The Year I Started Counting

Episode 6: The Year I Started CountingBefore 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 responseLife in a domestic violence shelterRebuilding from nothingEstrangement from family and childrenAbuse of narrative and powerBirthdays 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.