Lady Injury

Lady Injury is the raw, honest experience of coping with eating disorders, self-harm, and facing the childhood traumas that led to psychiatric care. Handwritten journal entries that filled a series of books over the course of an approximately six-month period of inpatient stays for self-injury and bulimia were the foundation for much of the verbatim quotes within this memoir.

Wounds and scars were hidden for years under layers of clothing or behind lips with closed secrets. The shame of self-harm made speaking about it difficult within an environment where this was expected. The silence behind these wounds later exposed the childhood psychological trauma that led to creating them.

Melissa explores her fears, her past, while meeting unique individuals within her stays at the hospital that opened her eyes to others who struggled, the stigmas they faced, and the people beyond their symptoms. Apprehension turns into compassion, friendship, vulnerability and human connection throughout the interactions described within Lady Injury.

Quotes:
~ "After that, I had to be weighed. So, I was standing in a brown gown, on a scale that read of a girl disappearing."
~ "We both knew what it was like to hurt our bodies. It's a strange reason to bond with someone, but I think we both needed to feel understood, and even though we couldn't love ourselves, we could love each other."
~ "Her smile didn't mean that her suffering was over, but when it appeared, it was something beautiful to see; a rare flower."

Lady Injury was edited via the kindness of RLL, blogger of Report From a Fugitive.

This book contains some descriptive details of self-harm.

Melissa C. Water was born and raised in a small town in Quebec, Canada. She grew up trying to write novels but never finished them. Her High school English writing teacher inspired her to continue to write poetry and stories, and also inspired her to believe in her abilities as an author. Melissa Wrote her memoir of her time in a psychiatric ward for self harm and bulimia, as well as writing a comical yet dramatic science fiction series for young adults. Today Melissa lives in Montreal, Quebec. She is a mental health activist that raises awareness on youtube for multiple mental health conditions as well as the neurological condition known as Tourette Syndrome. She is known on youtube as Idranktheseawater.