Tag: mental illiness

FLATLINED

Judith Staff

chemically gagged pharmaceutically silenced. swallowing tiny thieves of nuance and vibrancy until depth and hue crumble like damp sawdust into a shallow, timeless grave of monotony nestled by my heart an internal barometer measuring emotional vitality no longer responsive a total obliteration of moods each one simply truncated where stormy Read more

Judith Staff

Judith Staff’s background is in teaching and early years education. She still teaches occasionally, though now her main focus is in child welfare and safeguarding children. Her work includes delivering training, presenting at conferences, and engaging in collaborative projects with schools around child abuse awareness and sexual violence prevention. She enjoys writing blogs and poetry on topics she feels passionate about. Judith loves running, gym classes and karate. She is married to an art lecturer and they live in Northamptonshire, England with their three free-spirited children, a 12- year-old son, and daughters aged 11 and 9.

In My Other Life

Renee DeMont

Have your ever asked yourself: who would I be, if I were a different kind of me? In my other life … I was not born to a sociopath. I did not look to his eyes for a twinkle of benevolent fatherly pride and discover instead a tragic glint of Read more

Renee DeMont

Renee DeMont is a SURVIVOR. She was born into poverty; spent much of her childhood homeless, living on the streets of Los Angeles, and in foster care. Renee learned early on: life is about adapting to adversity. The greatest gift she ever received? No one expected anything from her. By 18, she was ready to experience life on her own terms. First one in her family to attend college. After college, her focus and determination earned her a spot working at Paramount Studios, on the #1 show in television, "Cheers". At 29, Renee gave entrepreneurship a go and began a Biomedical engineering business out of her garage. Twenty years later, that risky venture grew into 8,000 square feet of success. She broke the cycle of poverty that plagued her family for generations. Recently, Renee turned fifty, filed for divorce (he declared WAR), and trudged through a debilitating nervous breakdown. Through therapy and writing, she reclaimed her sanity. Sold her half of the business to the ex, and now she has clarity and choices. Renee is personally and financially independent. With her new found freedom, she chooses to write in a sincere effort to reconcile her past with her present. Hopefully, through this cathartic process, the second half of her life will be led by her soul's desire, rather than by the fears and doubts of her first half. Currently, she lives in South Orange County with her teenage son and daughter, and her high maintenance yet lovable dog, Joe. Soon to be an empty nester, she plans to downsize the big house in the OC bubble, for a bigger life in the real world. Her days are spent gently launching her almost grown children into adulthood, and passionately penning her memoir. In the mean time, you can find her essays on pain, positivity, and empowerment at: onedropofgrace.blogspot.com

I’ve Found My Friends

Henrietta Ross

I sat on a chair perched beneath the window of the nurse’s station. Opposite me, a woman had parked herself on one of the grey plastic seats and thrown a blanket over her head, which she peeped out of now and again with just her left eye. An old burgundy Read more

Henrietta Ross

Henrietta Ross is a writer living in rural Scotland. She isn’t good at much but she can spin a good yarn, so she does this on a regular basis. When not writing, she likes to dump her writing in impromptu places for fun, leave local charity shops with a wheelbarrow to transport her books, occasionally try active mediation in a field as she wanders after confused sheep or dances absurdly to cheesy eighties music, because like Rockwell, she thinks somebody IS watching. Henrietta is working on three books, one novel and two non-fiction works. She hopes to finish one of them in this lifetime.