DIARY OF A FLOPPING FISH

During cold months like this, I really miss the sunsets in summer. Watching the sun disappear, throwing a beautiful array of yellows, oranges, and red as its last hurrah before it disappears under the horizon, always seemed to have so much hope. Lately the cold gives us a bittersweet sunset because it is just as […]

Today I’d like to write a bit of an update and to reassure everyone that I’m not gone. Diary of a Flopping Fish is still moving along, thought it is going quite slowly. As I have written about before, it if very hard to balance other obligations and expectations while still have enough left in […]

CPTSD, boundaries, and breaking free from control.

New homes, old triggers: How CPTSD survivors navigate the challenges of moving, from hypervigilance to food trauma in shared living spaces.

Explore how the 2025 Executive Order on homelessness overlooks mental health, PTSD, and workplace barriers while pushing forced treatment.

Managing symptoms of CPTSD can be difficult, especially since medications have such a low success rate and the symptoms are so pervasive. Trying to regulate ourselves and manage our various symptoms leads to self-isolation, which often keeps us stationary indoors. Because of physical trauma, many who live with CPTSD feel uncomfortable and disconnected from their […]

Moving is hard, but if you suffer from anxiety or CPTSD it can be even more taxing. How do you cope with moving and managing mental chaos?

Traverse City Walmart Stabbing: Could This Attack Have Been Prevented? Michigan is reeling from an attack at the Traverse City, Michigan Walmart on July 26, 2025 where a 42-year-old man “allegedly” stabbed 11 people at random with a folding knife. Luckily, though there were serious injuries, none of the stabbings were fatal, and bystanders helped […]

Well, I can’t believe it’s been nine years since I signed up with WordPress and launched this blog. I’d love to say time flies when you’re having fun, but honestly, it’s more accurate to say that sometimes, time just flies. The Beginning When I started this blog, I wasn’t sure what it would become—I was […]

Often our abusers keep us under their thumbs, not by action, but by the threat of action. When those abusers are ingrained as a part of a larger system, such as work or family, it makes it even harder to speak out against them or against the system.

Surrounded by Boxes Today I write surrounded by boxes full of things that are all attached to memories and events that occurred throughout my boyfriend and I’s lives. It is amazing how many things we can collect, and memories that come flooding back from them. What’s even more amazing is that all these memories attached […]

For many of us, the subject of family is a loaded one. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose blood family is large and diverse, and not everyone in a large family gets along. It’s fine not to get along with everyone, but it is dangerous to think you still have to associate with everyone regardless of how they treat you or what it costs to be “loyal.”

The difficulty of setting boundaries goes beyond the need to please others. It affects people from all walks of life, including those in addiction recovery, those re-entering society after incarceration, and survivors of toxic relationships.

How I went from burnout and CPTSD to graduating college online with high honors — and what I learned along the way.

Today I want to talk specifically about SSRI’s and the dangers that are only recently coming into the spotlight. There were 42 million Americans taking antidepressants in 2020, and it has become entirely normal for people to take antidepressants. However, SSRI’s are often prescribed for moderate depression that doesn’t meet criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and for long term use of which many studies do not cover.

College is a pivotal time in our lives where we learn skills and develop talents that will impact the rest of our lives. It is also well known that college is hard, and for many it is a test of our fortitude to push through in difficult times. Attending college with a disability or mental illness can be hard, but with the right support, accommodations, and adjustments it can be done.

Many of us have had to get all the naysayers out of our lives only to find out that they made such an imprint on us that now they live in our heads and how do we kick ourselves out of our lives? Well, we don’t. We change. We shrink the voice in our head that isn’t our voice until it is nothing more than a pathetic squeak.

Much of what keeps humans motivated to heal and improve their lives is trying to reach a goal. When we are suffering, and being held back by dysfunctional people in our lives, it is daring to dream that often brings us out of the darkness.

Today marks the one-year official anniversary of Diaryofafloppingfish.com. I’ve got some exciting things in store for this year and many thoughts in the works so I’m going to take this time to celebrate how far this website has come and talk about a few new things. This website was started in 2016, but in that […]

My fight for mental health awareness is strongly tied to my fight against domestic violence because we do not wake up one morning and have an anxiety disorder, or a mood disorder that developed completely on its’ own without any help from our living situation. That, to me, is truly crazy.