Category: Mental Health & Chronic Illness
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The Fear Beneath the Fear: What Mortality Anxiety Is Actually Telling You
The question that surfaces once the searching stops isn’t one more information can answer. Here’s what fear during a serious diagnosis is actually for, and how to carry it without letting it make the decisions.
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The Great Erasure: How a Serious Diagnosis Quietly Replaces Who You Are
A serious diagnosis doesn’t take your identity all at once — it takes it one reasonable accommodation at a time, until the patient role has quietly replaced everyone else you used to be. Here’s why that erosion is a clinical problem, not just an emotional one.
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The Emotional Side of a Cancer Diagnosis: What Nobody Prepares You For, and What Actually Helps
There’s a particular silence that follows a cancer diagnosis — not in the exam room, but after, when you’re alone with what you just heard. Most of what’s written about cancer is written about treatment and decisions. This is written about the part that comes before all of that.
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Why Healing Isn’t Linear — And Why That’s Not a Failure
My journey has been anything but linear. I’ve lived through seizures, surgeries, permanent injury, and long stretches where I genuinely didn’t know if I’d ever get my life back. Here’s what non-linear healing actually looks like from inside it.
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PTSD and Chronic Illness: The Neurological Connection That Explains Why You Can’t Just ‘Think Positive’
Trauma doesn’t live primarily in thoughts. It lives in the body, in the measurable physiology of a stress response system that got stuck in an alarm state. Understanding that changes how you approach healing.
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My Journey: From Disability to Healing
In 2012 my life changed permanently. Epilepsy, chronic pain, a traumatic brain injury, and multiple spinal surgeries took everything I knew. But through faith in Jesus Christ, whole-food nutrition, and healing principles I’ve gathered from years of personal research — including insights from practitioners like Anthony William and others — I found a path back…
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Dealing with PTSD and Epilepsy: My Path to Recovery
Managing epilepsy is one thing. Adding PTSD and post-concussion syndrome to the mix is another challenge entirely. In this post I share my personal experience navigating all three simultaneously — the referral to a Level 4 epilepsy center, the emotional weight of a traumatic brain injury, and what I’ve learned about seeking help and surviving…
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Understanding Sensory Overstimulation (‘Flooding’) After Brain Injury
After my traumatic brain injury I experienced something my doctors called ‘flooding’ — a form of sensory overstimulation where my brain simply couldn’t process incoming information fast enough. It was one of the most disorienting experiences of my life. In this post I explain what flooding is, why it happens after a TBI, and what…
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Understanding Depression: The Impact of Words and How to Support Those Affected
Depression affects millions of people, and how we speak to those who are suffering matters more than most of us realize. In this post I explore the real impact of words on people living with depression — what helps, what causes harm, and how to show up with genuine empathy rather than dismissive phrases that…