Sarah Elizabeth Bloom is a writer, death doula, rare disease advocate, and survivor of extensive childhood, interpersonal, and medical trauma. Her early life was marked by childhood sexual abuse, repeated victimization, bullying, and traumatic experiences that profoundly shaped her understanding of suffering, resilience, and human connection. Throughout adolescence and adulthood, she endured further experiences of violence, coercion, and life-threatening situations. Alongside

THE TRUE SCOPE OF MY 17-YEAR STORY Seventeen Years of Survival This is not a story about one event. It is not a story about one trauma. It is not a story about one system failing. It is a seventeen-year continuum of illness, disability, trauma, discrimination, violence, neglect, and survival. For seventeen years I have lived through circumstances that most people will never experience in a lifetime. My body has failed me. Systems have failed me. Institutions have failed me. P

For years, I was always a drinker. Whether at home or out for the weekend, I never thought how drinking could affect anything or anyone. But when my partner had kids, we had a happy life raising them, and a good life at that. As they got older, something changed inside me. The more I drank, the more I wanted. I kept pushing my family away. I didn't care. I wanted the alcohol and nothing else. For years, I lost all contact with my kids. I didn't care. I had a new family, which