Trauma is never an easy thing to deal with. Sometimes, it can be so painful that we try to avoid it or numb ourselves to the whole situation completely. Personally, I was lacking the emotional intelligence needed to deal with my trauma. My inability to deal with my issues led me down a path of denial, self-destruction, and increasingly difficult pain. Denial and Oblivion When I was 12 years old, I was raped at a 4th of July party. I entered that party with my innocence intact, but when I...

When I was younger, I always knew that I was different from my peers. I had a sense that I didn't belong in any of the cliques at school, I didn't feel as if I fit in with my own family, and I never felt comfortable within my own skin. In response to never feeling "a part of", I started to try to blend into any group of people that would accept me. This led me to a bad crowd of friends, who I was desperately trying to impress in any way that I could. I began drinking and using drugs at the...

As young people, many of us aren't aware of what a healthy relationship should look like. I grew up with a single mother who showed me nothing short of unconditional love, but I never got the chance to witness a healthy male role model to shape my expectations for a boyfriend. When I began dating, I was looking for love anywhere I could get it. I found someone who I believed was thoughtful, caring, and truly appreciative of who I was as a person. He was amazing for the first year. We went on...