Matthew Wright

The water started boiling. For almost a year I had avoided cooking Archie’s raw chicken. A task Jord had quietly taken over because she could see what it was costing me mentally every night - to sit and fear that somehow I was going to give my daughter salmonella poisoning. That somehow, some microscopic, trace amount that splashed out was going to somehow make its way into her mouth or onto her food either from the kitchen bench, or by her plate touching the same spot and then her putting...

OCD was not me being careful. It was fear disguised as responsibility. It made me feel responsible for things no human being could ever fully control. In my darkest hours, it made love feel like a relentless pursuit of keeping those I love safe. OCD didn’t roar into my life like a tidal wave looking to sweep up everything in its path. It entered quietly, in the dark of night and it attacked something I took for granted. Something that gave me freedom. Something I valued. On an ordinary...

The silence, the strength and the things I had to learn the hard way. Nobody tells you that one phone call can change your whole life, before you even begin to understand what's happening. One minute you're getting ready to head out with mates to watch the footy. The next, your phone rings, it’s your wife, when you hear her voice, she is calm on the surface, terrified underneath and the world you know stops existing in that very moment. That was February 13th, 2023 for me. Jordan was 18 weeks...