Theresa Caputo

And my dad would be out at three o'clock in the morning with a ladder up to my window.

of the racing of the heart and feeling like something was going to happen to me if I did not leave that space immediately.

So that's how I grew up.

And I would say to my mom constantly be like, Mom, I don't feel right.

I feel different than everyone else.

I don't feel like I belong here, like something's not right.

And my mom, you know, would say to me, she's like, Listen, she's like, we love you, you belong to this family.

And I always just felt loved and safe.

with my parents.

That's so important.

Yeah.

And I think it was because my mom also gave me that space to kind of express what I was feeling and not to make a big deal about it or not to make me feel embarrassed or even weird about it.

Because I would just say like, you didn't just see that woman like over there and be like, no, we didn't see that woman standing in front of the TV.

Like everything was just so matter of fact.

So whether if my mom was scared.

In the beginning, accepted and rolled with it.

And then as I got older, I did go to therapy for my anxiety.

And then my mom was the one that suggested that I go see a spiritual healer because of my anxiety.

So I couldn't even leave the house.

That's how crippling it was.