Lottie reads an entry from 2012 where she realizes a friend was right: she thinks she's a loser. Lottie ponders why that could be.

The remaining entries are from the year 2024. Lottie continues to try to make sense of what her experience was like being married to an abusive partner who brought his family in on the task of "keeping her in her place."

Lottie is a pretty woman with ADHD, ASD, and Complex PTSD navigating her life after a tumultuous divorce, looking back to where she came from in the hopes she will figure out where to go from here.

She reads entries from when she began to untangle herself from the church of Christianity and identify some behaviours from leaders in the church which were predatorial, though she does not yet understand the extent of it.

Lottie also writes about what she wishes she could have from a father in the understanding that she will not be able to experience what she dreams of from her own father, someone diagnosed with a type of schizophrenia.

Lottie begins the episode by reading notes taken in a psychology class she took shortly before leaving her husband, then reading excerpts from her diary which were written over a year after the separation. She ponders what motivates someone to commit acts they would not normally carry out or which seem monstrous in the intellectual world, then attempts to describe the experience from a more intimate point of view several years later.

Lottie cracks open one of her diaries from early 2019, a period in her life which began to see some financial success. She expresses the guilt she felt as a result - some of it born from religion, and some of it slathered on by a close family member.

Lottie also begins to examine her religion with a more critical eye and wonders why she feels so trapped in Christianity.

Lottie grapples with self worth, her diagnosis with Complex PTSD, how that shows itself in her life, and the doubt she perceives from family members regarding the legitimacy of her claims and life experiences. She also reflects on how she tried to use religion and church to save herself and her marriage, and the damage it caused instead.

Having just left an abusive long-term relationship, Lottie uses her diary to process her experiences and recount instances throughout her and Sam's life where he showed her who he really was and she was trained not to see it.

Subjects such as sexual assault and domestic abuse are briefly mentioned in this episode. Listener discretion is advised.

In this debut episode of Your Neighbour’s Diary, Lottie reads from her personal diary, beginning with the first passage she wrote as a free woman. After years of surviving trauma, navigating narcissistic abuse, and rebuilding her life from the ground up, she reads the raw, unfiltered journal entry that marked the beginning of her new chapter.

This episode invites listeners into the quiet, powerful moment a woman chooses herself—her safety, her voice, and her future. It begins to explore what it means to leave an abusive marriage, rediscover identity, and rebuild a home and life for her children. Lottie’s voice becomes a companion to anyone moving through healing, loneliness, survival, and the quiet victories that come with choosing yourself.

Keywords: healing after abuse, diary entry, journal storytelling, trauma recovery, starting over, reclaiming your life, women’s empowerment, emotional healing podcast, freedom, resilience, anonymous story, survival story, personal growth, anonymous podcast, diary reading, emotional abuse recovery, women leaving toxic relationships, new beginnings, healing journey, resilience stories, journaling through trauma, empowerment, survival, reclaim your voice.