Tag: TW

How it’s been going, I guess

June 11, 2025

TW: sexual assault, body-image

I have come to realize that men aren’t that complicated. I’ve spent way too much time trying to figure out if a man was attracted to me or pining after the ones who obviously weren’t. If a man wants you, he will let you know. They tend to not be coy and try to trick you, they will be upfront. Even the shy ones will show some sort of attention to you.

I’ve always been on the uglier side, especially growing up in the early 2000’s and being bigger. (Even though I think society was too hard on me. I wasn’t that ugly as a teenager from looking back on pictures.) I have had the worst luck with romance.

Because of my body-image, I’ve only received attention from men in the most toxic and self-centered ways. I’ve only been with one good man and we couldn’t work it out. He gave up on me long before I ever gave up on him.

But beyond him, I have had no good experiences with men. I’ve had too many times where I was pressured into sex. I don’t considered it rape but I was definitely manipulated when I didn’t want to have sex. That has for sure added to my pelvic floor trauma response. I don’t know if I have endometriosis or if I have too tight of a pelvic floor, but sex hurts and honestly, has kind of sucked most of my adulthood. This is probably why I’ve been okay being celibate for the last 3 years. I just don’t miss men.

I did have someone I was interested in briefly in the recent times but he fell off the face of the earth. Just my luck. So, I’m back to building high emotional walls and just being a cat lady.

Running Away

May 22, 2025

TW: grief, illness, suicide, depression

I love where I live. I grew up here and only have spent four years away. I’m the definition of a townie. I’ve grown so much here and have had so many experiences. But, I want to leave. 

I know that my desire to move from where I’ve always lived is a form of running away from my problems. As much as I love it here, I’ve experienced the worst of my life just as much here. Except the absolute worst moment of my life, the moment I tried to end myself, wasn’t actually experienced here. 

But, that aside, what I’m going through now is still insane. I know I’ve spoken of it before or at least I believe I have. My mother is sick and I am stuck here to take care of her. I know I’m not the first person to experience this and I won’t be the last but I feel so alone. My mother was the source of a third of my trauma but now she is completely dependent on my care. All I want to do is leave. 

It’s crazy to think that my whole life has been dictated by other people. Any control I’ve ever felt has been perceived. I lived where I lived because of my parents. I went to school for what my parents wanted me to do. Until college, when I tried to go on my own. And look how that ended up. I loved psychology but it took me nowhere. 

I truly wish I could move to Canada. It is getting fucking scary here. But I can’t. Not only because I owe the government over $100k in student loans and my credit is in the 600’s, but because I can’t leave my mom. And she voted for this mess.

I’ve been going through a lot

April 9, 2025

Trigger warning: death, grief

I am experiencing what I truly had hoped wouldn’t happen. But what is hope really but a promise to yourself to be sorry later. Nothing works out the way you expect.

It isn’t permemnt, this grief but it’s still a phase that is necessary to enjoy the good parts of life better. The light is that much brighter after experiencing the dark. But what if what you had was that light in the dark?

The darkness that won’t cease. The darkness that can only get darker before getting better. But it is dragging so long that the brief light that I experienced is all the much more obvious that its missing.

The beginning of my writing from today was about this man I lost contact with who was an amazing part of my life for a short period of time. I wrote about him when we first started talking in a prior post (if I’ve left it up). We started off so great that I knew it wasn’t going to end well.

Also, my mom is very sick and has been sick for a long time. She has a degenerative, chronic disease that has rendered her completely disabled. She has no use of her limbs and she cannot lift her own head. I care for her occasionally when my father needs to travel. The immense pressure I’m under when I’m responsible for her well being is straining me. It’s not her fault and I don’t blame her for it but the burden is real. The worst part of all of it is that this disease will never get better, her only relief will be death. So, the poem above is mostly about how I have to experience her death before I can start to move on. I will miss her but my life is on hold until she passes. I know she knows this and so I don’t burden her with complaining. I just write vague poetry on WordPress while on an edible after my migraine treatment. Goddamn.

Sorry for my downer of a post today. Like I said, I’ve been going through some stuff. Take care, dear reader. Appreciate what you have now since it won’t be around forever.

(Copyright photo to https://www.gabewasylko.com/social.html#/)

Medical Results Panic Attacks

November 8, 2024

I’m losing my mind. This might be a long one…

I don’t really know where to start except that my kidney function testing is progressively getting worse. I’m not diagnosed with anything kidney related but I do have a plethora of other health problems. This has been slowly happening over the last two years.

My creatinine rate has been higher than normal since 2022. Every time it’s been tested since then it’s been getting progressively higher. My Glomerular Filtration Rate has been in the normal range this whole time but it has also been going down consistently. That’s the direction you don’t want it to go. My electrolytes have been fine this whole time.

With those test results, I’ve been also experiencing physical symptoms. I have a random pain on my back, only on the right side, right under my rib cage. It comes and goes but it’s been getting more painful when it does comes around. Also, I’m constantly dehydrated even though I drink over 60 oz of water a day. And TMI but my urine is so clear I could compare it to something funny but I have no idea right now. I don’t understand how it’s so healthy but the rest of my body is dehydrated. Lastly, my blood pressure has been weirdly low too. One time I clocked it at 95/66. It gets worse when I stand up along with room spinning.

I have been obese since I was 9 years old, if you don’t remember. I already have obesity related disorders, type 2 diabetes, GERD, and more. The funny part is that I’ve been on Ozempic for the last 1.5 years and have lost 50lbs. That is supposed to help kidney issues but for some reason, it has been revealing mine.

I have seen three doctors of varying specialities and everyone is punting it to a different specialist. I finally got a kidney ultrasound scheduled but OF COURSE insurance wouldn’t let it be until at least 10 days out. Thankfully I had a physical scheduled for later this month already. The ultrasound ended up being three days before my physical which is in over a week from today.

This whole experience has caused me so much anxiety especially since I have such a long history of medical trauma. Ever since I was 14 years old when my gallbladder failed and it took over a year to get me into surgery. All the test results were normal except I would faint if I ate anything fatty. Thankfully my mother kept bothering the doctors until they finally decided on surgery. Once they got in there, they found how deteriorated my gallbladder was and it was removed. I was 15 by then. It scarred the hell out of me and to this day every time I experience a dismissal from a doctor, I tailspin.

I get to live in pain, dehydrated, and dizzy for another 10 days. And even then, we may not get the answers. I want to give thanks to Google for all the information I’ve collected so far, since my doctors never picked up on the pattern, I had to.

I guess that’s it really, other than it’s the end of our lives as we know it thanks to that election. But, I can’t face that yet.

Thanks for making it this far, dear reader. Take care and best wishes of health to you all.

The Great Fall

November 1, 2024

TW: suicidal ideation

Once a few birthdays ago, I went to a show at a local mid-range theater. They had recently renovated and their stairs became a small death trap. They were slate tile stairs and someone had spilled beer on said stairs. My clumsy ass stepped in the beer, snapped my ankle, swung my legs up over my head while tumbling down the stairs. In a dress, no doubt.

I hit my head in the process but I can’t remember it happening. I had to have people tell me later that I hit my head. Well, I also must have scraped my knee at one point because my leggings were ripped. My shoe was lost and I was humiliated. I had royally biffed it in front of a mildly large audience.

What really stood out to me, not at the time, but especially now, was how I was able to stop myself from tumbling all the way to the bottom of the balcony. In my ADHD crisis brain, I was able to think to grab the handrail. I heard a voice in my head say, “Stop”, and I reached out and made contact. I was still upside down and absolutely panicked.

A medic had to come and tend to my ankle and scrapes. I refused an ambulance because I didn’t want to pay for it but ended up driving myself to the hospital. My head was not right and I barely remember being in the ER. They probably scanned me but I could not tell you which kind. I’m scared of head MRIs but if I were a gamblin’ man, I’d say I got a CT scan. Thankfully my brother was in town and was able to get me and my car home.

It was less than a month later, I was still experiencing concussion symptoms and ended up going to the psych inpatient against my will. I was sent by ambulance to the hospital from a doctor’s appointment, so, I ended up paying for an ambulance ride either way. I hate the US medical system. $800 because I told my doctor I wanted to die. I don’t blame the doctor, he was only doing his job. But it took me a while to pay off that bill.

No matter what the consequences of the fall, I am still haunted by that voice in my head that helped me stop falling. Where did it come from? Was it me or was something watching over me?

Believe what you want. Thank you, dear reader.

Life minus (some) meds

February 10, 2024

[TW: food, body image, dieting, weight discussion. I recognize I grew up in privilege and never experienced socioeconomic situations where hunger happened because there was no food. I struggled with money in my twenties and had to go hungry a few nights or live off oatmeal for a week but I always had safety nets. This post is solely my opinions on how I grew up and how that affected my relationship with food.]

I’ve been having issues with accessing my doctors lately. I’ve had many appointments pushed, by months, recently. I am leaning on the hope that everyone in the hospital system is just doing their best and this is just an unfortunate circumstance but it doesn’t remove all the frustration. One of these appointments was with my psychiatrist.

I was recently put on mirtazapine and stopped taking trazodone for mood/sleep coverage. Mirtazapine was supposed to cover what I was going to lose with the trazodone. But mirtazapine came with more than just some okay-ish sleep, I got a new emotion, fake hunger. Yup, I became hungry at all times. I woke up hungry, I went to bed hungry, I was hungry right after eating. It wasn’t normal.

Maybe it’ll get better?

My life’s motto

I’ve been on some restrictive diet probably around 20% of my life. Being overweight since age 9 will do that to you. I know what hunger feels like. Whether it be weight watchers and their point system to zone diet with their zones? I don’t remember. Neither really took. It wasn’t until ozempic that I truly discovered comfortable weight loss.

I’ve lived my life believing that weight loss had to hurt. You had to be punished for being fat. Your life was too indulgent and you need discipline, now learn to starve. Do you know how much it messes with your head to ignore a basic human need? My body wants food and I can’t eat it. To this day, I ignore bodily signals like having to pee for hours on end because “I can’t possibly have to pee yet.” (I blame ADHD for that.)

“I can’t possibly be hungry yet,” was a thought I never wanted to experience again, so, I spent the last 4 years eating what and when I wanted, regardless. I topped off at 322lbs at my heaviest and it wasn’t until this miracle drug, Ozempic, that I’ve ever been able to lose any significant weight. (I’m at 40lbs so far.) And I don’t feel hungry on it. I actually had a side effect of forgetting to eat at all then almost passing out from hunger. (Whoops.) That faded while my body got used to the drug and now I eat a normal amount of food to a small bird. It’s almost like a gastric band in a shot. I was able to be restrictive without the gut wrenching, soul crushing pain.

The mirtazapine brought back the hunger I was without for over 6 months and with it all my feelings of inadequacy and triggers came back too. I actually would feel hungry after just consuming anything. It was impossible to know when I actually needed food or was being tricked by this medicine.

As a child, I had a doctor tell me medication doesn’t cause weight gain. “Pills don’t have calories,” That was his excuse to shame me for my weight. I have been on hormonal birth control and antidepressants since I was 16. I was also 200lbs and 5’8” in the early 2000’s. I was fat and it was all my fault was the general message from everywhere. Society, peers, parents, doctors, gym teachers. But this new medicine might as well be served with a side of ice cream.

Pills don’t have calories.

My childhood doctor

Around the time I started mirtazapine, I was losing around 2lbs a week, consistently. I would have been on Ozempic for 7 months by then. Within the first 2 weeks of mirtazapine, I gained 2lbs. I not only stopped my descent, I pivoted and gained weight. It devastated me.

I decided to wait for my psychiatrist appointment to bring this up because my life’s motto is, “maybe it’ll get better?” It didn’t.

Then, my appointment was pushed two months. Thankfully, I am able to message my doctor through a patient portal. I explained the situation and he promptly (within 2 business days) messaged back to stop taking the mirtazapine. Full stop. There was no, “and start back on trazodone.” I’m just stuck now, in medication limbo, not sure if I will be able to sleep ever.

My only redemption is that I still have my adderall prescription. This is for a future post but I’m pretty sure I have always had ADHD/neurodivergent tendencies and not fitting in, being shamed when unmasking, and being exhausted from all of that is why I’ve been depressed since I was 9. Now, I’m learning how to live with the correct treatment and I would have to say, it’s not too bad.

Thanks for reading.

“Sorry I said I hate you”

August 24, 2020

TW: Suicide attempt and run on sentences


One of my favorite comedians is Brendan Eyre. He is hilarious, of course, but he is also genuine and courageous. He and I share many similarities when it comes to mental illness and history of treatments. I can’t help but appreciate the honesty in his comedy. Don’t get me wrong, his whole act isn’t about mental illness so be prepared to hear jokes about sex and the like. I will warn you though, I was triggered by one of his jokes but I still was able to laugh the whole time. That said, take my warning with a grain of salt. I mean it when I say our histories are very similar and hearing about his suicide attempt really reminded me of my first one when I was 20. I also had a drink that night and I’m really not supposed to drink anymore. It made me really vulnerable to a break down. With my five psych meds I take daily and the TMS treatment, alcohol is the last thing I need to consume. I do it anyway because a part of me wants to feel normal occasionally.


I saw Brendan in an intimate, comedy show recently. It was a Thursday night during the quarantine so the fact that there were only 30+ people in the audience didn’t reflect the caliber of talent on that stage but made me feel special that I was experiencing it. I knew Cleveland had a healthy comedy scene and it was confirmed because each comedian that night was from Cleveland and each one made me burst out laughing. Normally my social anxiety would have kicked in because I went to the show alone and was sat right in the front row. I was especially nervous. My nerves melted away with the first comic, thankfully, and I was able to enjoy the show. I knew that they were probably just as nervous as I was and that made me feel connected to the comics. Whenever I feel connected to an artist, I always enjoy the art even more. I have always agreed that laughter is important in life. If stand up comedy isn’t your thing, hopefully you find something that does make you laugh.


To reference the title of this blog post, after the show, I was such a wreck that I actually yelled at Brendan that I hated him. He looked hurt at my comment but seemed to realize shortly that I was sobbing behind my mask. I explained being triggered and he said one of the only responses I appreciate hearing when learning about my first suicide attempt, “I’m glad you’re still here.” My therapist when I was 20, before she had to end our therapy, told me she was glad I was still alive when I saw her after leaving the psych ward. I lost her because she was a school counselor and not a full therapist. She couldn’t handle me anymore. She was the first therapist I lost due to my severe case. I felt so horrible about yelling at Brendan after that I sent him an Instagram DM apologizing. He was very gracious and explained he appreciated my attendance at the show and not to worry about it.


I highly recommend checking out Brendan on YouTube or social media. His tweets are really entertaining. I actually took one of his tweets and created a painting. It is without doubt one of my favorite paintings I’ve ever done. I will link a few places to check him out below. Thank you, reader, for taking another journey with me. Be well.

@EyreBud (Twitter)
YouTube
The Rad Dudecast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts)