had, but it was not enough — I had two dolls when I was a child. I loved those dolls with all my heart, and did not know that they were broken until I grew up. I didn’t notice the torn dress or the permanent marker across her face, the missing shoes, or the other kids, laughing at…

But can you find it despite mental illness? — Humans are always searching for more. We feel it inside our chests when we are not reaching our full capacity, like something shifting in our lungs, burying a hole, and making sure we feel it. Something’s gone, you notice. Something is missing. No one is content with 90% happiness. Not…

You deserve to exist — stop living like you don’t — All my life, I have tried to make myself as small as I can possibly be. I didn’t know I was making myself small until I felt the world swallowing me whole, until I grew up and felt like I didn’t matter. I’ve never lived life for myself, always for…

When you’re afraid of people, remember how they began — My mental health has isolated me from the world for a good ten years, perhaps more. It’s easy to lose track of time when you feel trapped inside your own head. I became a mother at twenty-one and had therapy at twenty-five and spent the year of the pandemic thinking…