December 2025 - The Thriving ACoN

Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Financial Abuse - Financial Stability - Gen X - Generational Trauma - Hypervigilance - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Survivor - Trauma

The Walter White Threshold: Why Reinvention Hits So Hard After 50

December 30, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

I’ve been joking lately that hitting 50 made me feel a little like Walter White — just without the urge to build a meth empire. But the more I sit with that comparison, the more I realize it’s actually… not a joke at all. There’s something real — something psychological,…

Continue Reading
Adult Children of Narcissists - Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - cPTSD Healing - Emotional Abuse - Financial Abuse - Gen X - Generational Trauma - Gratitude - Holiday Triggers - Holidays - Hypervigilance - Narcissistic Abuse Recovery - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Survivor - Trauma

A No Contact Christmas: What the Holidays Feel Like After Cutting Ties With a Narcissistic Parent

December 25, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

For most of my life, Christmas came with a low-grade dread I didn’t have language for. On the surface, it looked like a normal holiday — lights, food, family photos. Underneath, my nervous system knew better. Holidays weren’t about joy or connection. They were tests. Performances. Emotional obstacle courses where…

Continue Reading
Adverse Childhood Experiences - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Generational Trauma - Hypervigilance - Recovery - Substance Abuse - Survivor - Trauma

Why My Emotions Got Stronger After Naming My cPTSD

December 23, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

For most of my life, I thought addiction was the problem. The shame.The struggle.The guilt.The constant attempts to “fix myself.”The belief that if I could just stop that, everything else would finally fall into place. But the truth — the truth I didn’t discover until the Mom-pocalypse resulted in the…

Continue Reading
Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Spirituality - Substance Abuse - Survivor - Trauma

Faith & Trauma — Part 4: Why I Chose No Contact — And Why I Still Pray for Her

December 21, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

There’s a version of the No Contact story that gets told a lot. It’s the anger version. And don’t get me wrong — I absolutely have every right to be angry. What was done to me was despicable.The lies.The manipulation.The threats.The decades of deception.The refusal to tell the truth even…

Continue Reading
Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Financial Abuse - Hypervigilance - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Survivor - Trauma - Triggers

Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: The Part of Healing No One Warns You About

December 18, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

Been rereading Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving, and one line hit me harder than it ever has before: he says cPTSD healing often looks like three steps forward, two steps back — and that grieving a lifetime of trauma commonly takes 2–3 years. I don’t know who…

Continue Reading
Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Generational Trauma - Narcissistic Parent - Recovery - Survivor - Trauma

When the Pain Overflows — Collateral Damage

December 16, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

There’s a part of my story I don’t talk about often — not because I’m hiding it, but because I needed enough distance from the chaos to see it clearly. When the truth about my mother began unraveling —the DNA revelation, the hoarding, the manipulation, the collapse of my identity,…

Continue Reading
Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Financial Abuse - Financial Stability - Gratitude - Hypervigilance - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Spirituality - Substance Abuse - Survivor - Trauma - Triggers

Faith & Trauma — Part 3: When Faith Stops Being a Performance

December 14, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

I was raised in an extremely conservative expression of Christianity — the Church of Christ. I’m not here to bash that tradition. There are good people there.Sincere people.Faithful people. But inside my family system, church didn’t feel like refuge. It felt like performance. Who I Thought I Was Performing For…

Continue Reading
Boundaries - cPTSD - Generational Trauma - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Survivor - Trauma

Three Boundaries, Three Outcomes — And Why They’re All Good

December 11, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

Boundaries used to feel like punishment to me. Growing up in a narcissistic family system, boundaries were treated as: Nobody taught me that boundaries are actually the conditions required for growth — not just for me, but for the other person, too. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on three major boundaries…

Continue Reading
Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Financial Abuse - Gen X - Hypervigilance - Invalidation - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Spirituality - Substance Abuse - Survivor - Trauma

No Contact Isn’t a Trend — Some of Us Bled Into It

December 9, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

On the internet lately, No Contact gets discussed like a hashtag.A concept.A brand of liberation.A generational identity marker. And listen — I’m genuinely grateful for that shift. I truly am.Language saves lives.Early awareness changes trajectories. But it’s important to say this clearly: No Contact didn’t begin with Millennials or Gen…

Continue Reading
Adverse Childhood Experiences - Boundaries - cPTSD - Emotional Abuse - Narcissistic Parent - No Contact - Recovery - Spirituality - Substance Abuse - Survivor - Trauma

Faith & Trauma — Part 2: When Boundaries Become Biblical Integrity

December 7, 2025 - By Andrew Pumpelly

After everything in my life finally came into the light — the lies, the manipulation, the emotional chaos — I had to face a hard truth: I had confused patience with permission. And Scripture never called me to confuse the two. Peace Has Limits in the Bible One verse used…

Continue Reading