“In kindergarten I tried to walk in front of a semi truck in the street. I lived with this demon all my childhood. Then I met the one.”
‘I was writing my goodbye letter. I’d gone out to my car, had a handful of pills, and then my husband called.’: Woman battling Bipolar Disorder says ‘the one’ is out there, ‘they will find you’
‘We received a phone call from the teacher. Parents were complaining about our daughter. It was clear it was my best friend.’: Autism mom says it’s not a ‘disturbance’ but an ‘opportunity to teach’
“She demanded Chloe be removed and sent to an alternative school with ‘those kids.'”
‘My husband passed away from a sudden heart attack at 32. I felt like my world was crashing in. Although I had two beautiful babies, I thought multiple times about suicide.’
“My best friend had enough of my sorrow and stole my phone to add me to Tinder. I absolutely HATED the idea. There was no way I would let a man near myself or my children.”
‘I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. The woman shared that her grandmother had a son. He died immediately after he was born. Someone took photographs to show her later – because they knew she’d never get to see him.’
“I realize I eavesdropped a bit more than I intended. But when you’ve lost a baby – these moments have a way of finding you.”
‘STOOOOPPPP!’ I could no longer rationalize his strange and uncomfortable behavior.’: Sexual assault survivor bravely speaks up after 20 years, urges ‘you are not your story’
“I would witness dual sides of his personality. One would be full of love and laughter as a family man and the other would be animalistic and cruel. I felt like his prey. An outsider greatly misunderstood. I began to question whether or not it was my fault and if I’d somehow given him the wrong impression. I was sworn to secrecy.”
‘I thought moving mom and dad to an assisted living home would give us a moment to breathe. If I said I was suffocating, that would not be far from an exaggeration.’
“My dad stares off into the distance as he tries to figure out how it all came to this. Why is the woman he loves here, but gone?”
‘Marriage doesn’t always look this pretty beyond the altar. But on the day you said ‘I do,’ how could you imagine anything less?’
“You say the words. You mean the words. But you want to get to the good stuff. The party. The wedding night. You don’t process how those words, should you be faced with them, will completely change your life.”
She said, ‘NO. You’re going to go sit down and enjoy your dinner, and I will be there to sit with her!’
“I went to find our waitress to ask if she could please bring my food out in a To-go box because we were going out to sit in the car…”
‘My initial reaction was to text the teacher and ask if she could hold one for him. But then I thought, ‘No, you’d better not.’: Mom grapples with giving son special treatment
“And then it dawned on me: This. This is why moms are so exhausted.”
‘I can do this.’ I’d get my baggies, needle, tie off my hand, and in the heroin went. ‘Just not today.’ I was using in secret. All day, every day.: Woman overcomes drug addiction, now works as nurse fighting ‘the opiate epidemic’
“I’d snort a bunch of pills before a party, drink, pass out, and wake up completely unaware of what happened. My boyfriend was suspicious, but I covered up my drug use. That was before the needle. I said I’d never use one. Needles were for junkies, and I was not that. But my dealer shot me up. It was the most amazing, intense rush of warm, pure happiness I’d ever experienced, and I’d chase that feeling for years. There are so many times I should’ve been arrested, should’ve overdosed, should’ve died, but I didn’t.”