Touching
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‘I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t wake up.’ I was starving for love, I wanted to be someone’s whole universe.:’ Young woman with Borderline Personality Disorder describes issues with love and boundaries, says she is fighting and working on ME’
“I started crying a lot and cutting myself. I began smoking cigarettes and drinking. I was stoned all the time. I still missed my father. Every time I saw him in town, he walked away. He ignored me, pretending I didn’t exist. And he still does, and has for 11 years.”
‘Things weren’t adding up. ‘Have a nice life,’ I told my boyfriend. An hour later, I saw ‘RIP’ posted all over my feed. My heart started beating.’: Teen mom loses boyfriend in tragic car crash during pregnancy, ‘My son kept me going’
“I was 19 and pregnant with his baby. An hour after our argument, I scrolled down and saw a picture of a crashed car with the words ‘RIP.’ It was HIM. All of a sudden, my phone started ringing. People were calling, asking, ‘Is is true? He’s dead?’ I ran to the trash can to vomit. It felt like a horrible dream. I was waiting to wake up. I was so scared to be a teen single mom.”
‘I stepped into the road. In a split second, a car struck my stroller. My baby was ejected 15 feet. The other lay, gray and motionless.’: Mom ‘will never again take anything for granted’ after 2 boys struck by vehicle
“It was a crisp fall morning. I loaded my boys, 13 months and 3 years old, into the stroller for a walk. We made it halfway across the crosswalk when I saw the car. In slow motion, the stroller was ripped from my white-knuckled hands. A sound I’ll never forget. My oldest was crying, his little face covered in blood and panic. I ran to the stroller, flipped it over. I expected to hear him cry. Silence. I pulled his tiny limp body out and just screamed his name over and over. My world came crashing down.”
‘Why are you involved? Isn’t it depressing?’ I was dying and it wasn’t the cancer. It was the state of my life.’: Woman survives esophageal cancer, jumpstarts organization to help others
“I was separating from my husband, all the while wondering whether I was going to live or die. I was sharing a room with a woman who’d been told, ‘You have an incurable blood disease. Death is certain.’ I recall shrinking beneath my blankets, not wanting to bring attention to myself on the other side of the thin layer of privacy hanging between us. She told them ‘I have no family to call,’ and when the doctors left, we sat there in silence. I knew I was destined to do more.”
‘I look at my kids and tell myself, ‘Their life would be better without me.’ I push away my partner. I feel my life spiral away.’: Mom shares candid reality of manic depression, urges ‘you are not alone’
“I use what little energy I have for my job and my children. By the end of the day, I can’t sleep. I can’t be productive. I want nothing more than to lie in the dark. I give myself a pep talk to finally brush the knots out of my hair. Some days, I look in the mirror and cry. Then comes the mania. Like today, I’ll clean like crazy. Take a nice, long shower. I’ll play extra long with the kids and message all the people my depression kept me from. All while wondering when depression will strike again.”
‘Why don’t you adopt? Take a break and see what happens.’ I gave birth to my baby, who never took a breath.’: Mom loses first child, finally gives birth to rainbow baby after long battle with infertility
“I spent my second pregnancy in unrelenting fear. I held my breath during every ultrasound. The first question I’d ask the technician was, ‘Is she breathing?’ I mourned a little bit when I found out we were having another girl, as if I were cheating on our first baby by bringing a different girl into the world. But the one thing I’d always find, even on my very worst days, was hope.”
‘Beth, there’s police at your house. Are you ok?’ I found my son handcuffed to a hospital bed, drugged.’: Mom advocates for son with severe autism, PANDAS, ‘Don’t ever give up on your child’
“I locked my daughter in her room. ‘He’s gonna get me. Mama, save me.’ He bit my arms, hands, and chest, drawing blood with each bite. I begged him to stop. It was too late. He was not him. I fell beside the couch. I felt like a battered wife, except it was my child. My child who, after a rage, would cry and kiss me, looking at me with big, sad eyes, begging me to ‘fix it.’ I wasn’t mad at him. I was completely broken.”
‘What’s wrong with me?’ I burst into tears. My ovaries were that of a 40-year-old. I longed so desperately to make my sweet girl a big sister.’: Mom births baby with epilepsy, autism, then miracle baby after battling endometriosis
“Our thoughts of having a second child were buried under years of trauma. Until one day. ‘Kylee, I want a baby.’ That sparked something inside me I never thought would happen again. 4 days after my transfer, I took a pregnancy test expecting nothing. There was a very faint second line. ‘This has to be a fluke.’ My heart began racing. A different kind of panic ensued.”
‘Mom, her x-rays are not good. It’s spreading.’ WHAT?! She went from mentioning pain to crying that it ‘hurt so bad.’: Daughter diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, ‘I’ve learned more in 2 years than the 40 I’ve been alive’
“Gabby kept complaining about her left knee. Her brother had just gone through a similar growth spurt and had constant knee pain as well. I thought nothing of it. I took the kids to Target after school one day when I noticed she was limping. ‘Does it really hurt THAT BAD?’ Nothing looked wrong with it. Soon after, I got the call. ‘They will call and tell you where Gabby needs to go.’ WHAT? I paused, no idea what she was talking about.”
‘Can I give the a tree a hug?’ She tells me her brain is stuck. ‘Why is the sun shining?’: Caretaker of an autistic child insists ‘I am a better person because of her. I see the world in a changed way.’
“I said, ‘Break a leg!’ She got furious and started yelling at me, ‘Why do you want me to break a leg?? She takes things exactly the way they are, what you say is what she hears, and she processes the language just as it’s spoken. Katy has her own unique way of thinking, which I adore.”
