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Kate Heit's avatar

As a fellow survivor of clergy abuse and the victim of inscrutable injustice by the Church, I applaud your transparency and courage. You have the heart and soul of a writer Emily and the tenacity to be the voice for the silent. Thank you.

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Christina Jaloway's avatar

Emily, thank you for this. While I never suffered from scrupulosity as you have (I'm so, so very sorry, by the way), I did have intense and chronic anxiety for most of my life. One of the worst side effects of my anxiety was that I learned/taught myself to *not* listen to my intuition/gut, because I felt like I couldn't trust my own mind or thoughts. The truth was that a big part of my anxiety was that my body was screaming one thing at me while my mind tried to explain it away. When I finally--finally!--got a therapist who actually taught me to calm my nervous system, I was able to actually listen to my Holy Spirit-infused intuition (and pray/go to mass without having a panic attack about my vocation). It was life-changing. And becoming a mother has been an even deeper healing in that regard. Now, when my body says "something is off", I LISTEN. I wish that it hadn't taken me 30 some years to get to this point, but I'm so grateful that I'm here.

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