she is my hero!

i just like reading this for her writing. you go girl!

Excellent insight

I am a single mother to an 8 year old boy. It has not been easy. I have come to accept that I am "wired" the way I am, in need of long long periods of alone time - I am the love wolf. This is who I am, and finally at age 33 I am able to not feel guilty about it.

And this is who my son's mother is. She is me, and that is ok, and getting over that guilt is tough but necessary. I do not have many friends, some failed relationships that hurt and are working through my soul, but I love my son and I provide him for his needs and he knows and shows that I love him. And he loves me too. And that is as good as it gets.

Listen, I can't figure how you live on an unpublished novelist's salary - my own dreams were in sculpture, reduced to tangible escapes at the end of a workday now. . . but let me also tell you there is nothing better than having a life separate from your kid. There are good people out there who you pay, or trust, and then leave - and return after you've made money or love or whatever else fills your *you* time. It's ok. It's all good. I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam.

A couple of thoughts: first, I too am on an antidepressant on the regular, and I like a few drinks, and I have a prescription for the anti-anxiety stuff too. Even very low doses of the Klonopin have a very significant effect on me. If it is a family doctor prescribing these meds I highly suggest you see someone more in tune with psychiatric pharmacology.

And, second, I've been in five-point restraints. For a week. A pretty damn traumatic week that I suppose I could say I brought upon myself by voluntarily entering a psychiatric facility to get over some other trauma. I still deal with the original trauma, and the restraint trauma, and all the flawed decisions I've made as a result. That was over a decade ago but I will say that group therapies have worked best for me to deal with my pain and confusion. Everyone responds differently, but talking and sobbing in front of strangers who feel me has been best for this gal.

Good luck, stay strong, and Cary's right - stay off of planes! Screw your boss!

i already have the undisputed champions! i totally agree - they all TOTALLY rock, are my personal faves, and my son loves 'em too!

Wow. I'll have to just echo most of the responses here - by no means do i think anyone is entitled to money from their parents for education, wedding, or anything else. I am really dismayed by the expectation that if they were less ignrrant the LW would have more. Wow. Seems the couple go well together in that they both view entitlement the same. I have a mountain of debt - not as much as you I'm sure, but I'm not a doctor-to-be either. It happens, and it was my decision - ever last borrowed dollar. I used to seethe at the "rich" kids in college who knew nothing of my sorrowful fate - sheesh, what a bunch o' baloney. Me, my life, my choices - no regrets.

i've been going through a very similar experience, and once i got away so much of the crying stopped, and i wasn't always exhauseted from the stress, and i felt. . . actually. . . GOOD for once.

a book that helped me too see the really straightforward pattern of abuse i was living (verbal or physical, they are essentially the same beast) was "ditch that jerk". don't remember author, excellent language and reality based look at who is REALLY going to change and why and how. super strength to you sister

I had been a Nuvaring user for years when I got a non-hormonal IUD. I was totally thrilled to get off hormones (because, like it or not, all our hormonal pee is actually really screwing up the aquatic life downstream) and to have the system just turned off for awhile without having to think about it or pay at the pharmacy every month. Gracious me, what a painful 7 months that was. Constant cramping and spotting and painful intercourse of all things! It's too bad really, works so well for so many, just not for me. Got a uterine fibroid somewhere along the way too - don't know which came first or if that was the pain or what. So back to the Ring while I debate sterilization - just get rid of the system if you really like sex but not into quitting smoking Ms. Harding! Non-surgical Essure blocks the tubes and you have control of your reproductive system!

C'mon - smoking? On the pill?! I'm not a smoker (of cigarettes at least) so I guess I don't get it. But please please don't complain like it's the doctor's or industry's fault. You have a plethora of options to obtain the lifestyle you desire - you are in control, after all.

i always love you girl - for real. thanks for telling it like it really is in our heads.

and what is with all the hate people? do you just not "get" humor? please read between the lines, it will help you in so many ways. sheesh!

there is more to it than just unplanned pregnancy and some missing jewelery