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Nathan Coley
Oct 18, 20234 min read
A Standard Recipe for Borderline Meatloaf
Anyone who knows me is more than aware of how much I dislike cooking. But what the Hell. Let’s go on a little journey together. I’m...
27 views1 comment
Nathan Coley
Oct 13, 20234 min read
Actually, My Mental Illness DOES Define Me
One of the unique challenges in living with a mental illness, at least for me, is working through the minefield of “therapisty” sayings...
45 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Oct 6, 20233 min read
Down(ward spiral) with the Sickness
Though I have never been a guest at a proper prison, I have always shared a fascination with penal institutions. Like Johnny Cash, who...
24 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Oct 2, 20234 min read
Guilty as....Charged?
When I (or if I) finally get around to a string of posts that outlines all the nuts and bolts of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD),...
33 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Sep 26, 20234 min read
An Open Letter to Be Read by My Son, at a Future Time in Which it Will Be Fitting, Heaven Help Him
Son, I apologized A LOT to you the year I went into the mental hospital. You were nine years old when I crossed through several layers of...
48 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Sep 19, 20235 min read
The LOOK, or, F*CK Perfection!
I always make this terrible mistake of smiling when I am in group therapy and acting like I'm fine. For me, the now familiar setting of a...
53 views2 comments
Nathan Coley
Sep 11, 20235 min read
Go Get Dressed, and Don't Come Back Until You Are You
One of the first clues that I live my emotional life on the borderlands should have been this: one year, a family member and a friend...
41 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Sep 5, 20235 min read
Feeding the Monster: Movies, Books, and Borderlines
If you imagine yourself as someone who values logic and regularly puts it to use, it’s not fun to learn that the emotions have basically...
44 views2 comments
Nathan Coley
Sep 1, 20232 min read
I'm Afraid Of.......
TW: Suicidal Ideation I’m afraid of death. I’m afraid I will go to sleep and not wake up. I’m afraid that there’s something inside me,...
32 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Aug 26, 20235 min read
How to Burn a Bridge (and more!)
Hold up, Nathan. Listen! Pick something that you can use to tell the story of your life, or at least some of the stories. That’s the...
50 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Aug 21, 20235 min read
There and Gone in 15 Minutes
I am sitting in the patient chair; it is set up as many are: with a clear path to the door in case my other set of hinges falls off and I...
79 views2 comments
Nathan Coley
Aug 17, 20233 min read
The Apology Artist
TW: Suicidal desires, ideations There is rage, and then there is BPD rage. I suspect this is why emergency rooms have a reputation for...
39 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Aug 14, 20237 min read
Take That, Baskin-Robbins! or, 256 Flavors of Crazy
TW: Self-harm, thoughts thereof I stood in line at Steel City Con, a comic, toy, and celebrity convention in Monroeville PA (right next...
51 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Aug 10, 20234 min read
It's MY crazy, and I Will Do What I Want With It!
As a neurodivergent human with a mental health disorder, I tend to say and hear lots of the same things when I engage in conversations....
52 views2 comments
Nathan Coley
Aug 7, 20236 min read
Home is Where the Unit Is
It seems as if you are miles away from the person who checked into this facility, that stammering mess who begged for a mood stabilizer....
65 views5 comments
Nathan Coley
Aug 1, 20236 min read
Ashes and Boxes (Welcome to the unit, p. 5)
Your impressions of mental institutions were not always good ones, and the following knowledge doesn’t help: for years, mental hospitals...
89 views2 comments
Nathan Coley
Jul 27, 20234 min read
The Stories They Could Tell
TW: Suicidal thoughts The things on the unit would certainly have stories to tell if they could tell them. Consider the phone, dangling...
73 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Jul 25, 20234 min read
the sadness and the passenger (welcome to the unit, pt. 3)
TW: Suicidal Ideation You used to think you knew what sadness was, but you did not. What you knew was a life that was punctuated by...
77 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Jul 21, 20238 min read
Figure 8's for All! (Welcome to the Unit, pt. 2)
Since curtains are a weapon, you wake up with the sunrise. You managed to sleep with the help of a few pharmaceuticals. You know that you...
79 views0 comments
Nathan Coley
Jul 18, 20238 min read
Welcome to Unit 11
To my readers: You sit down in the oversized blue chair and try to count the doors you just came through. There were the sliding doors at...
106 views0 comments
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