“When she found me unconscious, she crawled under the table screaming and shook me until I opened my eyes. I choked to her blurred image, in slurred sobs, that I had to die, that it hurt SO MUCH, that I could actually feel my brain and it was SORE and SURELY my nervous system would give out soon if she would just go away and let me stay there very still and very quiet. I told her I’d make sure to die with minimal noise and mess.”

— Stacy Pershall, from “Loud in the House of Myself.”