About Me

Residing in Ontario, Canada, retired, I have been married for 40+ years, had no children, but have one ‘spoiled’ dog named “Pepi.” Pepi is a male medium-sized Chihuahua rescued from the local Humane Society.

Intense psychotherapy began in the (the mid-1990s) attempting to tackle the demons that disturbed my everyday living, resulting in the diagnosis of CPTSD (childhood sexual and emotional abuse). This journey of uncovering abuse ultimately led to years of major depression, hospitalizations, ECT treatments, and unemployment.

Throughout these daunting years, I journaled daily, and thankfully I did as ECT treatments robbed me of many years of long-term memory.

My journals proved invaluable. With those full pages of hopeless and helpless writings, I could compose articles that expressed all the emotions felt in the areas of my life discussed in therapy. Writing has forever been my passion.

After nine years of sporadic hospitalizations, I returned to the workforce for about six years; however, life currently presents itself with many health-related issues and I continuously struggle with bouts of depression, chronic migraine pain, and other invisible illnesses. Therapy continues from time to time.

I am also a cancer survivor. In 2018, they diagnosed me with colon cancer (stage 1), but after successful surgery and treatment, I am cancer-free for the time being.

This fantastic blog started in 2007. It began as “Living in Stigma“, but I have now added articles on chronic pain and individual illnesses. 

What exactly will you find while you scroll through these posts? Good question:

I post articles in a “what comes to mind that day“ or if I’ve stumbled upon an engrossing editorial, descriptive article, news release, a question posed by my readers, or a personal article.

My preference is to post shorter research articles so that the reader does not end up in snooze land, however, some of my personal written articles are longer! Included will be a variety of various topics, beautiful poetry, quotes for inspiration, images, and re-blogging from other bloggers’ incredible posts.

Mental Health/Illness topics address stigma, depression, PTSD, childhood sexual and emotional abuse, bipolar disorder, narcissist parenting, narcissism, migraines or chronic pain, eating disorders, cancer, other mental illnesses, psychotherapy, or other abuses.

With “Living in Stigma”, opportunities have come my way in writing a series of articles on mental health for the website “Mind Your Mind”.

In 2011, they interviewed me via podcast on “Safe Space Radio” from Portland, U.S.A addressing “Mental Illness Stigma”.

I have written “guest” and “ghost,” countless articles and posts relating to mental health and other health-related issues on different blogging sites.

• You can take a peek at some of my replies to questions asked on Quora.com.
• I also ventured into the world of writing children’s books. On Storybird.com, (my username is skyblue79) I’ve created a few children’s picture books, quotes, and poems as a start, and thoroughly enjoy this unique form of writing.
• I am a graphic artist and began a new project in November 2017 (which explains my absence from blogging) and entered the world of Print-On-Demand.
• I’ve written many Amazon Kindle journal/diary notebooks for people who require migraine headache tracking, ostomy (cancer) output logging, and SCAD heart attack patients to keep track of their health.
• Online reselling of gently used and new clothing on Poshmark Canada

Thanks for stopping by, if it wasn’t for all of you this blog wouldn’t be the success it is with over 490,000 visitors.

Cheers!

Deb

updated June 2022