Heather B. Armstrong, a successful author, charted her own experiences as a mother of two girls battling depression and alcohol. She pioneered the mommy ‘blog’ in the 2000s.
The AP Associated Press announced on Wednesday that Pete Ashdown, the boyfriend of Armstrong’s, revealed the death of her following a suicide, after she relapsed recently, with a period of 18 months of sobriety.
The harassment occurred primarily on a website established by Alice Wright, a self-proclaimed ‘most hated woman on the internet’ from New York.
Wright established the website GOMI – Get Off My Internets – in 2008 as a platform for discussing famous individuals.
Armstrong, who blogged using the alias Dooce, appeared regularly in posts like: ‘Dooce Will Fearlessly Publish Soul Draining Sponsored Content’.
Other examples are: ‘Dooce Desires You To Be Aware of Her Struggle’, and ‘Dooce’s Sorrow Supported By Headache Medication’.
In the blog “Scary Mommy,” the creator Jill Smokler told the story of her friend Armstrong’s evil experiences with them, but I had some unfortunate encounters with them as well.
‘I was criticized for my parenting but they targeted Heather in a very personal way. It was pure bullying and extremely cruel.’
Smokler stated: ‘They were relentless towards her. They were aware that she was delicate and despondent.
It’s not easy to be bombarded with messages that you’re a terrible mother and shouldn’t be alive. It cuts to the core of who you are. Now I wonder how people at GOMI feel.
‘I have been informed that my children should perish. However, Heather experienced a significantly worse situation, and she was more delicate than the rest of us,’ shared Deborah Cruz, the owner of MotherhoodTheTruth.Com, as mentioned by another acquaintance.
“Why should she possess that?” Some individuals were asking, as it expanded, she had a kingdom she constructed by embracing her authenticity. People are envious. However, she also achieved greater success.
Wright was harsh in her evaluation of Armstrong when she heard the news of her demise.
“Ten years ago, she stated that she has not been relevant since she refused to accept changing into a celebrity and monetizing online. She also mentioned that she will never be relevant again. Additionally, she admitted that she was a bigger bully than [Armstrong].”
Some people disliked her a month ago for a reason, as she was acting like a saint with a shining light, embodying the culture of creators in a significant way.
‘But she’s deceased, so let’s keep quiet! We can only speak positively. Give me a break!’
One of Wright’s supporters, Pontica Tottos, replied, “Good riddance.”
“Armstrong finally saw that she wasn’t a nice person after all. She caused more harm to the people in her life than good, selfishly lashing out in a way that was more than just suicide. Those who loved her witnessed this.”
‘Her remembrance will always be a blessing.’
In 2016, Wright maintained that her website was not focused on cruelty, despite the material she authored and provided.
She expressed, “‘I don’t understand where they’re coming from at all, that’s not what they want — let’s show them’ and suggest, bring them down, let’s and,’ let’s take this person’ of that specific group, there are some individuals who fall into that category, and I can’t speak for all GOMI-ers.”
‘I’m just very much ‘Oh my gosh, did you see what they posted? How crazy is that?’ And then talk about it.’.
She added that it is not fair to publicly discuss and speculate on someone’s life or ruin someone’s life by choosing what they put out to the game fair.
Armstrong leaves behind his daughters Leta, who is 18 years old, and Marlo, who is 14 years old.
Her heart-wrenching last blog entry, released on April 6, talked about her struggle with sobriety and honored her eldest daughter.
‘The beginning of sobriety is similar to living life as a clam without its protective covering,’ she expressed in her writing.
In October 2021, she told me about the six months of sobriety she had achieved, as I lay in bed next to her on the floor, feeling like a wounded animal who wanted to be left alone to die.
She described the milestone as a point in her thoughts where she was overcome with intense sobbing and tears, feeling split between two conflicting emotions.
The grief submerged me in tidal waves of pain. For a few hours I found it hard to breathe,’ she wrote.Output: ‘The sorrow engulfed me in surges of agony. For a few hours I struggled to inhale,’ she penned.
‘I had isolated myself entirely from the outside world because I didn’t understand what was happening to me. And I was embarrassed.
I felt really awful because I couldn’t figure out how to handle the idea of anyone else knowing how lonely I was. I chose to isolate myself, but I saw nothing but my own worthlessness everywhere I looked. I couldn’t grasp the fact that I couldn’t hold anyone’s gaze, so I spent the past two years wandering through life, often dancing and going into frenzied states.
She added, ‘Examining all my injuries and discovering how to coexist with them was merely observing.’ ‘Abstinence was not some enigma I had to unravel.’
The news of her passing was shared on her Instagram account.
On May 9, 2023, I read a post about the life of my beloved person, also known as Dooce, Armstrong B. Heather, or Hamilton Brooke Heather, during the period of July 1975.
“It requires a vast body of water to remain resilient.”
‘Embrace your loved ones tightly and show love to everyone else.’
Armstrong initiated her blog, Dooce, in the year 2001.
The name originated from her accidental typing error of the word ‘dude’ in a professional email.
By 2009, she had a monthly readership of 8.4million and was making $40,000-a-month with banner ads, according to a 2019 Vox profile.
After 2016, she participated in a clinical trial at the University of Utah, where she shared her struggles and battled with depression and thoughts of suicide online.
The three-week experiment involved her being induced into brief comas lasting for minutes three days a week.
The results were promising for six out of ten patients who took part in saying that their mental health improved and continued to get better for three months afterwards.
It’s unclear if the therapy was ever progressed for authorization.
Following the trial, Armstrong documented her experience in her book: The Valedictorian of Death.
The research utilized propofol anesthesia to induce a temporary halt in brain function for a period of 15 minutes. She was the third person to take part in the experiment.
In an interview with The New York Post, she said she was not at all fearful about the treatment, it might kill her.
She repeated the action ten times, and observed minor alterations in her conduct following the initial episodes of queasiness.
‘It was after the second therapy session when I suddenly realized, ‘Oh, I bathed without even contemplating it.
‘After the third session…I began styling my hair and wearing neater attire,’ she remarked.
She documented the experience in her book The Valedictorian of Death.
Some of her earlier works consist of Dear Daughter and It Sucked Then I Cried.