The Blog

Perhaps the most moving artistic creation I have ever encountered was a four hour performance of Aeschylus’s The Oresteia produced by Robert Icke in the Almeida Theater in London. The performance itself was truly staggering, and I would pay an exorbitant sum to have a recording of the performance. I often thought that I would show it to every class of students I taught if I had the means. The interpretation of the canonical Greek tragedy was that impressive, that intricately woven, a near perfect artistic creation.

As my girlfriend tells me, however, magic only happens outside of one’s comfort zone.

So I was jamming out to the band that will surely be my Spotify new artist of the year earlier, and I thought it would be a good idea to blog about some lyrics for a change of pace. The band is Gang of Youths out of Australia, and the song is called “Fear and…

Nature has always been a place where I have found peace, and now studies are coming out that support nature as a powerful force in recovering from PTSD.

It’s hard to explain the impact that my concussion glasses have had on my life, and I hope that, if you’re reading this article and have had concussions, you will look into these glasses.

  Mama and Daddy spent their Sundays in silence, and if that don’t prove God exists, I don’t know what does.   I first wrote that sentence in undergrad, and it remains untouched as the first line of the novel I am starting to shop around. To this day, that line remains one of my…

One of my former students recently read my post on Emotional Flashbacks, accessible here, and asked me to differentiate between PTSD and CPTSD. I thought I would take this week to do so. Though not an official, DSM-5 diagnosis, Complex PTSD is becoming increasingly accepted in the psychiatric community. Pete Walker, the author of Complex…

Recently, a friend and fellow music enthusiast emailed me and asked if I would write a blog post about music that has helped me throughout my journey. I really liked the idea, so I want to take the time to do that now. Art is art, no matter the medium or sense with which it…

During one of my graduate school classes this summer, I faced a difficult question for the first time. Given the reading list for the course, I had no choice but to approach my professor and tell him about my CPTSD. Multiple books on the list were rife with triggers that could steal hours, days, or…

Yesterday, a friend stumbled upon my website. I haven’t made much of an effort to broadcast my health struggles, and this friend was unaware of the recent discoveries in my life. He asked me what it was like living with mental illness. I must admit, I know he is going to read my response. That…

You get to know yourself really well at 3:00 in the morning. There’s something about that exact moment that is deader than the other hours of the night. 2:00 serves as the dregs of social nights. At 4:00 you can feel the still-hidden sun creeping slowly toward a new day. But at 3:00 you are…

One of the most common questions I receive about my CPTSD is what an emotional flashback feels like. It’s a question that, even after reading hundreds of people’s descriptions of them, I have yet to come across a good answer. Admittedly, each person’s flashbacks are unique, but I wanted to share my best description of…