My Stories
My blog, essays and articles feature stories on healing from trauma, coping with disorder and practicing mindfulness
What Receiving a Bipolar Diagnosis in My 40s Says About Me
I’d been struggling again. And was feeling suicidal. So I decided to make an appointment with yet another psychiatrist. It had been three years since my last psychiatric evaluation. I was long overdue. It took me months to get in with this new natural psychiatrist. Then I was assigned a PA. I like the PA I see. She listens. And seems to genuinely want help. Not something that’s always....
PTSD and Trauma: Taking Back Christmas
It has been four years since my repressed trauma surfaced. And since my worst memory was from Christmas Eve, it has also been four years since I’ve celebrated Christmas. But this year, I’m taking Christmas back. For four years, [...]
10 Ways to Connect to Our Interoceptive Sense to Help With PTSD
I didn’t know I was having a fight-or-flight response. For 23 years. A response that sent me flying outside of my body — dissociating — every time I became triggered. When there was too much sensory input. When I [...]
What Receiving a Bipolar Diagnosis in My 40s Says About Me
I’d been struggling again. And was feeling suicidal. So I decided to make an appointment with yet another psychiatrist. It had been three years since my last psychiatric evaluation. I was long overdue. It took me months to get [...]
CPTSD, PTSD and Trauma: How Stranger Things Season 4 Acknowledges Repressed Trauma
(Spoiler alert) My husband and I recently finished watching Season 4 of Stranger Things, and I’ve been reflecting on how much it dealt with repressed trauma—with a memory so traumatic that it is blocked from our conscious mind—and it made [...]
CPTSD, PTSD and Fight-or-flight Response: Living in a Trauma Cycle and 7 Steps to Ending It
When you’re living in a trauma cycle, your thoughts are wired for chaos. And you remain in a fight-or-flight state. Running from problem to problem. From crisis to crisis. Where I lived for over 23 years. The best way to [...]
OCD, PTSD and SPD: Learning to Relinquish Control and Stay Present
My husband recently needed to go to Rome, Italy for a film he was producing, and I got to go with him. I hadn’t been to Rome in 20 years when I’d had the privilege of studying abroad. Now, 20 [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, Self-love and Trauma: 10 Simple Ways to Practice Self-care Every Day
Notice I titled this, “10 Simple Ways,” and not, “10 Easy Ways.” As a trauma survivor, self-care is never easy. It is often the last thing I want to do. But it is the quickest way to begin to feel [...]
PTSD and Anxiety: Working Against Our Fear Response (and Tips for Feeling Safe)
My husband is a producer and had a film in a film festival—for which I couldn't have been more proud—and we got to go to the festival in sunny California—for which I couldn’t have been more excited. But I wasn’t [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, SPD and Boundaries: Learning to Contain the Universe Within You
Understanding boundaries has been an essential part of my trauma recovery—a concept I didn't know existed before learning how many of my boundaries had been crossed. While recovering, I’m learning how to set boundaries for myself. I’m learning what I [...]
PTSD, SPD and Fight-or-flight Response: Recognizing and Reconnecting to Our Proprioceptive Sense
My husband and I decided to go for a drive. Neither of us had been feeling well, and once better, we needed to get out of the house. My husband drove, taking routes I typically wouldn’t take. There were dozens [...]
CPTSD, PTSD and Trauma: Nows the Time to Understand Intergenerational Trauma
Intergenerational trauma refers to trauma that has been carried from one generation to another. The trauma rides along our genes like an anxious passenger. Wanting truths to be told. Wrongs to be righted. Justice to be served. Its a heavy [...]
CPTSD, PTSD, Dissociation and Fight-or-flight Response: How Childhood Trauma Shows Up in Marriage
I’ve been thinking about how May is both Trauma Awareness Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, and then I came across a story I’d written that took place almost exactly one year ago this week. It was during COVID lockdown [...]
“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