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We're in the last week of September #CPTSD awareness month. Time to give us some props for how far we have come. #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

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The Rock and the Hard Place

#CPTSD Awareness month is drawing to a close. I'm posting a few of the essays I have written for the CPTSD foundation. (Good place, drop by) This essay addresses a very difficult choice faced by those of us diagnosed late in life. #mentalhealth #noStigma #healing buff.ly/U9KrGkh

buff.ly

I only found the “language” surrounding CPTSD very late in my life. Learning the reason for my decades of dysfunction and brokenness was my fiftieth birthday present from the universe&#…

#DVParty It's 1980 in the Appalachian backwoods. As newcomers, Liz and her daughter Carrie, struggle to adapt to mountain life, the cracks in their relationship grow. Desperate Women is upmarket fiction with a book club bent. Thai's "Banyan Moon" X Littlewood's "Amazing Grace Adams".

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 27/09/2026

#CPTSD As children we were blown apart. Now we seek to draw those parts together. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

As children we were blown apart. Now we seek to draw those parts together.
Images of a dandelion with seed lifting from the puffball.

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September is #CPTSD awareness month. Complex PTSD is a challenge, not a sentence. You've got this. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 26/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month. Say it with me - as many times as you need - "I deserved better." #noStigma #SurvivorStrong #mentalHealth

Say it with me:
I deserved so much better.

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 25/09/2026

#CPTSD Awareness Month. Trust me. I am aware. I'm sharing a few essays I have written for the CPTSD Foundation. This essay crosses the #writingCommunity and #mentalHealth streams. cptsdfoundation.org/2023/07/11/p... "It’s like a game of Russian roulette, but every barrel is loaded." #querying

cptsdfoundation.org

Personal Stealth Technology

You might think that the ultimate profession for someone with CPTSD was writing. You get to hide facelessly behind a keyboard and play with words. Sounds like a sweet gig. However, there is an ugly…

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 25/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month. Sometimes - It is what is not said that does the most damage. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

CPTSD – the Thief of Time

#CPTSD awareness month. I'll share a few of these essays. If you need resources, toddle on over to the CPTSD Foundation. Until then... "CPTSD - the Thief of Time" It's a classic, and as true today as when I first wrote it. cptsdfoundation.org/2021/06/11/c... #writing #mentalHealth #noStigma

cptsdfoundation.org

There is no word to describe the feeling. I tried time after time to define this knot of emotions. It is a task that is beyond my ability. I cannot find a singular word that describes the feeling. …

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The Colonial - Over on #Fictionite I'm finally getting this serial off the ground. Seventeen episodes up and published, and another episode scheduled for every week until December. 19th century adventure following a lone Colonial in the King's Army.

An American flag with 13 stars is joined with a British flag.
A British rifle of the early 19th century crosses both flags.
The Colonial - on Fictionite.Com

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#CPTSD awareness month. Let me tell you #CPTSD and #querying. They DO NOT go together well. Hearing 'no' is not the probelm. Hearing NOTHING is the problem, the perpetual anxiety of waiting. Thinking "I'm invisible." "I'm doing this wrong." "I'm wrong." "What is wrong with me?"

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So much swirling about AI in the #Writingcommunity and in #publishing these days. .

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Crossing the #writing and #mentalhealth streams again. September is #CPTSD awareness month. As if any of us need to be more aware. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong My Voices.

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 23/09/2026

Forgive me - This is not my image, but it is one of the best representations of the difference between CPTSD and PTSD that I have seen. Is it yours? September is #CPTSD awareness month. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

A graphic representation of PTSD v. CPTSD

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 21/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month A note on self harm We who self harm, We are no different than those who seek relief from our past through alcohol or medication. Self-harm is a coping mechanism. Full stop. #noStigma #mentalHealth #SurvivorStrong

A note on self harm
We who self harm, We are no different than those who seek relief from our past through alcohol or medication. Self-harm is a coping mechanism. Full stop.

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 21/09/2026

#WritingCat It's been a little too serious around here... but you still need to go work. . #amwriting #amquerying #WritingCommunity

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 20/09/2026

#CPTSD Never forget. You have phenomenal courage. To venture out to find new shores is a courageous act in defiance of your past. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 19/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month Seen Yeup, I know that feeling. That is the 'OMG someone noticed me' feeling. Followed by 'Don't F* it up' on endless loop. I hate my brain. Sometimes I really hate my brain. #noStigma #mentalHealth #survivorStrong

Seen
Yeup, I know that feeling.
That is the 'OMG someone noticed me' feeling.
Followed by 'Don't F* it up' on endless loop.

I hate my brain.
Sometimes I really hate my brain.

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 19/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month - Reflection - In CPTSD there is the persona you show the world - and there is the 'truth' that you hide. #noStigma #mentalHealth #SurvivorStrong

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 18/09/2026

#CPTSD When healing it is easy to seek another's embrace. We crave it. But what we need is to embrace ourselves. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 18/09/2026

#CPTSD A handful of Asus sounds good. But when those aces are adverse childhood events... How many ACEs do you have? #noStigma #mentalhealth #SurvivorStrong

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 17/09/2026

I conducted an experiment. Yes. I did. And the results were... interesting. #WritingCommunity #amQuerying

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 17/09/2026

#CPTSD Complex PTSD is a survival strategy designed to isolate. You've trained yourself to be invisible because you believe you are unworthy of love period to be alone is both your curse and your only safety. Breaking that barrier to ask for help takes enormous courage. #MentalHealth #noStigma

Complex PTSD is a survival strategy designed to isolate. You've trained yourself to be invisible because you believe you are unworthy of love period to be alone is both your curse and your only safety. Breaking that barrier to ask for help takes enormous courage.

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 16/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month. One of the largest hurdles to clear in trying to treat CPTSD is admitting that you need - and that you are worthy - of help. The mad keep secrets. We hide our faces for shame. We fight in silence. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

The mad keep secrets.
We hide our faces for shame.
We fight in silence.

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 14/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month. You clipped my wings and thought you had won . But you forgot I have claws. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 14/09/2026

#WritingCat And despite the 'cattitude' it's off to work we go.

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 13/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month. To all those who fight to just live - I hope you know that doing the work, as hard as it is, as exhausting as it is, as much as it hurts sometimes is a form of self-love. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

I hope you know that doing the work, as hard as it is, as exhausting as it is, as much as it hurts sometimes is a form of self-love.

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 12/09/2026

#CPTSD Some days there are just no words. An 'emotional flashback' can be descrived as when emotions crash over us, and we are swept away, but we have no memory to tie them to. For folks with CPTSD that may be multiple events, sometimes entire childhoods. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 12/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month. Often, people who suffer with CPTSD are not built around a central feeling of self-worth. That 'I' in individual. We often have no 'I'. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

A scarred apple. The text reads: My core belief is that I am worthless.

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 11/09/2026

#CPTSD In a few conversations I have had recently, I have really felt this over and over. The 'normal' folks will never understand the way we see the world or operate. And yet, they demand that we fit into theirs. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 11/09/2026

Broken. That is a word that people with #CPTSD often apply to themselves. It comes with such a certainty of truth that folks who are neuro-normative frequently can't comprehend the depth of the wrongness we perceive in ourselves. #MentalHealth #noStigma #SurvivorStrong

Broken
I have been silent as the world fell apart. My voice was stolen by my past. I have shed tears for the fallen, and yet remained paralyzed. I have useless, voiceless, broken. These feelings are not new to me. In this world they define me. I would reach out to offer comfort, if I could only find a way to pass my own limits.

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 09/09/2026

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 09/09/2026

Kill those explanatory phrases! #amediting

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 08/09/2026

September is #CPTSD awareness month. As someone commented on a previous post... "I'm already far too aware!" Pardon me if things get a bit more mental around here this month. Living in a permanent state of anxiety waiting for the next inevitable shoe to drop. That is CPTSD. #noStigma

Living in the permanent state of anxiety waiting for the next inevitable shoe to drop. That is CPTSD.

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 07/09/2026

#WritingCat is taking a note from the #CPTSD side of the feed and would like to remind you to change your spots for no one. Oh... and it's time to get to work.

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 04/09/2026

#CPTSD sucks. Sorry, not having my best day.

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 03/09/2026

I know my tendency to annotate (the Hell out of) my manuscripts is not for everyone. I've had some call it -well very unkind things- but I do it for myself so I know WHY I chose that word. #WritingCommunity #amEditing Do you annotate as you edit? How?

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 31/08/2026

Ah yes, time for the 'sock of love'. #WritingCat has been strolling through the poison ivy. Apparently, he wants you to 'get the itch' to write. Yeah, terrible pun. Sorry. #writingCommunity #getWriting

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 28/08/2026

#CPTSD "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars." ~Kahlil Gibran #MentalHealth #SurvivorStrong #noStigma

MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 24/08/2026

Seemingly unconcerned - but, #WritingCat would like to know where you are. #WritingCommunity #getWriting

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MStewart @thinkingtooloud.org · 21/08/2026

#CPTSD Let me get this straight. I spent my childhood building all these defenses and now I'm gonna spend my adulthood undoing this f*ckery? Yeup, it's like that. #MentalHealth #noStigma