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You were abandoned, neglected, or lived without boundaries.

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I am a twenty-something writer who lives alone in Manhattan, in a dream apartment with a doorman and even a walk-in closet. But unlike Carrie Bradshaw, I left my Mr. Big for good.

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I see now my brother’s struggle began long before he ever took that first sip of alcohol.

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We are hyper-attuned – to everything. Changes in tone? Check. Micro-shifts in facial expressions? Noted. Gestures that contradict spoken words? Documented. We are emotional private investigators that are highly attuned to changes in our environment. We had to be in order to survive our childhood. Due to this, we are highly sensitive and intuitive to the needs of others, but we are also constantly on the lookout for what’s about to come.

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The children of narcissistic parents grow up in an invisible war zone and are programmed to self-destruct in these five devastating ways.

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Because the only way out is through.

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Breathe in. The best is yet to come. Breathe out. You’ll come stronger out of this.

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Nobody said there shouldn’t be bullying. The teachers didn’t care.

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Experts say that addiction acts as part of an extended post-traumatic coping mechanism – in other words, the solution for the pain of trauma.

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I can never say anything to anyone in my family, because they would just accuse me of lying.