This is How I Endured a Dark and Twisty Week

Content Note: mental health, bureaucracy, aging, suicide, shed building Last week. A dark and twisty series of days, events, and revelations. It was pretty rough. First … First, there’s my struggle to find a good therapist who accepts Medicare. Or will. I have private insurance now through my spouse, but I also have a Medicare […]

Hush (a rewrite)

NaBloPoMo

Its anxiety, my old friendYou’ve come to sit with me againBecause a feeling softly does creepGrabbing hold while I cannot sleepAnd the belief that was programmed in my brainStill remainsWithin the hush of silence In childhood years I walked aloneSlipping into a silent homeWatching other families from afarMy door to comfort was ajarWhen my heart […]

I Still Have To Take Care of Myself Right Now

NaBloPoMo

I’m not fine, of course. But I’m slowly coping with this new but perhaps inevitable reality. All the things people say right, speaking past each other or to themselves. All of those things mean everything because we are alive, we are still saying things, we are still here. Marriage, single, partnered. Here we are. NaBloPoMo. […]

Here’s why I go to therapy 3x each week

Pre-pandemic, I began seeing my counselor twice a week for therapy. We were starting to work on trauma and one session wasn’t enough. This was 2019. Her boss resisted. My insurance did not, so after self-advocacy, I became a woman who went to therapy twice a week. Like psychoanalysis without the cocaine or sex. I […]

365 Days Feels Like One Day at a Time

Today, August 27, 2024, marks one year since I was wrongly detained for an involuntary commitment (302), held against my will for four or five hours, then discharged to find the lock to my home had been changed. Each of these claims is a fact. The date, the invalid 302 paperwork, the time spent at […]

Disability Pride Month: Here’s Why You Can’t Fix Me

I was most likely born with a genetic predisposition to mental illness disability. My father has undiagnosed bipolar disorder, my mother unipolar depression. Most of the adults in my family used alcohol to self-medicate. My brother has ADHD which is very adjacent to bipolar. Disability. Disability. Disability. The neglect and abuse of my childhood created […]

Disability Pride Month: Here are 100 Disability Blog Posts

In acknowledgment of Disability Pride Month, a look back at previous posts. Most of my blogging about mental health began after 2010 when I was declared totally and completely disabled by the Federal Government. I immediately hit many walls of discrimination, bias, and ignorance on the part of other people. My response was to up […]

Disability Pride Month: Do You Know About 302’s?

A 302 in Pennsylvania is shorthand for an involuntary civil commitment. 302 is the section of the Pennsylvania code under Mental Health Law. This is a disability pride issue. Last year, LGBTQ activist and writer, Susan “Sue” Kerr suffered an inexcusable violation of her civil rights when multiple officials deliberately disregarded established ‘sprocesses meant to […]

Latina Trans Woman Andrea Doria Dos Passos, 37, Violently Murdered While Sleeping on Miami Sidewalk

The Crime Content Note: violence, transgender person, homelessness, mental illness. Please note that the description of the murder is graphic and vicious. Andrea Doria Dos Passos was a 37 year old Latina trans woman. She was homeless, sleeping outside the Miami City Ballet building in Miami Beach on April 22, 2024 when she was brutally […]

What Are the Legal Costs To Defend Domestic Partnerships and Marriage Equality in Pennsylvania?

This past weekend was my third wedding anniversary. It was a bit harder than I thought to think about marriage joy. But we had a plan. I’ve gifted my wife with the “traditional”gift each year that we could share, so I decided to gift myself something leather this year. In this leather case, it was […]