My Stories
My blog, essays and articles feature stories on healing from trauma, coping with disorder and practicing mindfulness
Masking Who You Really Are When You’re Neurodivergent
I performed onstage for the first time when I was 15. I don’t remember the part I played, but I do remember the feeling of being onstage, of being accepted by the audience, of being understood, of being someone else. I continued performing onstage through high school and college, but what I didn’t realize until much later was that I spent my entire life performing offstage, as well. I am neurodiverse with sensory processing disorder (SPD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and [...]
Awakening: How Occupational Therapy Uncovered Hidden Trauma
It was March of 2018 and my third attempt at medication in three years. To try to ease my troubled mind. I had tried drugs before — prescribed or not — but this time, I was more desperate than usual [...]
Fight-or-flight and Trauma: My Husband Triggers My PTSD (and 5 Things to Do If Someone Triggers You)
My husband triggers me. As our loved ones tend to do. I told him the other day that it’s like he subconsciously knows what will set me off—like he can feel the energy in the air, but instead of moving [...]
CPTSD, OCD and Trauma: How Getting My First Tattoo Became a Lesson in Perfectionism and Control
I decided to get my first tattoo at the age of 39. In my 40th year. To mark the new beginning I’ve been gifted. The chance to start my life post-trauma. It symbolizes that the pain from my past is [...]
Depression and Mental Health: Mourning Rejection and Learning to Let Go
Dealing with the rejection that comes with being a writer is never easy. And I’ve spent the majority of my life feeling rejected. By strangers when I’m triggered. By doctors and healthcare workers who dismiss my concerns. By loved ones [...]
Anxiety, CPTSD and Intergenerational Trauma: Channeling Our Inner Superhero and Using Self-care
This week has been a doozy. Personally and nationally. It feels like that last battle everyone’s had in them is coming to an anxious head, needing a victory to feel the strength to move on. Because when you fight battle [...]
CPTSD, Fear and Intergenerational Trauma: Coming Out of Hiding and Learning to Trust Myself
I realized the other day that I lie to my therapist when we do a phone session. Well, not lie. But hide. Since COVID, we’ve been meeting via FaceTime. Then I switched to a phone session over the last two [...]
CPTSD, PTSD and Trauma: Using the Xen Unit to Get Out of a Fight-or-Flight Response
A Little about Me Few things help pull me out of a fight-or-flight response. When I’m in it, it’s like I’m trapped in a different world. Cowering. Shaking. Afraid. Stuck in the underworld. Surrounded by darkness. With no light to [...]
CPTSD, Depression and Intergenerational Trauma: Pushing Through the Discomfort Until the Joy Returns
It's a few weeks into a new semester, and I can tell it’s going to be a tough one. Students were forced into online classes due to COVID, and I can tell it’s causing them stress. Through the emails I'm [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, Intergenerational Trauma and Black Lives Matter: A Story of Officers and Compassion
My husband was driving as we pulled into the parking lot of the dispensary where I purchase my medical marijuana. Since lockdown, I’ve been placing my orders online and using the curbside service to pick them up. But this time, [...]
Trauma, Empathy and Mindfulness: Creating and Holding Space and Boundaries
After suffering extreme loss of myself, Im learning to let go of the pain. To move all the pain and trauma out of my body to create space for love and joy. For regardless of what happened or what happens, [...]
OCD, PTSD, SPD and COVID: Masks, Panic Attacks and a Trip to Target
Right before COVID hit, I was just starting to break free from the stiff hold my rules have had on me for decades. The rules Id set in place to help myself survive were slowly lessening. Melting away as I [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, OCD and Intergenerational Trauma: The Danger of Controlling and the Joy of Letting Go
Learning to practice mindfulness has helped me understand what it means to let something go. Growing up with a whole host of issues, it was something that was said to me often: Just let it go. As if it was [...]
“Loved reading this Jenna, what a great explanation of how your OT helped you. I have taken a few tips for a client of mine I am treating at the moment! Great post. Cheers!”
JAYNE OT