NICOLE MARTIN SALTER

If you start talking about childhood trauma in 2022, there are still people who will tell you to just 'get over it' because 'our parents did the best they could with what they had' and 'at least they put a roof over your head, fed and clothed you' and even 'My dad beat the shit out of us, but everybody got hit back then. I turned out just fine!' If this sort of rationale makes you roll your eyes so far back in your head that you look like the zombie kid from Super 8, I've got

Does anyone remember that old Stephen King book and series, The Tommyknockers? I'm a King fan, and I remember being really creeped out when I came across this golden horror oldie in the 90s, even though the author himself has since said it's an awful story (the curse of every writer seems to be second-guessing themselves). What really got me about these Tommyknocker freaks was what they did to the dog. No spoilers, but let's just say they used him as an energy source. I remem

A few months ago, I joined an online group for women who wanted to learn skills to process the grief and losses they had experienced in their lives. Everyone in the group was a warrior with a story of personal loss that would make you weep - there were lost careers, children, homes, loved ones, mental and physical health, pets, innocence, trust, and so many other losses of the things, big and small, that bring joy to our lives. The group's facilitators walked us through a ser

Throughout my narcissistically abusive marriage, I spent a lot of time thinking that I must be the problem. After all, I was the one who fell apart - yelling, crying, trying to get my husband to pay attention to my feelings - while he remained impassive, refused to discuss anything, walked away, and pretended afterward that nothing had happened (or told me I was insane). At one point, he began to say that my obsession with making him hear me out was actually narcissism. And y

It's already 2022 and, after hearing for years and years about how Donald Trump has been a narcissist all his life - an assessment that's not unreasonable, based on his love-starved childhood, impulsive decisions, shallow self-aggrandizement, dubious morality, scandal-ridden intimate relationships and the superficial charm that nevertheless popularized him - I began to wonder about politicians other than the orange monster. If it's really true that there is a significant lin