Sleep like Starfish chronicles how a couch-surfing, disassociated teenage high school dropout with debilitating chronic illness, a constant loop of intrusive thoughts, and a haunting abandonment wound goes on to marry an underage musician with a fake ID and become a loving, responsible mother of two who graduates from college with high honors.

Rachelle Atkins not only examines the way childhood traumas manifest in the physical body, but also how a child who feels like "a body with no skin" can become a woman who lives with a middle-finger faith, believing that she is seen and held by something bigger than her tiny human self, even when her anxiety rumbles and her body acts like a traitor. Holding the tension between the bad that was and the good that is and can be, this memoir is a turnabout tale of discovering self-worth and learning to heal a dysregulated nervous system by coming to terms with a traumatic past, imparting levity whenever possible, and cultivating a deep sense of belief.