I couldn't shake the annoyed feeling I would get when a negative thought arose. I felt I had to fight each time in a battle against myself, why that negative opinion was wrong.

Getting ghosted can be painful for anyone, but having a father wound can intensify the emotional impact. We become deeply affected by the sudden absence of someone because they trigger an attachment wound, typically having to do with our relationship with our fathers.

Healing the father wound is a journey that many women embark upon, seeking to mend the tender places within themselves where their relationship with their fathers may have left lingering scars.

Ignore me, and I will haunt you, says the Shadow. But is it true? For me, facing my shadow wasn't this scary monster because I knew it was only more of me — unhealed, wounded parts of me I discarded. What I found in my shadow was a hurt little girl fighting for her life.

I left an opioid addict and saved my life. Who I thought I knew well became a stranger, but I couldn't leave. I found myself glued to him and our imagined life together. The shock and confusion left me delusional that things could get better. I stayed, hoping his promise of getting clean was true, but it wasn't.