Erika Dittmer

Erika Dittmer (née Rundberg) was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1973.

Her childhood was tinged by her mother's alcoholism and her father's off-and-on presence. By the time Erika was 5-6 years old, she had developed an eating disorder, a disorder that was later accompanied by self-harm during in her late teens/early twenties.

The self-harm showed up by Erika consistently putting herself in violent and life threatening situations, the culmination of which was living with a man twenty years her senior that abused her mentally, sexually and physically for several years.

During this time, Erika lived in London (UK), a city she called home for over 11 years and where she trained professionally for the stage as an actress and musical theatre performer.

Apart from London, Erika has also lived in Paris, NYC and Lisbon.

2004 was a pivotal year, as that was the year when Erika developed a form of arthritis, an illness which put a halt to her career as a musical theatre performer. However, the arthritis became the catalyst which propelled Erika to make life-altering changes to her life, one of which was to leave the destructive relationship and embark on a healing journey.

In 2008 Erika had moved back to her native Stockholm and there, she enrolled in a clinical program where she started to break free from her severe eating disorder. By the time Erika enrolled in the program, she had lived with her eating disorder for three decades (!).

After the program, Erika started working with a therapist to peel off layer after layer of old destructive patterns to heal the childhood trauma (-s). Writing became an important part of her recovery and healing journey.

In 2012, after 4 years of intense therapy, Erika met the love of her life, the man she married in 2014 and who became the father of their two daughters, born in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Erika attributes the ability to let a stable, kind and generous man into her life, to the life altering work she and her therapist did during all those years.

In 2021 Erika's autobiography "Butterfly" (Swedish: "Kameleontflickan") was published, a book about growing up in a home with substance abuse, violence and sexual promiscuity. It's a book about the survival techniques Erika developed and, more importantly, it is a story about finding love. Love to one's self and love to a partner. Love to life. Love to LIVING life rather than simply existing in it.

Today, Erika is back on stage and in front of the camera. She works as an actress, musical theatre performer and public speaker. When not on stage (or in front of the camera) herself, she works with managers and management teams to get them to speak in public like a stage professional.

Erika is completely healed and does no longer suffer from arthritis, self-harm or eating disorder (-s).

She has started writing her next book, which she plans to finish in 2025 and publish in 2026.