WE ARE ALL MAD HERE
You Are Used to Putting Up Appearances.
Being the life of the party while feeling unbearable loneliness.
Pretending to be happy in a relationship.
Struggling to look carefree while intensely hating your body.
Acting fulfilled as a parent, faking confidence at work, all the while numbing your loneliness, anxiety, and insecurity with self-punishing thoughts, behaviors and substances.
You find yourself saying YES when you really mean to say NO, but don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings.
You feel that you’re living someone else’s life, doing what you think others want you to do. You are surrounded by people – yet you feel ALONE.
Pretending to be happy is EXHAUSTING.
You know that something must change. There is a voice in your head that, no matter how many compliments you get and what you achieve, tells you that you’re a fraud.
This is NOT YOUR VOICE. Let me help you hear your own.
HI, I AM NADIA
RIGHT BEFORE THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN, I asked the photographer to “just do my head.” Even though I was sucking in my stomach, I thought it was still sticking out too much through my dress, and I was feeling self-conscious about it.
I haven’t always been a functioning human being. I know what it’s like to not want to get out of bed, to feel powerless in a relationship, to doubt my worth, to not be able to say no, to be misunderstood, to hate my body, to be a horrible parent, to not be chosen, to feel both the pain of betrayal and the shame of betraying another.
I am still growing, making mistakes, working on making meaning, going down the rabbit hole, accepting, FACING, unpacking. I am deeply flawed. My life is still messy, and yet it’s real.
I visit my own darkness regularly, and I am not scared of yours. I won’t judge you for being human. I welcome your courage AND your shame. I honor your secrets.
I can’t promise you happily ever after, but I promise that YOU WON’T BE ALONE in holding your pain. There is FREEDOM on the other side. Let me show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
