POWERHOUSE WOMAN: UNFILTERED: Raw Memoir, Poetry, and Slightly Unhinged Survival Through Chronic Illness, Burnout, Everyday Life

Powerhouse Woman: Unfiltered Raw Memoir, Poetry, and Slightly Unhinged Survival Through Chronic Illness, Burnout, and Everyday Life What happens when the woman everyone relies on starts falling apart behind the scenes? For years, Deana Gard was the strong one. The helper. The caregiver. The crisis counselor. The woman who could manage emergencies at work while quietly struggling to fold laundry at home. In Powerhouse Woman: Unfiltered, Deana shares her deeply personal journey through chronic illness, disability, burnout, grief, caregiving, trauma, executive dysfunction, and the complicated process of rebuilding a life when survival mode becomes your default setting. With raw honesty, dark humor, heartfelt poetry, and hard-earned wisdom, this memoir explores: -Living with chronic illness and invisible disability -Navigating burnout while helping everyone else -The emotional weight of caregiving -Learning to advocate for yourself in healthcare -Grieving old versions of yourself after life changes -Building a meaningful life through uncertainty -Finding softness, joy, and purpose after survival This is not a book about overcoming adversity through perfection. It is a book about being human. For the women carrying invisible burdens. For the caregivers running on empty. For the helpers who forgot they deserve help too. For anyone learning how to love themselves through life's hardest chapters. If you've ever looked like you were holding it all together while quietly falling apart inside, this book was written for you. You do not have to be perfect to be powerful.