It is Hard to Get The Feeling and Sounds of Being Handcuffed Out of My Mind

Two pairs of handcuffs

35 days ago, I was handcuffed into a police cruiser under an invalid civil commitment warrant. I was only detained for four hours, but does that matter? Denying me my civil liberties – my actual liberty – for any period of time without just cause or due process is an affront to democracy. I am […]

What Is The Key to Getting Myself Home Again?

After five weeks have passed, I’m thinking a little more down the road including finding the key to go back home. So many of my rights and liberties were taken from me or violated that I am determined to lean into every right I can, cling tightly, and keep my eyes wide open for other […]

Crowdfund and Life Update

Crowdfund Sue Kerr

I’m still doing okay – safe with friends and taking things one day at a time. I went back to court last week, negotiated and agreed to a continuance, and took a break. Spent a lot of time with my nephews this weekend. We had a firepit fire and made s’mores. Celebrated a birthday and […]

And Then You Came For Me With Help and Support and Love

Sue Kerr crowdfund

Content Note: mental health, childhood abuse, police encounter, 302 or civil commitment, anti-trans actions, support Thank you for showing up for me during a really tough time. How Your Support is Keeping Me Safe With your help, I was able to pay the retainer for a great lawyer who has been helpful, kind, and pragmatic. […]

Finding Pride in My Disability

July is Disability Pride Month. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed on July 26, 1990, to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Following this legislation, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day event in July 1990 and Disability Pride Month was born. “To change the way people think about and define “disability,” to […]

The Summer I Hoped to Have Without Loneliness

lonely sunset in Pittsburgh

I’ve written about this many times, but June is a very difficult month for me. This year, a particular challenge has been my trauma processing work – digging in deep to some stuff that’s so hard to face, so painful, so so so much I can’t discuss with anyone except my therapist. And my therapist […]

My Haudenosunee Dream Catcher

Dream Catcher

I am not of Indigenous or Native descent. I am a descended from white European colonizers, mainly from the British Isles and Western Europe who settled in what we now label as Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. I do try to listen and learn from my Indigenous friends, colleagues, and trusted sources. I’ve tried to […]

Mental Health Check-In

Today, my therapist and I did a symptom review where we ‘sorted’ my current and very recent symptoms into three categories: Anxiety, Depression, and Hypomania. Then we looked at the intersection of these symptoms, this sorting, with my trauma symptoms. I was struggling to distinguish between Anxiety and Hypomania, so she literally created a divide […]

The Easter My Dad Went Fishing Without Us

Easter brings to mind a lot of bullet point memories In 1983, things were bleak financially. I was 12 years old and in 7th grade. So, of course, my Dad decided to join my cousins on a spring fishing trip to the Outer Banks over Easter. They weren’t high end, but it was still money […]

Hypomania and King Cake

Things did get better over the weekend. But the hypomania is still lingering. You know that day when you are recovering from the flu or a bad cold and you think “hey maybe I could get through work” so you don’t blow another sick day? But you really need to take that sick day to […]