allenizabeth

I want to write Dr. Drew Pinsky. I truly owe my life to this man.

I came from a background of various abuses - mental, emotional, sexual, etc. I never felt safe anywhere as a child. By the time I hit high school I was weird, sad, and awkward. It was about 1996 when I discovered LoveLine playing on the radio, late at night. I would listen to the way Dr. drew knit together the fabric of women's lives - explaining the links between childhood abuse and adult dysfunction.

I was fascinated. Out of the darkness he had given me hope - I knew full well my background was messed up, but it had never occurred to me that this might have explained my present feelings of numbness and pain. I read everything I could about psychology from that point on. It was a light in my life. It was logic and sense out of a world that was cruel and senseless, and I dedicated myself to fixing the damage my upbringing had wrought. I went willingly through intense therapy for my entire early twenties. Instead of acting out, becoming addicted to drugs, or sex, or any of the things with which I was PRIMED to try and fill the "hole", I studied psychology and faced the process of therapy head-on, knowing that there WAS a light at the end of the tunnel - my nights with Dr. Drew convinced me of this.

I am now 29. My twenties were difficult, but without his influence they could have been tragic. I am now married to a wonderful man - who I may not have noticed had I kept chasing unavailable men. Dr. Drew made me aware of that pattern, but when I broke it, I broke it for good. My husband gives me the unconditional love and consistency that I missed out on as a child, and though the process of allowing it to seep in was incredible painful and humbling, I kept at it. I think I was able to do this because you told me, at a young age, that it was possible - that though I may have been mistreated as a child, I was still deserving of love. Without you I may never have realized this.

Depression runs in my family. In 2006 my mother took her own life. I wish, so much, that she had been so very lucky as to have had a voice on the radio in the fifties telling her that she was worthwhile, that the abuse she suffered was not her fault, that she could break her harmful patterns, and that with faith and effort and love (and meds) she could escape the darkness. I wish she had listened when I tried to tell her these things. This is how important the work you have done is. You have literally saved the lives of young people around the world by showing them, calmly and sensibly, that there is a way out.

Thank you so much, from the very bottom of my heart - with everything I have.

edit: and thank YOU, reddit, for voting this to the top! I have wanted to tell Dr. Drew this story for ten years. With your help I think he may have read it! You guys are awesome, thank you so much!

so are you gonna draw that, or....?

Why in the world would anyone tell this guy to kill himself? What the fucking hell?

I'm a woman and I agree with this. SOMEONE, be it the husband or the wife, should be home with the kids. If neither is willing to do this the couple shouldn't have kids.

Neither being able is another question, however....

How are things worse sexually than they were forty years ago?