What happened
My childhood started in a place where addiction, instability, and fear were part of everyday life. I was a kid trying to understand things no kid should have to understand.
About the Author
Jessy Spruell
I did not write Shattered at Seven because I had everything figured out. I wrote it because the truth had sat quiet long enough.
This site comes from the same place as the book: lived experience, hard lessons, and the hope that being honest might help someone else take the next step.
Who I Am
Jessy Spruell: a life I was not sure I would get
I am Jessy Spruell. I live in Utah with my wife, Shannon. I am a husband, a writer, and a person who had to learn how to live after things that should have broken me.
I am not a doctor, a therapist, or a counselor. What I have is a story I survived, a book I wrote honestly, and a stubborn belief that the truth can make somebody feel less alone.
The title of the memoir is not a metaphor. By seven, the damage was already shaping the way I saw the world, the way I stayed quiet, and the way I tried to carry fear like it was normal.
The Story
Survival, addiction, and the long way back
What silence cost
For a long time, silence felt safer than telling the truth. I carried that silence into addiction, and addiction took years, trust, peace, and parts of me I had to fight to get back.
What changed
Days before my thirtieth birthday, I was in a cell in the Davis County Jail, on a night I almost didn’t survive. Locked in there with nothing but time, I finally had to face my whole life and decide whether I wanted a different one. That cell is where it turned — where the change started, and where this book began.
Where It Goes Now
The book is where the site started
Shattered at Seven tells the story the way it happened. MySA7 is where I keep going: treatment questions, recovery resources, family support, crisis help, and plain writing for people who are trying to find a way forward.
These days, my life is quieter than the story I came from. I am still healing. I am still learning how to stay present for the people I love. And I do not take that for granted.