‘Stop, you’re holding him too close.’ I ignored them, rarely letting go. I assumed everyone was this fiercely protective.’: Mom shares battle with postpartum anxiety, ‘I had no idea why I was suffering’

“Night upon night were panic-filled dreams, cold sweats. I’d frantically fumble through the sheets in search of my baby, who I was convinced I’d rolled on in my extreme state of exhaustion. Everywhere we went, I envisioned horrible things. I became the mother who hovered beneath the play equipment and fed only pureed food in fear he would choke. My mom friends stopped trying. Offers for play-dates and coffee meets ceased.”

‘I told the nurse, ‘Tie my tubes. I’m done, I don’t ever want to do this again!’ I begged my fiancé to find another woman. ‘I just can’t do it, I’m sorry.’: Woman births rainbow baby after still birth, 3 miscarriages

“At 18, I’d miscarried 3 times. Here I was, at risk of losing another baby. My OB said, ‘Your plan was to have a baby and bring a baby home. I know you still want that.’ Each month, I counted his kicks the way kids count raindrops on a car window. I texted my mom, ‘I can’t do this. What if I’m making a mistake?’ It was go time. I closed my eyes as tight as I could, clenched my teeth, and pushed.”

‘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.”

‘You have to work. Stay-at-home moms are lazy and uneducated.’ He brainwashed me. He refused to adopt my girls in order to get child support money.’: Man adopts wife’s children in wake of divorcing abusive ex

“I got pregnant one month after meeting my daughter’s  biological father. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have everything I’ve ever wanted. I can stay home and take care of the kids.’ Instead, I cried myself to sleep every night in fear of being killed. ‘A stay-at-home mom is lazy and uneducated.’ He brainwashed me. I was forced to work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I wasn’t allowed to see my kids.”

‘If you start to feel like you don’t like it, you can tell me to stop,’ I said. ‘I don’t like that,’ he practiced.’: Mom turns playful tickling with son into consent lesson, ‘We all deserve to enjoy living in our own bodies’

“My 3-year-old asked me to tickle him. Tickling is one of those activities that can move quickly from fun into boundary transgression. I wanted to connect with him playfully in the way he was asking and model safe physical experiences at the same time. It’s not one serious, awkward conversation. It’s not The Sex Talk you’ve known and dreaded. It’s a foundation built over years.”

‘My mom tried to manipulate me to break up with my girlfriend. She saw how happy I was. I arrived to find all my stuff on the front lawn.’: Son details the fallout from his narcissistic mother

“My mother didn’t want to get to know her. After all, I was my mother’s son, not my girlfriend’s boyfriend. ‘Why does SHE deserve a ticket, she won’t even be around forever?’ I arrived to find all my stuff thrown on her front lawn. There was a note on the message board: ‘I’d like to dig a hole in her backyard and bury your girlfriend in it.’”

‘I won’t let you die, Gunnar.’ I was heading towards end-stage illness, and an end to my fight.’: Son of quarterback, Boomer Esiason, advocates for others with cystic fibrosis, ‘I now live the miracle’

“I was 22 years old and feeling lonelier by the day, as my disease progressed faster than I could have imagined. One day in particular, I broke. I cried and cried. My mom saw it happening through the kitchen window and rushed to me in the driveway. She hugged me. I still think about that hug.”

‘She came to us asking why she felt so much anger. Jeremy gave her a hammer. The slightest thing sets her off, boiling just under the surface.’: Daughter ‘relieved to know she wasn’t alone’ after parents help her to ‘release anger safely’

“Our 12-year-old has been struggling with anger lately, erupting when the slightest thing sets her off. ‘Why do I feel this way?’ We found an old desk on the side of the road. Jeremy gave her a hammer. We wanted her to dismantle it. It went faster than I anticipated.”

‘Why would you do this to yourself? This is just bizarre.’ It’s hard to look in the mirror and see the damage I’ve done.’: Woman shares her history of self-mutilation and bulimia

“Sometimes I’d hit a vein and the blood would shoot out in an arc, creating stripes across the mirror and pouring into the sink. I was cutting away everything seemingly imperfect. Pulling out little threads which turned out to be nerves, partially paralyzing my lower lip and bits of my chin. I still didn’t stop.”

‘No shoes, I ran through the security gate, tripping as I searched for the family. ‘You did an amazing job, dude.’ It was like we’d known each other for years.’: Mom to son with autism urges ‘look for your people’

“I saw him from afar, pacing. He was looking down, fiddling with his hands. Like my Cooper does. He had bright yellow noise canceling headphones on. He stood out. I immediately smiled. I was in awe. The young man waited, every few seconds trying to step forward. ‘Please be kind,’ I thought. I was actually holding my breath for him.”

‘Doctor…please believe us. Our son is not OK.’ He looked at us like we were crazy. ‘He looks perfectly fine to me!’: Mom urges ‘trust your gut’ after son’s Stage 4 Neuroblastoma misdiagnosed, cancer cells detected during ‘cancer-free hospital party’

“’Mommy, I’m hurting!’ He let out the most painful cry I’d ever heard. ‘The doctor said, ‘He has a bit of pneumonia.’ This time, it was uglier. Little did we know, that night was the beginning. ‘We are not crazy! Something is wrong,’ we pleaded.”

‘Lindsey, you have a problem.’ I shuddered in fear. I was lying on the bathroom floor. ‘No, no, no. Not again. Is this really happening?’: Woman 401 days sober after grueling addiction to alcohol, ‘I promise you, life gets easier’

“The night before, on my 21st birthday, I participated in an escapade that led my boyfriend and I into a terrible fight at a country club. The cops had to break us up. Nobody knew I’d spent hours in a holding cell after being arrested. Or that I’d blacked out on the highway and cheated on a few of my boyfriends. Or even that I’d drink a bottle of wine after my nursing shifts and show up to work hungover, my patients’ lives in my hands. I didn’t want to believe I had a problem.”

‘Doctor, is everything okay with my baby?’ He laughed. 4 months pregnant, I tested positive for malaria.’: Pregnant woman contracts malaria while traveling abroad, ‘Each day is a gift’

“My husband and I decided to fly to Kenya to help build orphanages. ‘Why go there?’ Despite negative reactions from others, we pressed on and purchased our tickets. Little did we know, I was pregnant! 4 months into my pregnancy, I became ill. I was rushed to the hospital. ‘How long have you had malaria?’ I was extremely frightened for the unborn child within my womb. I tested positive.”

‘He never asked why we needed the help, he simply said, ‘Things will get better.’: After a miscarriage and husband’s layoff, woman says, ‘Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.’

“Our life has been a series of indescribable highs and unspeakable lows. We welcomed my baby half-sister in the world and into our home. The father we shared died and we gained custody. I was in the midst of a miscarriage. We were heartbroken. I don’t know if I’ve felt lower than I did the day we traveled 40 minutes to a food bank just so we could eat.”

‘My husband and I ended up in marriage counseling over a bathroom. Yep, I said it. ‘How about aiming IN the bowl? Is it really so hard, fellas?’: Widow urges ‘don’t waste time on things that don’t matter’ after husband dies of pancreatic cancer

“My husband and I had an agreement. We would share chores, INCLUDING cleaning the bathroom. No matter how many times I lost it, wrote it on a chore list, cried, or slammed doors – it just never, ever got done unless I did it myself. I couldn’t understand, and he didn’t have a good answer. So, by God, I dug my proverbial heels in. If he wasn’t going to help me clean those bathrooms, then our-marriage-was-doomed.”

‘We arrived at the checkout. I’d left my wallet in the truck. In my rush, my daughter tripped and skinned her knee as we raced out the door.’: Mom says ‘our children repeat what they hear’

“I apologized and raced out of the store to get my bank card. In my rush, my daughter tripped and skinned her knee. She cried as I scooped her up. I tried to comfort her while drowning in shame. We discovered that the baggers had unloaded our entire cart. His response brought tears to my eyes. It had been an evening fraught with failure.”