Emily Richey is a graduate of Pace University NYC. She has written and edited for multiple online platforms, including Love What Matters. She spends her free time petting stray cats.
‘I sat in our garage, started my car and let it run. I wanted to die. And then I saw my son open the garage door.’: Woman gives hope to other victims of narcissistic abuse, ‘I’m not ready to die. In fact, I’m ready to be reborn.’
“When I was 9 months pregnant, my husband was in a horrible car accident. I learned he’d been to a strip club and cheated on me that night. ‘He loves me enough to change.’ I wanted to be a ‘whole’ family. He was taking my car keys, my money, making sure he knew where I was. My son’s needs with his autism were increasing so we moved to Arizona to get him more help. This wasn’t about bettering our life at all. This was all just a master plan of isolating me. I finally knew I was done.”
‘I wouldn’t use Chapstick. I was afraid I might lick my lips and swallow some of it, convinced it would make me fat.’: Woman suffering eating disorder is admitted to recovery center, ‘We’re treated like patients, not people’
“All doors were alarmed, and I was surrounded by strangers. My identical twin made me a blanket to take to treatment. She wanted me to feel at home. The staff wouldn’t allow me to have it. Since I was still on Red level, I wasn’t allowed into my bedroom. I sat on the floor in the hallway by my room and cried to my mom on the phone, begging her to bring me home. As I cried on the floor, a patient walked up to me and handed me a little slip of paper. He had written ‘You can do this’ on a scrap of paper. I sobbed. I still have his note.”
‘If we waited 2 more weeks, you would’ve been paralyzed from the neck down.’ I was in and out of consciousness. Death wasn’t the only thing on my mind.’: 15-year-old undergoes brain surgery after feeling dizzy, discovers rare chronic brain condition, Type 1 Chiari Malformation
“I knew something was very wrong. I was barely able to hold myself up. ‘Really Jen? Pull it together.’ No one had answers. All I heard was, ‘I think you’re depressed.’ I felt like someone had filled my head with cement. At this point, I had given up. I convinced myself I was out of my mind. I laid in that MRI machine and lost track of time. I felt like my life was over at 15. The tech pulled up the images on the computer. ‘You’re going to need a neurosurgeon.’”
‘We only want 3 kids so that’s perfect.’ That’s me being naive again. ‘Okay, maybe it won’t happen like we had hoped.’: Couple suffers 4 miscarriages in 4 years, ’You never know how strong you are until you have to be’
“The doctor turned off the lights and we looked at the screen. I immediately saw two sacs. Twins? My husband didn’t know what he was looking at, so he didn’t realize until the doctor said it out loud. We both started crying and saw both little heartbeats flicker on the screen. We joked we were going to get our money’s worth from IVF by getting two babies for the price of one. I never thought a miscarriage would happen again. I was wrong. ‘I’m so sorry, I only see one heartbeat.’ I just had this gut feeling that we would lose the other baby.”
‘This is clearly a case of anorexia. You’re a teenage ballerina refusing food.’ No one believed me. Every doctor gave up, except one.’: Woman with MALS misdiagnosed after 20 years
“I must’ve been tested for everything under the sun. ‘There’s nothing wrong with you.’ The harder I worked, the more stamina I lost and the weaker I got. They told me it was anxiety. They were doctors. They had to be right. At that point, I’d given up.”
‘I was shackled to this infant while my fiancé escaped to his 9 to 5 job. Her arrival spun me into a fear I’d never known.’: New mom copes with the reality of motherhood, ‘Most days I could barely get past my mailbox’
“As an only child raised by a single father, I was raised to be an independent woman. I was limitless. My fiancé barely tamed me, knowing if I set my mind to it, it would happen. The mundane cycle of robotic caring for my newborn was chipping away at my Gypsy soul. I felt trapped and terrified. I could no longer come and go as I please. My nipples bled, my breasts were engorged and I wanted to give up. I thought I could give birth and return to school only 10 days later.”
‘My mother would sleep nude next to me, crowning me the ‘man of the house.’ At 18, I had to make a decision. ‘You and I will never speak again.’: Man overcomes child abuse, ‘The person in the mirror was not the real me, and I knew it’
“On my birthday, I put a gun in my mouth as my girlfriend pounded on the bathroom door begging me not to kill myself. I will never forget the taste of the cold metal against my tongue. I pulled the trigger, but the pin didn’t strike the bullet casing—a failure to fire. I had guns in my life since I was a child and I will never understand why that round malfunctioned. I had to accept I’d survived some of the most toxic environments imaginable. I needed to stop making excuses and take my life back.”
‘We will love you no matter what, even if you decide not to stick around.’ I was scared of losing her. I finally reached my breaking point.’: Gay mom suffers postpartum anxiety after struggling with infertility, ‘I desperately wanted to be understood’
“I finally reached my breaking point. My wife was getting ready to leave town for work. I had a panic attack and Brittany had to cancel her trip. It was hard for her. She didn’t know how to help me. It hurt her to see me struggling, I could see it in her eyes. I was embarrassed. I wanted someone to say, ‘You’re not alone, it happened to me too.’”
‘It’s broken my mama heart to be away from her. She moved to live with her dad. My heart was heavy.’: Mom of 6 is away from daughters for holiday, ‘This trip was much more meaningful to me.’
“Celia has severe autism and her meltdowns have become much more aggressive. I was pregnant with baby #5 at the time. And homeschooling. In a construction zone. Every day. I packed my 10-year old daughter Cora up and sent her off unaccompanied on a flight to Atlanta, to spend December with her sister and her dad. It’s hard for me to navigate with all of them on my own.”