Showing results by author "Melissa Bond" in All Categories

As Melissa Bond raises her infant daughter and a special-needs one-year-old son, she suffers from unbearable insomnia, sleeping an hour or less each night. She loses her job as a journalist (a casualty of the 2008 recession), and her relationship with her husband grows distant. Her doctor casually prescribes benzodiazepines—a family of drugs that includes Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan—and increases her dosage on a regular basis. Following her doctor’s orders, Melissa takes the pills night after night; her body begins to shut down and she collapses while holding her daughter.

I wasn't thrilled to be stuck at home with my stepsister, Caitlin, the summer after we both graduated from college. She had always been really bossy, but I figured the house was big enough. Until it wasn't. Suddenly, I saw her as a gorgeous, sexy woman. I kept trying to suppress my feelings, until one night I couldn't any longer.... Neither could she.