mental-health

  • The Performance of Survival

    School should be a safe place for all kids regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or anything else that might make them different from others. That is the ideal people like to talk about. But the truth is that it is not and never really has been. Growing up, I understood something very clearly even…

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  • Before the Because

    Before the Because

    Stop for a moment. How are you feeling right now? Not what is happening around you. Not what you have been reacting to all day. Just the feeling itself. Are you sad and not entirely sure why? Anxious? Unsettled? Tired in a way sleep does not seem to fix? For this moment, strip away the…

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  • The Power of Human Senses in Paranormal Research

    So where did my understanding of the paranormal really come from? My own haunting played a big part in my search for answers. It didn’t come from equipment or theory. It came from experience. From being in places where nothing dramatic happened, and yet something lingered anyway. Places that looked ordinary, sounded ordinary, but made…

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  • Living with the Legend of the Screaming House vs. Reality

    I see the Screaming House brought up in groups, pages, and podcasts from time to time, and it always gives me pause. Not because I am eager to revisit it, but because it is a strange thing to watch your own life get discussed when you never said a word. That happens more than I…

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  • There is a negativity in the air right now that cannot be ignored. At moments like this, I find myself asking whether we are watching something genuinely dangerous unfold under familiar language. Christianity? Patriotism? Authority? I do not say that lightly, and I am not saying it from a distance. I am asking these questions…

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  • Reflections on 25 Years in the Paranormal

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the fact that I’ve been doing this work for twenty-five years now. That number landed on me in a way I didn’t expect. Not as a milestone. Not as something to celebrate. Just as a quiet realization that a large part of my life has been spent sitting…

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  • Life isn’t supposed to be a series of “gotcha” moments. You know the kind—those little traps people set in conversations, waiting for someone to slip up just so they can say, “Aha! I caught you.” In healthy relationships, that kind of behavior doesn’t belong. But in dysfunctional families, it can become the norm. I lived…

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  • I Hate Secrets

    I hate secrets. It’s true—I always have. All my life, I’ve struggled with secrets, especially keeping them. It’s just not how I live. Very early in adulthood, I realized how important it was not to live in secrecy. Some of you who know me might say, “But you were in a straight marriage.” That’s true—I…

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  • Alexander Leon once said, “Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves; we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimize humiliation and prejudice.” Those words have always resonated with me, capturing the challenges I faced growing up queer. Early on, I learned to conceal parts of my true self—my interests, my…

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  • If you’ve ever found yourself drawn into the orbit of a narcissist, you know the dizzying contradiction they embody: one minute, they’re warm, attentive, and seemingly all in; the next, they’re cold, cruel, and impossibly detached. It’s as if you’re dealing with two distinct people—a light and a dark—when in reality, it’s the same person,…

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