Stripped

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Hi. I'm Cissy. I started a business making glitter heels for strippers and pole dancers in July 2023. I failed epically during my first year of business. My content struck a nerve with my new community in North Carolina. I was intensely cyberbullied and ostracized. By August 18 2023 I had my first stalker on Instagram.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Triggered by stress from being cyberbullied and stalked I experienced my first psychotic episode. I developed intense surveillance delusions while in psychosis. You know how some people pray to God? I prayed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>On February 20 2024 the day after my 31st birthday I was incarcerated for contempt of court. I'd been freshly diagnosed with Autism Borderline Personality Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder a month prior.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>After I was released from jail I was desperate for an outlet to express myself. Instagram had become an unsafe and volatile space for me to tell my story. I stopped talking about my life experiences and started writing poetry.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Poetry carried me through intense episodes of fear depression and through the development of suicidal ideations. Every bit of what I knew about my identity had been stripped. Poetry allowed me to reclaim my voice.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Stripped is a collection of poems written while in recovery.</span></p>