The Year I Started Counting

Episode 6: The Year I Started Counting Before the shelter, there was David’s couch. Panic attacks in my sleep. A body that refused rest because the world wasn’t safe anymore. This episode walks through what survival actually looked like — not the hashtags, but the night sweats, the silence, the isolation, and the decision to rebuild anyway. I share what it meant to sleep in a loft bed in a studio apartment, grateful just to own a microwave again. I talk about student loans as survival, Shakespeare as a mirror, and what it meant when Roz handed me a birthday gift in the shelter and told me to celebrate every year I survived. I do now. Every year. Because I’m still here. I talk about the kids. What it cost them to stay in touch with me. Why I backed away. And how it feels to carry the weight of building a future no one was willing to believe in. If you’ve ever been the one rebuilding while people pretended you never existed — this one’s for you. — Content: Panic attacks, trauma response Life in a domestic violence shelter Rebuilding from nothing Estrangement from family and children Abuse of narrative and power Birthdays as survival markers — Listen from the beginning of the season for the full story. These episodes are layered and connected. Don’t Call Me is written and hosted by Em.