A little over two years after Lori’s death, I woke up in the middle of the night with a crushing pain in my chest and difficulty breathing. I thought I was dying, and I was ready for death. I actually only called 911 because I had made a promise to Lori years earlier that I would not die in the apartment. When the EMTs arrived, my symptoms were indicative of a heart attack, and they pumped me…

If you dealt with an emotionally unpredictable parent as a kid, you likely did whatever you could to keep them calm. So pushing back by establishing your own boundaries likely wasn’t a common, or even safe-feeling occurrence.  “If they tried to set [boundaries] as a kid, there would either be intense pushback to the point where it becomes not…