This week I had the honour of being the first person to be a guest blogger on the amazing trauma blog, “Dr. Kathleen Young ~ Treating Trauma in Chicago” who is also a contributor to this site. Since I have been a fan of her blog for a long while now, I was thrilled and more than a little excited, when Dr. Young asked me if I would like to write a guest post for her on the subject of how I learned to love myself.
As a victim of childhood sexual abuse I developed Dissociated Identity Disorder and struggled with depression for much of my life. In my early forties, married with 3 school age children I found myself once again at an all time low and wondering what the heck life was all about, and what was the point. It wasn’t the first time I wanted to give up, but it was the first time I wanted to give up as a mother. I had decided to leave my family.
The combination of finding a great therapist and my complete willingness to get to the bottom of all my issues and work my butt off to restore my mental health, proved to be successful and along the journey I realized an extreme passion for articulating HOW I became healthy and whole again and I spend my days writing, speaking and advocating for recovery and wholeness by describing just how I found my truth and overcame abuse, DID and depression. I talk about what worked for me. I shine the light on what was at the core of my belief system that kept me living with a victim mindset.
In this post “How I learned to love myself~the beauty in the broken“, for Dr. Kathleen Young, I write about how I learned to love myself. I hope you enjoy reading this small part of my story of healing and how I learned self love.
From Surviving to Thriving!
Darlene Ouimet
