2022: A Year of Strain, Strength, and Shifting Ground

Date: January 1, 2023

2022 was relentless.

It started with appointments, arguments, and exhaustion — and somehow never let up. From elimination diets and counseling sessions to court dates and emotional meltdowns, the year threw everything at us. The chaos didn’t come in waves; it came all at once and stayed for months.

We faced escalating conflicts with Katie, emotional fallout from the kids, countless medical issues, and schools that didn’t always know how to support our family’s needs. There were visits denied, accusations made, systems that didn’t intervene when they should have — and so many moments when the burden felt impossible to carry.

But the truth is — we didn’t make it through intact.

The weight of it all became too much. Nick turned to drinking — not just sometimes, but every day. I couldn’t keep up with his addiction, with Autumn’s growing pain and emotional outbursts (which were clearly connected to her trauma with her mom), with trying to hold the house together when I was falling apart myself. Everyone seemed to think my concern and intervention were the problem, not the reality we were drowning in.

Nick became mean. Detached. And in one of the most painful betrayals I’ve ever experienced — he cheated on me with Katie. After everything. After all we’d been through. I broke.

And eventually, I had to ask for separation. Not because I didn’t love him. But because I couldn’t survive that version of our life anymore.

So no, we didn’t survive 2022 the way we hoped. But we did something just as important: we told the truth. We named the harm. And we chose not to keep pretending everything was okay when it wasn’t.

Sometimes surviving looks like walking away. Sometimes it’s what allows you to keep breathing.