Speaking my truth
I wrote a memoir. It tells the story of me grappling with severe anxiety and depression from the time I was young, my eating disorder,...
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- Jul 14
- 4 min
From a former perfectionist: How I learned to chill (kind of)
After my essay on the week I spent in a teen psych ward at thirteen came out this week, I've been thinking about the eating disorder that...
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- Jun 14
- 3 min
Celebrating a Life
It's never easy to say goodbye to a loved one, but the pandemic has made it even more difficult over the last few years, placing...
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- May 21
- 4 min
The healing power of food
When I was 13, 14, 15, food was my enemy. Eating anything--three almonds, half a clementine--made me feel guilty, overindulgent, like a...
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- Apr 25
- 3 min
How Hockey Helps My Mental Health (Go Growlers!)
As a depressed teenager, hockey was one part of my life that (almost) always brought me joy. Even if I'd spent most of the day reading in...
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- Apr 15
- 4 min
Exposing your vulnerable self
This week, my essay "Lies Mania Has Told Me" was published in OC87 Recovery Diaries (this is my second time they've published a piece of...
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- Mar 20
- 3 min
Depression is always lurking
Depression and mania are two sides of the bipolar coin, always lurking below the surface. I didn't know that's what those moods that...
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- Feb 13
- 5 min
Why is it so hard to admit I'm not OK?
I grew up in a family where it was normal--expected, even--when in pain to say I'm fine, there's no problem here, to just suck it up and...
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- Jan 5
- 6 min
Why I'm Terrified of Hospitals
I was 13 the first time I spent any real time in a hospital. My mother drove me two and a half hours to the Keene State Hospital, which...
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- Nov 5, 2021
- 2 min
What grounds you?
Nala & Delphi are my tethers When I read submissions for A Tether to This World: Poems & Stories of Recovery, I didn't quite know what I...
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- Oct 10, 2021
- 5 min
What Mental Health Means to Me
It's World Mental Health Day. I learned this when I logged onto my Peloton and a bright banner popped up announcing the day and that...
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- Sep 3, 2021
- 3 min
Bless the Personal Rejections
Well, friends, it's happened yet again: a rejection. From an arts grant I was crossing my fingers for. Statistically improbable, I know,...
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- Aug 28, 2021
- 6 min
No, I would not like to go off my meds
A decade ago, I didn't want to go on pills for depression and anxiety, which were severe. I had this idea that medical intervention would...
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- Aug 9, 2021
- 5 min
Ending Therapy
Today was my last therapy session. It was via Zoom, which has been the case for a year and a half. It was sort of anticlimactic. We...
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- Aug 1, 2021
- 4 min
Will my book destroy my relationship with my mother?
Five years ago, I was really anxious about having a conversation with my mother. I'd been planning it for weeks, talking to professionals...
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- Jun 21, 2021
- 4 min
On Writing Trauma
I spent last week revising my forthcoming essay collection at the Burlington, VT office of my publisher, Holbrook House. I was holed up...
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- Jun 5, 2021
- 5 min
Emerging from a Pandemic: How to Take Care of Your Mental Health
It has been a long fifteen months. Like, interminably long. For over a year now, we've hunkered down, stayed in, kept our distance. We...
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- May 19, 2021
- 3 min
How Words & Stories Will Save Us All
A real book with my name on it! Stories can save lives. That may seem overly dramatic, but I believe it with my whole self....
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- Apr 16, 2021
- 5 min
Why Are We Taught to Hide Our Emotions?
I'm not afraid to speak my mind, except when it comes to my emotions, one of my students wrote recently (I'm paraphrasing here). It made...
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- Mar 28, 2021
- 4 min
I'm Kind of Afraid to Go Back to Normal
All week I've been looking forward to my fully-vaccinated grandmother coming over for dinner. I love cooking for people and having them...
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