Elisa A. Escalante/ LCSW/ 7-14-2024
My trauma puzzle poems take you through my life from the ages of 3 y/o to roughly 22 years old. It’s the perspective of what I witnessed, felt and thought about through the majority of my childhood traumas. I keep an element of mystery because 1- it’s not always about EXACTLY what happened to us, it’s also about how we perceive it, interpret it and feel about it. The adults in my life had their own battles going on; some of which I know nothing about. 2- I also prefer that the readers do their own interpreting of my writing. ✍️ PTSD is very much one of those mental illnesses in which you either understand it, or you don’t. You have to live with it to really understand how the condition impacts day to day reality. Sometimes it’s pointless to explain it in “psychobabble terms”, and more beneficial when/ if I can help people feel it. Especially if the poem offends you, or invokes an emotional response in any way, perhaps it’s because we share a similar trauma.
Functionally Mental 