straight from central casting

CN: just me trying to get to the bottom of my childhood DSED, which has persisted into adulthood. It’s a very exhausting read because it’s a very exhausting type of brain injury.CW: if you’ve been using trauma bonding, forced teaming, boundary testing, predatory caregiving, or other interpersonal manipulation tactics, this is sure to send you into acute mental crisis. So just don’t read it. Sorry, I don’t make the rulesShortly before my 30th birthday—I wrote about it at the time, askance—I ended up with a houseguest who would not leave. In retrospect, I was hosting a hipster grifter sort. She’d emailed the Chicago writers’ group. The married couple she’d been living with, who were both writers in the group (and both very talented), had just experienced a massive relationship rupture. Now she was stranded outside, scared and alone in the middle of the night, emailing all of us from her phone. I was the only person apparently checking my email, and the young woman had no other takers,…