Should I value my life if no one else does? It is a lonely question. A question I have returned to repeatedly, as I, for example, severed ties with my family of origin, severed ties with my workplace of two decades, continue to sever ties with people and with institutions who were supposed to value my life but clearly do not. It is lonely, carrying my life and its value in my arms, like a herder with a single sheep.

The knots that have tied me for the last several years have been undone. Trauma recovery. A brand new day. Goodbye to the liars, the bullies, the bastards, the frigid maidens, the mechanical sadists. I feel like grabbing the hand of Diana Ross and singing with her, “Ease On Down the Road,” from The Wiz. I feel like rejoicing with the dancers of Louis Johnson’s extraordinary Liberation Ballet in the 1978 film to the tune of Luther Vandross’ “A Brand New Day.”

While Gabor Mate in his new book, The Myth of Normal (https://drgabormate.com/), explicitly forgives parents who inflict their trauma on...

I have told my story, read and reread it, edited and proofed it, polished and published it. So goodbye to all that. I slam the door on...