Dear Shipp:

I like your intent ” to use this space as a means to formulate my own thoughts and understanding.”

You welcomed me to share, so here is a share: my childhood too was violent and explosive. I walked on egg shells. I was afraid a whole lot of the time and developed serious tics (Tourettes) and OCD. And I took refuge in daydreaming, lots of daydreaming.

The gap between my fantasy and life-actually-lived was extreme. In my fantasy I was rich and famous; in real life, I was a lonely girl, twitching and performing OCD rituals to prevent the next violence, the greatest violence yet to happen.

Everything was easy in fantasy, doable, successful. Far, far from it in real life.

anita (using a different username and account)