“Frozen in fear, you lay in your bed with that twisted knot in your stomach. There is always the question: who protected the little girl with the big, brown eyes? The answer? A resounding no one. I was a little girl.”
‘Starved for love, I made disastrous decisions. Eventually, I turned to food. I weighed in at 391 pounds, my body just as unhealthy as my soul.’: Survivor details battle with demons, ‘I am a beautiful disaster’
‘My mother and stepdad sent me with a strange man in the middle of the night. ‘Was I traded for drugs?’ I was ten years old.’: Woman overcomes childhood trauma and rape, ‘I learned the power of letting go’
“As I threw the rock into the river, I said, ‘I forgive you,’ letting go of all the pain and resentment I had been carrying. Don’t get me wrong… the people who abused me in my past, who were supposed to care for me and protect me, did NOT deserve my forgiveness.”
‘I was struggling to gasp for air, peeing blood. I heard doctors yell, ‘Code Blue!’: Former NFL cheerleader survives difficult childhood, daughter’s Angelman Syndrome diagnosis
“At some point during contractions, she decided she didn’t want to be pregnant anymore. She hit her stomach a few times. I came out with a broken shoulder, black and blue on one side of my body, and a large hematoma on my head.”
‘It was day 3 of a sinus headache. My toddler would not stop shrieking and my partner was unavailable. I wasn’t just irritable, I was angry.’: Mom says there’s no shame in being an ‘angry parent’
“I felt I did not deserve because I had done everything I was supposed to avoid getting sick and felt cheated. If my children did something that scared me, I would yell and shame them for it. I wasn’t just irritable, I was angry.”
‘I watched Grace’s head hit the front of the truck. Our entire bodies went under. ‘These tires are going to run us over. I’m going to lose my child.’: Woman describes trauma of car accident ‘I continue to play the ‘what if’ game with myself’
“I remember thinking, ‘This guy better stop,’ but telling Grace in a quick tone, ‘Come on. We need to hurry.’ From the sidewalk, I reached out both of my hands and yelled ‘Stop!’ I watched my own self and 3-year-old daughter get struck by a moving vehicle.”
‘My dad killed himself, didn’t he? That’s why you cried so much when I was a baby?’: Mom doesn’t let labels define her, ‘I am more than just an amputee or widow’
“I still remember that day. The taste of blood and dirt in my mouth. Later, when I sat up in the hospital bed and felt the missing weight of my right arm, I looked over and saw nothing but a stump wrapped in bandages. It was the most horrific thing I’d seen in my 10 short years. But life moves on, and I slowly gained a sense of new purpose. There was more to me than just one label.”
‘My fingertips gripped the vinyl. It felt like ‘hot rubber band snaps.’ My mom had to hold me down. For a child who doesn’t understand, it’s torture.’: Woman with port wine stain advocates for ‘torture’ pain control, ‘It felt like hot needles into my brain.’
“As we walked toward the doctor’s office, the fear made my body cold. I would feel my anxiety bubbling up, making it harder to breathe. I wanted to pull away from my mom. Stop getting closer. I became aware infants and children are still treated without any pain control. ‘They just swaddle them and do the treatment really fast,’ I was told. Babies? How could anyone do this? ‘It doesn’t really hurt.’ Reading this made me want to vomit. The memories of the pain and being held down is so visceral for me.”
‘Will I look like him?’ The plane landed. Instant panic struck. My parents never wanted me to find out about him.’: Woman ‘finally complete’ after emotional reunion with biological father, ‘He’s the piece I’ve always been missing’
“I lost my adoptive father and mother only 2 weeks before. Between all the madness, I finally found my biological father. I was told he was ‘the town drunk.’ I was never supposed to know he existed. I heard the plane fly over the dark sky. My stomach suddenly dropped. ‘Please remain seated,’ the pilot announced. I took a deep breath and turned my teary eyes. An average height man locked his blue eyes on mine. Both our smiles began to rise. This was the moment I’d dreamt of my entire life.”
‘I got pregnant. THREE months in, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider abortion.’: Woman lives through mom’s addiction, a single dad, early pregnancy and a new husband
“She promised, ‘I will move closer and you will be seeing a lot more of me, because I finally want to be the mother you deserve.’ Seven years went by before I heard from her again. I have been tested, twisted, and pulled and have learned so much about who I am capable of being.”
‘My mother and I escaped to a battered woman’s shelter, I finally felt safe. It upsets me to think I allowed my children to live through the same abuse I did.’: Woman overcomes cycle of domestic abuse, finds strength and healing in meditation
“I’ll always be grateful for Lindsay, the amazing woman who spent days on the phone with me. She guided me to find meditation teachers, ended my anxiety and changed my life forever.”
