“Sometimes it feels like you’re in a pinball machine, doesn’t it?”

I’m a lifestyle and pet writer with over a decade of experience in copywriting, covering viral animal moments, well-being topics, and lifestyle trends.

"I've been through this for the last 7 years, taking care of my abusive, alcoholic, drug-addicted, narcissistic, sociopathic father after he'd had a stroke and became partially paralyzed. (He also has dementia.)

I felt like a stone being held against a grinder, just gradually being worn down. It's such a slow, painful, quiet type of suffering. And I could never get anyone else to understand.

As of a few days ago, we placed him in a nursing home, and I'm no longer his caretaker. And I've come to realize that I have so much healing to do."

"My mom lost her first daughter the year before I was born in 1991. I never had the mom I could have had; she was never the same after that, despite how much she loved me."

We got the news halfway through the pregnancy when we went in for the anatomy scan. Everyone moved on so easily since they had never actually met my child. My midwife fumbled the death and didn’t even let us know the gender. We were left with nothing.

But I knew that baby. And I grieve my life with them. I grieve their future. So many hopes and dreams were shattered.

And for so many women with infertility, they go through this time and time again. It’s a horrible pain."

I wish I couldn't relate. Only 5 months ago, I said goodbye to my 15-year-old rescued Cockapoo, Carter. He was my best friend, my partner in crime, and basically my little brother, and nothing is the same without him.

"I read something once about how there was a day that you went out to ride your bike and it was the last time you went to play and didn’t realize it."

"The grandfather in Modern Family talked about this best — how you are constantly losing a version of your child, and they're replaced with a new version. Then suddenly all those versions walk out together."

"It's the process of turning potential into experience. You gain experience, but you lose potential.

The potential is definitely worth grieving, but the experience is also worth appreciating."

"Similar to this, the loss of the life you could've had, or deserved. More specifically, never having had the chance at a good life you know you could've achieved if you had been raised in a healthy environment.

It feels like your entire life was stolen from you, all because you got dealt a shitty hand in the form of parental unit(s). Imagine being a young, innocent child, and someone steals your favorite toy that you've had for years and can never be replaced. Now imagine that you are also blamed for having lost the toy. It's like that, but now make that apply to decades of your life, rather than just a specific item."

"And grieving the person you were before the relationship."

"And it's hard to discuss, because it can come across as just vanity or being shallow. 

I'm a fortysomething woman and was always decently attractive. Or at least not unattractive. I am so grateful for the solid men and women in my young life who taught me to rely on things besides looks, and build intelligence, education, humor, self-reliance, etc., but it's still hard to acknowledge that I will never again be 'hot,' at best 'looks good for a woman of a certain age.'"

Note: Responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.