Like many girls my age, I dabbled in Wicca in high school. My parents weren’t particularly religious, and I considered myself an atheist in middle school. But it was hard to deny the appeal of the Goddess. American culture is unkind to teen girls.

Here is a dispatch from Facebook, about my first CBT-I appointment in July 2024. This was an hour-long intake appointment, giving the doctor an overview of my history.

I started CBT-I in July 2024, and finished in January 2025. The whole point of this blog is sharing my experiences, but I will TLDR: The therapy helped me immensely, but it was incredibly difficult to enact. What I’ve learned has improved my quality of life, but most days I still have to fight to do it.