The Life of Glory

There is little I like less  than intermittently being unable to walk. I just spent two days painfully using a cane to walk. I wish I had a wheelchair to get around in for these moments but neither my house or work has wheelchair access. Using a cane when your legs don't want to hold you up is so painful. The palms of my hands, my fingers, my wrists, my arms all hurt from holding me up for two days. Yesterday morning I pretty much slid down the ladder from our loft bed to go to the bathroom, which is currently in a different house because ours is out of order. When I reached the steps to my tiny house on the way back I literally sat down and dragged myself up them. I was so exhausted when I made it inside I just sat on the floor with my head on the couch crying. This is life. This, apparently, is Porphyria.  It hurts to be this physically weak and I hate  feeling useless . When you suddenly can't walk and you don't know how many days the muscle weakness will c...

To the friends and family of those with PTSD, Anything that reminds us of our trauma, be it a gesture or a phrase, makes it hard for us to open up to you. Trust is now defined by our baggage. If you do not understand our baggage, you will  hurt our feelings and we will  have a hard time trusting you. Even if we grow to trust you in everything, it takes just one phrase for us to guard certain parts of ourselves from you, almost indefinitely. It is our only defense after the hurt and damage that has already been caused.  PTSD teaches us that we can only trust others so far . That there is no one to count on but ourselves. This is probably the biggest tragedy of PTSD in today's culture. Trust is damaged and no one is acknowledging this fact to repair it.  This is not to say that you can never say anything that reminds someone with PTSD of their traumatic experiences. That would be impossible. We, as the victim of PTSD need to have the freedom to express ...

I was an unofficial foster parent when I was 23 to my oldest niece. Unofficial because I received no financial aid and bore the full brunt of having a 13 year old dependent. It was not  the hardest thing I have ever done. Everyone thought I was in over my head and made sure to tell me frequently. That  was the hardest part. The judgment people around us projected onto us. I didn't mind our tempers rising, her fits when I told her no, or the sessions we had after every outburst to talk it out when we both calmed down. I didn't mind the 11-16 hours work days I had to do to put a roof over our heads or spending the summer homeschooling her so she could pass the seventh grade. I didn't even mind that I had to wash our clothes in the bathtub with a washboard because I couldn't afford the laundromat every week  and  put food in the kitchen. I didn't mind because of the movie nights, conversations, hikes, and adventures that we shared. All the sweet moments, true frie...

Non epileptic seizures are not curable, nor do doctors fully understand their origin. Therefore, it is up to me to figure out what works and what doesn't. Here are a few tricks I have learned that work for me... Distraction can be a good word . Managing stress is often a balancing act and sometimes I need to choose to be distracted from tasks that stress me out at that moment. 10 minutes or an hour can make a world of difference when I switch to a task or activity that does not  stress me out. Regularly practicing this helps me avoid multiple seizures. Physical activity helps . I know people say this all the time, but physical stimming, dancing, walking, bike riding, any kind of physical movement really does make a difference. Sometimes I can't do much activity because my muscles are too weak, but whatever level I can manage helps me process my thoughts by physically releasing my emotions in this way.  You need a support system.  Honestly, embarrassment and panic w...

I left Christianity. I was angry at this idea that "all things were possible for me" except obeying/pleasing God. I was also angry at how I was treated in churches time and again. To me, there was no difference between what they called "the world" and Christians. To me, the "non believers" in my life were the genuine people who actually cared about me. That was when I embarked on the greatest journey of my life. After a year of trying (and failing) to be an atheist, I decided to give God one last chance. One last chance to prove himself to me because, frankly, He wouldn't stop talking to me . In novels, on television shows, everywhere I looked I was reminded of verses that spoke too accurately to my thoughts. I apparently didn't even need to pick up a Bible with all the years I had spent reading and studying it. But God didn't save people from treating other people like shit. This was the heart of my problem. Everywhere I looked in Christia...

Having NES I have learned that little things are what matter the most. A beautiful day. Time with friends and family. Hot tea on a chilly Spring morning on the front porch. The little Robin that visits my yard every summer. Dinner out with people I love. The last major seizure I had lasted more than two hours and cost me my desk job. I hid in the bathroom hoping it wouldn't happen and found myself laying on the floor with my head bouncing off the floor. According to my co-workers, I was gone for over an hour before they even found me and the seizure was still not over. I convulsed at intervals, unable to move or even lift my head intentionally. I got fired two days later because I couldn't work for more than a few hours at a time as I recovered from the physical ordeal that is a non-epileptic seizure. In fact, that seizure set me so far back that I had to stop hiking for a year . No matter how well you do most of the time, when NES knocks you down and it takes you ...

"Mental Problems," and "Panic Attacks," are labels that limit and frustrate us. Us, being me and anyone like me who has been taught that we are, in fact, limited . I say "taught" because I have fought  this teaching tooth and nail and limb my whole life in order to achieve what I want. Remember everyone asking you what you wanted to be when you "grow up" and having to research colleges and majors in high school? Well, I studied and explored my options and was excited about my conclusion. However, when I went to an adult in my life and told her, she told me I wouldn't be able to handle it. Without hesitation. When I came to my own defense she continued to shoot it down.  She was right at the moment, but not because my anxiety wouldn't have been able to deal. She was right because no one believed I could do anything . The fact of the matter is that because I had mental problems there wasn't a single adult in my life that believ...