In this episode, I chat with Emily about a verbally abusive marriage, to which she admits she stayed in for too long. She also shares about her son’s addictions to drugs and alcohols, as well as the multiple invisible illnesses her daughter suffers from. On top of that, Emily is now helping take care of her ex-husband as he battles with stage 4 cancer.*

Emily grew up with two siblings. Her parents were very into health, fitness and sports. Before she could eat breakfast, she had to jump rope for 10 minutes. All three kids were big into sports. Their parents told them they could either work their way through College or play sports and hopefully get into College on a scholarship. All of Emily’s hard work paid off and she was recruited by many different Colleges while she was in High School. She chose to go into the Naval Academy because she knew that academics would be more important than the sport there.

Emily graduated in the 6th class of women. It was a tough time because that was still a very male dominated field. Women were not treated very great. Only a couple months after graduation, Emily married. She had been taken care of her whole life and hadn’t really experienced living on her own. Once she got married and experienced living on her own, she decided that she could do it and the marriage ended.

About 6 years later, Emily married again. They had two children together, but he was very verbally abusive. The married lasted for seven years, but looking back Emily realized that she should have left a lot sooner so that she was not subjected to that abuse for so long. She couldn’t even go for a walk by herself to clear her mind because her kids were scared to be left alone with him. “Even after I left, I wondered if I should have.” She explains the cycle of abuse that victims go through and how she felt about herself.

Currently, her children’s father has stage 4 cancer that has left him paralyzed in both arms, so he needs help doing everything. Emily has been helping take care of him, alongside their two kids and his fiance.

After her second divorce, Emily was a single mom for several years and then she remarried. This guy had three kids and at one point, there were 5 teenagers in the home. It was a hard time for all of them. Emily’s son began abusing alcohol at the age of 13. It progressed into drugs, along with alcohol. His addiction lasted for 10 years before he finally reached out for help. Emily said one of the hardest things she learned through that time was that she couldn’t fix him. He had to want it for himself.

Emily also has a daughter with some invisible illnesses. It all started when she was about 13 and started having really bad pains in her chest. She was diagnosed with long QT. After that, they started noticing some other things that just wouldn’t go away and she was diagnosed with POTS. On top of all that, she also has gastrointestinal issues. Because she has POTS, they have connected it to EDS, which she also has.

Listen to the full episode to hear all the details.

*Please note: this is the guest’s story. Their story is how they perceive it. It is not my judgement or responsibility to determine whether or not this story and the things said are true. Please be open minded when listening to/reading these stories.

LINKS TO THINGS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
–Emily’s podcast
–Emily’s episode with her son talking about addiction
-Emily’s product recommendation: Yoga burn
-Emily’s song recommendation: American Pie (listen on the Hard Knocks guest list on Spotify)
-My ending song recommendation: Think You Oughta Know That by Parmalee (listen on the Hard Knocks – Jourdan’s picks playlist on Spotify)
–Emily’s Instagram
–Emily’s Website
–Emily’s Twitter
–Emily’s Facebook Group

Change is painful, but nothing is as painful as being stuck somewhere you don’t belong.

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