Kate Woodsome

 As the psychotherapist Resmaa Menakem teaches, over time, a person’s trauma can look like personality. Growing angry with the banal. Insomnia. Drinking. Scanning everywhere for threats. Maybe this is simply how you are. Or maybe you’re tying your shoes with broken fingers.

“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation,” the late bell hooks wrote. “Healing is an act of communion.” I now bond with others who know healing from trauma is nonlinear. And a year later, I’m making friends with my nervous system, which still sometimes fires false alarms. “Thanks for trying to protect me,” I tell it. “I don’t need you right now. But I know you’ll be there when I do.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/05/jan-6-journalist-psychological-trauma/