Help Taylor Heal

Content warning: child abuse, rape, suicide.

Hi everyone. The following will likely come as a shock to those of you who have known Taylor and his family, but it must be shared. 

I am reluctantly asking for help for Taylor and I as we navigate one of the most difficult times of our lives. As many of you know both Taylor and I live with mental illness. 

For over a year now we have both been in therapy to help work through our anxieties and traumas. What most of you don’t know is Taylor has dealt with self harming and suicidal ideations for much of his life; in 2018 he tried to kill himself. 

Taylor, up until beginning therapy, had almost no memories of his childhood. And the memories he did have were not pleasant. 

Through a lot of incredibly painful work and support from his therapist and myself and my family, about a month ago, Taylor was finally able to pinpoint the source of his years and years of pain. He was raped by his mother. The pain and embarrassment of remembering such a horrifying event has only added to the turmoil he’s lived through for most of his life. 

In addition to sexual abuse he, for much of his life was forced to live in neglect; living in squalor, at one point living in a home with no roof, the smell of rat urine filled his nostrils. 

As many of you may know his father went to prison for drug trafficking when Taylor was under the age of 10; one of Taylor’s only memories before therapy was being in a car filled with cocaine. He watched his mother pass out drunk night after night and lay beside her for fear she had died. By the age of 13 he was diagnosed with stomach ulcers from eating hot wings at the bar his mom forced to him to go to with her every night.

Taylor’s behavior as a child showed classic, infuriatingly obvious signs of abuse. His cries for help were ignored, not only by his parents but by extended family as well. 

These are just some of the things he’s had to endure.

In May, a month after returning home from a 2 year period of us being forced to live with his abuser, and cutting ties with his family, Taylor’s anxiety became too much to be able to hold down a job; he was forced to quit. We made the decision shortly after that it would be best for his well-being to not look for another job until he’s worked through his trauma and had time to heal.

To keep our bills paid, and keep our mental health appointments we were forced into credit card debt and now all of our cards are maxed out and overdue. We are past due on bills and are in danger of losing our only vehicle. We are running low on pet supplies. 

We are in desperate need of new clothing, new eyeglass prescriptions, and I have had to start rationing out my daily mental health medications because we have no means to pay for them. As of today, 11/22/21, I have one more day of my medication left, and have already skipped a day to try and buy us more time. 

For months now my paychecks have not been enough to keep us out of the red with our bank. I work full time, but it’s not enough to keep our heads above water while we pay down debt and get our finances in order.

Because of this I have had to quit therapy, and Taylor will have to quit too. It is of upmost importance that he continue with therapy. And I desperately need to go back, I haven’t seen my therapist since Taylor remembered being violated, just over a month ago. 

We are humbly asking for help, something we’ve been too embarrassed to do until now. I don’t know how we’re going to make it without help. 

Donations will go towards paying down our debt, continuing therapy, getting supplies for our pets, and paying our bills. 

We appreciate you taking the time to read through this and ask that the Universe bless you and yours. 

Thank you, 

Katherine and Taylor

#helptaylorheal