Archives for December 2022

Two years ago, today, my brother Tory died from COVID.

Surprise is an understatement.

Here is a short video about how I’m coping with all the holiday cheer when it feels so hollow to me: https://fb.watch/hD9fYM48WX/?mibextid=qC1gEa

Holidays have always been a bit challenging. Now I just watch them pass with very little enthusiasm. Be clear: I love all the positivity, and I’m not trying to rain on ANYONE’S parade. I’m learning how to honor my needs as much as make room for others to do what brings the peace and joy.

Simply put: I’ve learned to let me grieve instead of trying to feel “merry.”

Here are three strategies I use to survive the holiday season:

1. I let myself grieve. Grief comes in waves and when it wants to. I allow myself to feel and don’t invalidate my process.

2. I tell the truth about what I have emotional capacity for. I let a friend know that I’m grieving and will not have the emotional capacity to engage up until the new year. By so doing I’m honoring our friendship instead of going ghost and having people worry about me.

3. I focus on the future. I’m still alive so I get to do what God has called me to do. I can grieve and grow and create. Yes, I may take some cry breaks. That lets me know I am healing in a healthy way instead of stuffing it and pressing through.

I hope these three strategies help you cope with the inherit stress of the holiday season, especially if you have lost a loved one.

Please know you are not alone in this.

I’m right there with you.

In my mind all of our loved ones are looking down from heaven cheering us on!
And I am grateful.

I love you,

Dr. Venus

If I tell the truth, I have considered death instead of life.

For many years I related to being alive as Hell and death as Heaven.

If I tell the truth…

…as my head was being bashed into a wall or stomped senseless
or made to swallow…

I prayed God would end the pain by ending my life.

I have, in socially acceptable ways, tried to kill myself, without raising alarm.

—Starving myself.
—Putting my finger down my throat to puke.
—Red wine in a brown paper bag.
—Unprotected sex.
—Hot tubs of water.

Self-harm is the precursor to suicide.

When I was in graduate school for my first master’s degree, I became depressed. I was isolated in Ohio among covert racist white people. Peers and faculty.

I felt alone.
Sabotaged.
Defeated.

I starved myself down to 99 lbs.

When Nanna saw me she started to cry.

Nanna is not a crier.
I told her I was fine.
She took me home.

She loved me back to life.

She cared for me.
She listened.
She let me know I was not alone.

Truth be told, Nanna has saved my life more than once.

She is the only reason I haven’t ended it.

I just couldn’t stand the idea of her crying over me.

Nanna has been saving my life ever since I was sixteen. She has loved me into wellness. I couldn’t decimate her love by taking my life.

She made it safe to tell her how I was truly feeling.

She bought me Freedom from Anxiety and Depression tapes when I couldn’t get out of bed for six months.

She never judged me for all the bad things I did to stay alive during my childhood and on the streets.

She took away the condemnation.
She gave me personal development books.
She took me to transformational seminars.

She let her lights be cut off so she could send me money while I was in college.

She LOVED me.

Nanna’s love saved my life.
From the streets and from myself.

You never know whose life you are going to save.

You don’t know what people are carrying.

Here’s the truth: checking on a person, listening with a compassionate heart and a kind word can be the difference between ending it all or trying again tomorrow.

In the wake of ‘tWitch Boss’ suicide, (husband, father of three, celebrity) I’m reflecting on why I’m still alive.

And the answer is not my will power, success, accomplishments, degrees. or millions.

The answer is love.

Nanna cared enough to be kind.
Nanna, my 9th grade math teacher, cared enough about a smelly, dirty teen who only came to school to get the free lunch was kind.

I was too beaten down by life to ask for help. All I could do was pray.

Nanna was the answer to that prayer.

She was and will always be the truest express of God made manifest in a human body in my life.

I am so very grateful.
And I am alive.