elisabethel

Author: elisabethel

I'm a single mother of two young men with strong opinions and quick wit. One of the two - I'll call him Martin here - has been diagnosed with bipolar I and Aspergers. His younger brother - I'll be calling him Pete - has anxiety and depression. I also suffer from anxiety and depression, though much less so with medication. This blog is about family life with mental illness.

ghosts of her disorders

Posted by elisabethel on June 8, 2019

Erin hadn’t expected that Maria would come looking for her. Her college roommate had been working across campus for years, but Erin had thought that they’d finally reached a sort of détente where they didn’t …

eating disorders, fiction

overseas

Posted by elisabethel on April 13, 2019

I’ve been out of the country on vacation for a couple of weeks, and it’s a bit of a shock to the system to return home and have to take up where I left off. …

eating disorders

Spike (M&P #5)

Posted by elisabethel on March 22, 2019March 22, 2019

One night after dinner, while Erin was washing the dishes, David came into the kitchen with a couple of computer disks in his hand. “Erin, I told Gabe that I would get these to him …

fiction

demi-memi: a word on what I’m up to

Posted by elisabethel on March 20, 2019

Dear Reader, Since I’ve just sort of plunged into uploading chapters of the draft of my novel, I thought I’d take one moment here and talk about what I think my reader and I might …

writing

valentine’s (m & p 4)

Posted by elisabethel on March 19, 2019March 20, 2019

Driving with Martin and Pete 4 Erin bought a very provocative pair of panties for Valentine’s Day. There was lace, but not a lot of it, and a couple of ribbons. She’d decided that she …

fiction

Driving with Martin and Pete 3

Posted by elisabethel on March 18, 2019March 17, 2019

Note: I thought I’d better stop with the Roman numeral chapter headings or we’d soon be heading into the big math challenge…. Elisabeth Meeting Gabe (1993) The first time Erin saw Gabe, she was looking …

fiction

Driving with Martin and Pete II

Posted by elisabethel on March 16, 2019

What I’d really like to hear here and in the next chapter is whether you feel like the shifts in time are too extreme or whether they work for you. If they’re confusing, please let …

fiction

Driving with Martin and Pete I

Posted by elisabethel on March 14, 2019March 14, 2019

This is the first chapter of my novel about a single mom raising two boys, one with bipolar and one with anxiety. I want the novel to show how mental health issues often aren’t limited …

fiction

transitions

Posted by elisabethel on February 24, 2019March 17, 2019

One of the wonderful things about raising exceptional children is that you don’t know what sorts of challenges you’re going to face until you come right up to them. I read somewhere when Martin was …

parenting

The Holiday Letter, 2018

Posted by elisabethel on December 29, 2018December 29, 2018

the letter that I can't send

holidays