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Welcome — You’re Not Alone Here

Hi, I’m Mike McBride. I’m a survivor of childhood abuse, and I’ve also walked through the deep valleys of depression, dissociation, and even a suicide attempt. This space is deeply personal to me — it’s where I share my journey, not because I seek recognition, but because I believe in the power of connection and the healing that comes from knowing you’re not alone.

This site is a safe place for survivors, supporters, and anyone seeking to understand the long road of healing. This site, along with all the social media accounts linked above, is dedicated to spreading awareness, education, and support for all survivors.

I’m glad you found it.

Here, you’ll find:

  • Personal reflections on trauma, recovery, and resilience
  • Educational resources about mental health and abuse
  • Curated articles and commentary on current issues affecting survivors
  • Community support through shared stories and experiences

I also share my interests in technology and photography on other sites because healing is also about rediscovering joy and creativity.

Whether you’re here to find hope, learn more, or support someone you care about, I’m happy you found your way here. Please feel free to explore, subscribe, and share — and remember, healing is possible, and you are never alone.

Latest Posts from the Blogs

  • Something You Can Do For Your Mental Health – Something New
    For many survivors, routine keeps us safe. That same familiarity means you never have to deal with the unexpected, but it can also leave you stuck. It's hard to develop resilience without occasionally doing something new. There's also the reality of missing the mental health benefits of new experiences. That's a real thing. Luckily, the something new doesn't have to be anything big. The article above has some ideas: small, everyday things you can do to practice doing something new.  The […]
  • Sharing – Students Say Mental Health Isn’t Taboo – But Talking to Parents Is
    Surveys do seem to paint a clear picture, and this is the one bit you should remember, especially if you’re a parent: In a national study on mental health stigma and help-seeking among teens in the journal Focus, researchers from the Jed Foundation found that the main reasons teens hesitated to talk to parents were fear of… The post Sharing – Students Say Mental Health Isn’t Taboo – But Talking to Parents Is appeared first on Survivors News and Reviews.
  • Sharing – Feeling lonely? This can cost you up to six healthy years
    This is only the most recent research showing the negative impacts of loneliness and social isolation on mental and physical health. And yet, we live in a world that continues to make it harder and harder to connect with other human beings. In fact, we increasingly live in a world designed to dehumanize vast numbers of other people and determine our own value solely on the amount of time we spend working. That's not going to create community.  The post Sharing […]
  • Sharing – Vulnerable adolescents face sharp drop in mental health service access
    We are failing to protect kids from trauma, and them failing to provide proper resources to assist them after that trauma. There's no nice way to put this failure. The post Sharing – Vulnerable adolescents face sharp drop in mental health service access appeared first on Survivors News and Reviews.
  • Sharing – When the Alarm Won’t Stop Ringing
    The point, however, is that having intrusive thoughts, anxious thoughts, is something we can talk about, even make jokes about. It happens. We can't always control what messages our brains want to send us about what we should be afraid of. We control which ones we react to. We control knowing the difference between a realistic fear and an intrusive one.  Mostly, I feel like if we all admitted to having them, maybe it wouldn't be something to freak out about […]
  • Sharing – Chronic shame may drive destructive thought patterns in abuse survivors
    I don't always recognize myself as a survivor of emotional abuse, because the physical and sexual abuse was more obvious and memorable, but this description sounds familiar, and the reality of shame because of our abuse is something I think any of us who grew up with abuse as a kid feels. That shame can lead to brooding and constantly trying to fix ourselves. That, I understand. The frustration of trying to fix ourselves because of something that wasn't even our […]
  • Sharing – Dolly Parton’s legacy includes an unfortunate reality of caregiving: Not taking care of oneself
    I'm not sure what the solution to this is. I imagine it is likely some combination of better healthcare resources, better communities, recognizing the need to support caretakers at home and work, etc. What I do know is that romanticizing it won't solve anything. Talking about how Dolly wanted to be with her husband does a disservice to what happened while she was caring for him, and to all the people out there caring for a loved one without nearly the […]
  • Sharing – Why Trauma Returns Through Sex
    Because of this stigma, articles like the one above become rare, and important reads. The stories shared in it might feel familiar to you as you read them, or they may help you understand what many survivors of sexual abuse deal with in thier lives. When you've been sexually abused, sex and arousal can become very complicated things. That complication shouldn't come with judgement, but we know that it too often does. The judgement doesn't help anyone heal, in fact, it […]
  • Worth Reading – Teen Social Media Bans Miss the Point
    The problem wasn't trying to keep kids safer by limiting the time they spent away from home unsupervised; it was not giving them alternative ways to build the same connections and skills. When I read about social media bans, I have the same question. How are we replacing the connections to friends, family, supportive communities, and educational information? Because if we aren't, we'll protect them from one thing and create other issues.  If not social media, then where?  The post Worth Reading – Teen Social Media Bans Miss the Point appeared first on Mike McBride Online. […]
  • Worth Reading – Rest Is Part of the Work: Why Recovery Can’t Be Something We Earn
    The human body and brain work best when rest and recovery are part of the schedule. It really is that simple. When we constantly try to "earn" the right to rest, we do a disservice to ourselves. It is part of us. The post Worth Reading – Rest Is Part of the Work: Why Recovery Can’t Be Something We Earn appeared first on Mike McBride Online. If you want to see more like this, consider subscribing to the RSS Feed.
  • Worth Reading – Do employees feel comfortable talking to HR about mental health?
    There's that word, trust, again. Your employees aren't going to talk to you about their mental health; they are not going to use your employee assistance program, and they're not going to ask for the things that might help them be successful at work because they don't trust you.  The post Worth Reading – Do employees feel comfortable talking to HR about mental health? appeared first on Mike McBride Online. If you want to see more like this, consider subscribing to the RSS Feed.
  • Worth Reading – Corporate America spends billions on mental health services. 97% never use it.
    The combination of the stigma of calling in the first place, along with a program that doesn't meet the needs, means 97% of people won't bother with it. We should be looking at alternatives, for sure.  The post Worth Reading – Corporate America spends billions on mental health services. 97% never use it. appeared first on Mike McBride Online. If you want to see more like this, consider subscribing to the RSS Feed.
  • Have We Considered that it’s not Remote Work that Causes Mental Health Issues, but a Culture That Makes it Harder?
    We could create a workplace where people could work from the coffee shop and interact with other humans in person. Where they didn't spend so much time working that they could use that saved commute time to attend community events. We just don't. Instead, we expect remote workers to be available all the time; we tie them up in meetings for 5-6 hours a day because that's how we "keep an eye" on them, and still expect them to hit all their deliverables. The post Have We Considered that it’s not Remote Work that Causes Mental […]
  • Create Certainty Where You Can
    Like it or not, your team is dealing with a ridiculous amount of uncertainty in and out of the office. Most of it is beyond our control. When we have the opportunity to create less of it, we should do so. We have the opportunity to make a difference for our team, as human beings, just by communicating and setting clear expectations. Why wouldn't we?  The post Create Certainty Where You Can appeared first on Mike McBride Online. If you want to see more like this, consider subscribing to the RSS Feed.

Get in touch if you’re looking for a podcast guest to talk about child abuse or how to use blogging and social media to share stories of survival and mental health advocacy.