coping

Life presents variables; learning how to cope in order to master, minimize, or tolerate what has come to pass.

Where Strength Meets Courage
There are moments throughout our existence that splits lives in two: before and after. I was seventeen when that line in the sand was drawn for me. My grandmother—my one true grandparent—had just been diagnosed with lung cancer. I remember watching her body shrinking into the bedsheets, folding into itself like soggy paper left out in the rain. Her once lively spirit withering away to bed-ridden dust. Sure, the cigarettes were gone, but so was she—slowly, painfully, piece by piece. Traumatizing to say the least.
By Jennifer Vasallo 9 months ago in Psyche
Setting Boundaries Isn’t Mean…It’s Survival. Top Story - April 2025.
I’ve always known how to set boundaries. It’s not something I had to learn from a book or therapy session; it’s something that came naturally to me as a form of self-preservation. From the time I was a quiet two-year-old trying to watch a movie in peace, I knew how to defend my space, even if I wasn’t speaking much yet. My uncle kept pestering me, annoying me with taunts, pushing for a reaction And he finally said, “You look like a pig in the face.” and little two-year-old me, fed up and done, replied: “Well, if I look like a pig in the face, then you look like garbage.”
By Cadma9 months ago in Psyche
Dry Skin and Soft Bones
(This story was created for submission to the Metamorphosis of the Mind Vocal challenge. The topic for this challenge was to use layered metaphors to describe a time of transition.)
By BK9 months ago in Psyche
Obnoxious
He called me obnoxious and I decided I was never going to have sex with him again. We had stopped making love a while ago.
By Ariana GonBon9 months ago in Psyche
Not the Poster Boy of Sobriety
Let me be clear—I love my wife, deeply, and in all the ways I know how. That makes writing this all the more difficult. I’ve spoken before about my struggles with pornography and sex addiction—mostly online, never physical—but sharing it again still knots my stomach.
By Paul Stewart9 months ago in Psyche
The Intimacy of Being Understood
There’s a soft kind of magic in being understood. Not the surface-level kind where someone nods while you speak or says, “I get it” out of politeness, but the deep, soul-touching kind. The kind that makes your chest feel lighter, your thoughts quieter. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it stays with you like the scent of someone you love on a piece of clothing.
By Faraz9 months ago in Psyche
Let’s Talk Learned Helplessness
Learned helplessness isn’t just a buzzword from Psych 101. It’s a silent killer of motivation, self-worth, and social progress. At its core, learned helplessness is the internalized belief that one’s actions are futile.
By Tania T9 months ago in Psyche
where the light faded
I’ve been struggling with the meaning of love, trying to understand its similarity with dependency. Lately, I find myself evading my reality by drowning in thoughts of you—of us. I’ve been struggling to comprehend why it’s only easy to fall asleep when I’m thinking of you and nothing else, why I block out my reality, barricaded by daydreams.
By Andra river9 months ago in Psyche
Inked
I never used to like tattoos, neither did I care for those who so brazenly marked themselves with these "art" pieces. It was a crisp winter's morning in August of 2020 and I was busy cleaning the house, picking up little fragments left behind by the children before they went to school. A lost teddy bear, a lonely shoe, a hairbrush, and pyjamas that had the smell of tiny sleepy bodies still clinging to them. Autopilot, one after the other, so deep in thought that I hardly noticed what I was really doing.
By Annelize P9 months ago in Psyche
my demons came back today. Content Warning.
April 13, 2025 Dear Journal, A month ago, I was preaching body love and acceptance. Today, I wish I stayed in bed, safe from the sudden return of the demons residing in the mirror.
By Alexandria Stanwyck9 months ago in Psyche
Help, Hope, & Heal…
I want it to share with you and everyone in the community about my experiences with a transformative moment from my both mental and emotional journey in visualize to make it expressive way. I also wanted to share you something about from lightness to darkness; and then going through the dark to find a light, but finding more brighter. However, my journey has been even more complex than others. Why? Because, I went through from misunderstood and felt like an outsider(it’s like my mind was telling me).
By Meghan LeVaughn 9 months ago in Psyche
Technicolour Breathing.
Sometimes, I talk too much to say nothing. Other times, I say nothing because even a word feels like too much. I’ve learned to speak in layers — not to reveal, but to obscure. I offer oceans of detail, hoping no one notices the one drop that matters. It’s a kind of camouflage. A kind of weapon. I don’t know when I started doing that. I just know it keeps me safe.
By Test9 months ago in Psyche