“What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you? Jesus Christ, what the hell is WRONG with you?” Your words echo in my mind like a beaten child’s wails, their residue embedded in my tissues and tear ducts and neural networks like a terrorist sleeper cell living invisibly in the city they are Heaven-bent…
Tag: trauma
96) Abuse, Trauma, Shame, and Healing
Hello Dear Reader, In an upcoming series of posts, I am going to explore the dynamics of the inner monster that seems to doom so many people to suffer lives of loneliness and limitation — Shame. As we go through these posts, we’ll explore where Shame comes from, what it feels like, how it…
94) The Day I Saw My Future Unfold
I heard a story once about a girl whose parents were murdered right in front of her. She spent the rest of her life selflessly devoted to one person, with seemingly no will of her own. I knew a man once whose boyhood was robbed by war. He spent the rest of his life addicted…
93) How to Not Murder People, Stay Addicted, or Commit Suicide: Part 2 – The Representativeness Heuristic is Sus
The Representativeness Heuristic is at the heart of much of the shitty things we suffer from. Yep, to the extent that you, and those you care about, have struggled with relationship problems, addictions, emotional issues, and other crappy things, this BOOOOOORING sounding nerd-speak Representativeness Heuristic thingy probably has played a key role in that suffering.…
a) My Personal Fav Posts, d) Saving the World: Environmental and other Challenges of this Age of Humanity, e) The Meaning of Life and related thoughts
67) Purpose: A Four-part series — Part 1 — “Tearing Down the Wall”
This title comes from Pink Floyd’s brilliant album, The Wall. The Wall is a 3-level album. At the first level, it is a personal narrative, a musical autobiographical allegory of Roger Waters himself, centered around a fictional character named, appropriately enough, “Pink”. At the second level, it is a narrative of the experiences of…
53) Dissociation, Part 2
So, let’s talk about dissociation. About how it takes over your life, without you completely realizing what’s going on. About how other people conclude all sorts of bad things about you. About how your life spirals out of control until you hit bottom. And about what happens when you do hit bottom. I am not…
52) Motherfuckin’ Dissociation
I’m going to swear a bit here. Well, a lot. So, heads up. Why? Why be so crass? Well — You know when you stub your toe? Or forget something and have to go back to your house for the third time that morning? Or you realize you emailed the dirty-joke to your boss,…
51) The strongest man I ever knew: A memorial
Dear Dad, I have some questions to ask you. I’ve asked most of them already, when you were alive. I’m sure you would remember those times; they were pretty heartfelt. But you were unable to answer them. I didn’t understand why, then, but I’m pretty sure I do now. I’ve done a lot of work…
50) Dirty Feet (TW: suicide, sexual assault)
(NOTE: I realized recently that the author of this post is unspecified, and some people have thought it is me. To be clear, this is a letter sent to me by someone who took my classes, and I thought I had commented that it was my “first guest post”, but clearly I didn’t here. Sorry…