Christa M

Christa M

Southeastern USA
Currently a n00b civil servant, I've previously authored journalism, books, research, and marketing content. I'm a neurodivergent sometime swimmer / hiker / paddler, mom to adult sons, raccoon stan, and probably other epithets I’m not thinking of. 
Jan
31
White cutouts on a gray background contain black text with words like "Trauma," "Self-esteem," "Hopelessness," etc

How Generational Trauma Compounds Child and Intimate Partner Abuse

Learning to fit in and not make waves might have been considered a form of “practice” for adult womanhood. We paper over our needs, preferences, and sense of autonomy when we learn they’re antithetical to our survival.
9 min read
Jan
31
A lone figure walks a gray wooden boardwalk nestled among brown marsh reeds on a cloudy day.

Why It’s More Critical Now Than Ever to Tell Our “Not That Bad” Abuse Stories

Knowing what it looks, sounds, acts, and feels like before it becomes criminal can help us heal — and know what to look for. Our future may depend on it.
15 min read
Jan
23
A brown pigeon stands on pavement among gray pigeons, the only one in a shaft of light

Asking for Help When Help Feels Few and Far Between

At a time when I feel less fearful of healthy confrontation, others seem to fear it from me — a sign of a deeply dysfunctional society
5 min read
Dec
31
Two brown human hands reaching for one another, one up and one down, against a blue stone background

Asking for Help When You Can’t Pull Back Any Longer

Sharing from survival mode introduces power differentials that can feel difficult to get out from under, but which are, ultimately, temporary.
6 min read
Jul
09
A white man's hands hold the hands of an elderly woman in a blue skirt, seated in a wheelchair

Need Help? Look for the Strings Attached (Before They Strangle You)

Receiving assistance shouldn’t stand on the back of your submission to authority
7 min read
Jun
10
Do You Really Want People to “Just Ask for Help”?

Do You Really Want People to “Just Ask for Help”?

When resources are scarce and getting scarcer, ‘help’ can be conflated with ‘power' — and people need community, not rescuers
9 min read
May
23

How to Learn to Trust, Even When You're Afraid

Because the risk of not trusting is greater than the risk of trusting the wrong people
4 min read
Mar
30
A white man in the background reaches his hand toward a woman's in the foreground.

Reaching Out for Help When Everything Tells You to Pull Back

Why should I ask? Why should anyone answer? I am coming to this first post still recovering from a pretty
4 min read
Mar
29
A black and white image of a white human face mask overlaid on a dark splatter on a wall.

Abusers Hide Behind the Veneer of Respectability

So that you will trust them and provide plausible deniability when they’re found out
7 min read
Jan
18
A young woman in a black dress and hat sits on grass in front of flowering shrubs, holding and smelling a sunflower

Confessions of a Former Manic Pixie Pick-Me

How my survival response to rejection pitted me against other women
4 min read