“You have to accept the fact that this may never go away. That the best you can do is manage it.” I sat, stunned, unable to reply to my therapist. How could this be? I had a definite point in life where my brain had seemed to “break” and my trauma (eventually diagnosed as CPTSD) […]

“You were raised in deprivation.” That’s what Dr. Gabor Mate told Prince Harry he experienced, despite his material privilege. Just prior to this, Harry had been insisting that his childhood was overall a good one, but stopped when he saw the Dr. shaking his head. This moment happened during the early minutes of the conversation […]

The 1990’s unleashed a neuroscience revolution, as novel brain-imaging techniques allowed scientists to process information in real time. For the first time in history, scientists watched human brains process memories, sensations and emotions. They were able to map the circuits of the mind and consciousness. Suddenly, they could show us images of our brains on […]

Terror. Unbearable and intolerable pain. Your body releases a surge of adrenaline, causing your senses to be hyper sensitive, while other non-immediate bodily functions slow or stop. Your heart races, your muscles tense. Depending on what happens next, you will either fight, flee, or freeze. Whatever your system chooses in that moment, every cell of […]

You don’t have to be a military veteran to suffer from PTSD. As mentioned in the article What is Trauma? there are an infinite number of events that can lead our nervous systems to spark a trauma reaction. Sometimes, the reaction is temporary. Something horrible happens to us, and for a while we remain “on […]

Of all the decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in June, the one that gave me the worst panic attacks was Kennedy vs Bremerton School District. Surprised? I’ve certainly written a lot more about the overturning of Roe vs Wade in light of my own adoption trauma. But high school football coach Joseph Kennedy […]

Heartbreaking Stories of “Late Term Abortions” Helped Me See The Lies I’d Been Told By the “Pro-Life” Movement I was raised to believe abortion was murder. That as an adoptee, it was only because I was born before Roe v Wade that I was born at all. My mother told me often, when I complained […]

It’s been a rough few days. A good friend of mine, venting rage and frustration about the general loss of bodily autonomy and civil rights we’re witnessing said something along the lines of, “I know love wins and all that, but right now I’m angry.” They were posting on social media to an audience that […]

Two years ago I wrote about the Collective Trauma of George Floyd’s Murder. Since then, over a million Americans have died from Covid. We watched a violent insurrection take place at our Capitol. Police killings haven’t even slowed down, much less stopped. An insidious attack on books in libraries and classrooms has blossomed into an […]

I was adopted as an infant. Relinquished at birth and placed at 7 weeks. My family was open about this from the beginning, and one of my very earliest memories was being told that I was adopted. But I was also told that I was an only child because of Roe v Wade. “Your daddy […]