Sleep like Starfish

<p><em>Sleep like Starfish</em> chronicles how a couch-surfing disassociated teenage high school dropout with debilitating chronic illness a constant loop of intrusive thoughts and a haunting abandonment wound goes on to marry an underage musician with a fake ID and become a loving responsible mother of two who graduates from college with high honors.</p><p><br></p><p>Rachelle Atkins not only examines the way childhood traumas manifest in the physical body but also how a child who feels like a body with no skin can become a woman who lives with a middle-finger faith believing that she is seen and held by something bigger than her tiny human self even when her anxiety rumbles and her body acts like a traitor. Holding the tension between the bad that was and the good that is and can be this memoir is a turnabout tale of discovering self-worth and learning to heal a dysregulated nervous system by coming to terms with a traumatic past imparting levity whenever possible and cultivating a deep sense of belief.</p>