{"id":61044,"date":"2023-07-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cafemomcom.bigscoots-staging.com\/blog\/mom-with-anxiety-alcoholism-ptsd-therapy\/"},"modified":"2024-09-03T00:39:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T00:39:16","slug":"mom-with-anxiety-alcoholism-ptsd-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafemom.com\/parenting\/mom-with-anxiety-alcoholism-ptsd-therapy","title":{"rendered":"How Therapy Has Made Motherhood Manageable for a Mom of 4 With Anxiety, Alcoholism &#038; PTSD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Our monthly column <a href=\"https:\/\/cafemom.com\/series\/mom-with\">MOM WITH<\/a> aims to redefine what it means to be a &quot;normal&quot; mother by focusing on how it feels to live with a developmental or mental disorder. We see you, we hear you, and we&#39;re in this together.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kelley Kitley, a licensed clinical social worker,\u202fis <a href=\"https:\/\/cafemom.com\/parenting\/208514-moms_with_big_families_less_stressed\">mom to four<\/a> kids, ages 17, 15, 13, 11. Like many mothers, she has had her struggles in the past that are brought forward today in her parenting. Kelly is 44 years old and has suffered from generalized anxiety disorder since she was 12. She also <a href=\"https:\/\/cafemom.com\/lifestyle\/recovering-alcoholic-mommy-wine-culture\">struggled with drinking<\/a> on and off for 20 years with alcohol use disorder and has been in recovery for 10 years. In addition, after a sexual assault from a random act of violence 23 years ago on the streets of Chicago, Kitley also suffers from PTSD.  <\/p>\n<p>The road to recovery as a mother with these struggles hasn\u2019t always been easy, Kitley admits. \u201cI started medication and therapy for an eating disorder as a sophomore in high school\u201d she tells CafeMom. \u201cI used my eating disorder as a way to &#39;manage&#39; my anxiety, or so I thought. This started to develop as a result of sexual abuse as a child, by a family friend. I told my parents about it, but it was minimized and never discussed again.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>More from CafeMom:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/cafemom.com\/parenting\/how-to-protect-your-teen-from-toxic-diet-culture\">How To Protect Teens From Toxic Diet Culture at Home<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our monthly column MOM WITH aims to redefine what it means to be a &quot;normal&quot; mother by focusing on how it feels to live with a developmental or mental disorder. We see you, we hear you, and we&#39;re in this together. Kelley Kitley, a licensed clinical social worker,\u202fis mom to four kids, ages 17, 15, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":706387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"nota_seo_page_title":"","nota_seo_page_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[87,90,85],"tags":[13875,7748,244,13874,13873,1318,349,3229,997,243,13876,13877,285,2186,13878],"featured":[],"internal-tag":[],"series":[152],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Therapy Has Made Motherhood Manageable for a Mom of 4 With Anxiety, Alcoholism &amp; 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