Michelle Brandischok

I haven’t read the book, but the movie itself is a piece of art for those with anything close to an overpowering condition, that only you’re capable of overcoming. I cried several times not out of fear but rather empathy. From losing a child, domestic violence, and now living with chronic pain. My “gabriel” is my chronic pain. He literally squeezes my spine thinking it’s protecting me when it kills me. It’s excruciating and no one knows because my mind is taken over by pain and I become mean in turn. It took 7 years to identify my chronic pain, separate myself from it. And let my heart speak instead of my mind. I was triggered by abuse, I hurt people emotionally and with words because my body overpowered itself and thus my mind, and then I recognized and overcame this monster of a disease. I speak from the heart and when my chronic pain tries to take over my life, I put it in its place. In a cell locked away. It’s not who I am, it’s not a part of me. And it won’t have its place ever again. Take that as you will. But I appreciate this movie more than you can sympathize with, if you try to. I hope other survivors find this light.