Cait is a chronic illness warrior and a member of the Care+Wear community who shows up with honesty, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of herself and the world around her. This past season has asked her to loosen her grip on control, sit with uncertainty, and rethink where she places her sense of worth. None of that has been easy, but it’s shaped the reflections she shares here.
In her own words, Cait opens up about learning to ride life’s waves, navigating depression, finding grounding through creativity, and choosing to honor her needs more fully as she looks toward the year ahead.
Continue reading to learn more about Cait's journey.
Learning to Let Go of Control While Living with Chronic Illness
As I move through this season, I’ve been reflecting on what my heart is still learning how to release. Control has long felt like protection, but lately I’ve been learning that holding on too tightly can make life feel smaller rather than safer.
I am definitely learning to let go of my desire to control things. I’ve fought with this myself my whole life seeking it but I’ve been learning this year that things are better when I learn to ride the waves and seize the moment. As someone with AuDHD and dynamic disabilities, I’ve accepted that things will never be routined the way I want and that my life is best when I embrace the cycles of high highs and low lows.
Letting go hasn’t meant giving up—it’s meant adapting, listening to my body, and allowing life to move in the rhythms it naturally takes.
Navigating Identity, Depression, and Self-Worth
Some moments change you quietly. You don’t always understand them while you’re in them, and clarity often comes much later, after reflection and care.
I fell into a bout of clinical depression for a few months this year which is not new for me but hadn’t happened in years. I knew exactly how to guide myself through it but I didn’t understand why it had happened. Now, I am starting to understand that I had too much of my identity tied into a particular goal and when I achieved it but it didn’t provide the rewards I had hoped for, I felt like a failure and defeated. Going into the new year I think I need to hold my self worth within things that are less liable.
That realization has reshaped how I think about success, worth, and what it means to feel grounded in who I am beyond achievements.
Finding Grounding During the Holidays with CPTSD and AuDHD
The holidays can be especially loud—emotionally and physically. With CPTSD and AuDHD, staying regulated often requires intention and creativity.
The holidays are challenging with CPTSD and AuDHD. There are triggers and stimuli everywhere so the thing that helps me regroup amongst the overwhelm is creativity. Whether it’s taking on the role of photographer, drawing while I have conversations, or finding quiet space to journal, it keeps me grounded and focused so I am capable of staying around with my loved ones.
Creativity gives me an anchor. It allows me to stay connected without becoming overwhelmed, and helps me remain present in spaces that might otherwise feel like too much.
Honoring Personal Boundaries as a Trauma-Informed Self-Care Practice
Choosing myself differently has meant being honest about what I need—and allowing those needs to take up space for the first time.
I’m definitely choosing to honour my own needs as a complexly traumatised person. I have minimised, denied, and neglected the boundaries and care that I owe myself and this new year I’m trying to accept and honour those needs.
This shift hasn’t been simple, but it has been necessary. Learning to honor myself feels like an ongoing practice, not a finished destination.
Beginning Again with Chronic Illness: Hope for the Year Ahead
Looking ahead doesn’t always come with grand wishes. Sometimes hope is quieter and more grounded in reality.
2025 has actually been really good to me even with the challenges it’s brought so all I really hope for 2026 is that life doesn’t get worse and that I can build upon the successes of this year even just a little.
That hope feels gentle, realistic, and deeply human.
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