I freeze in moments other people call normal

Dear Delyara, The thing about trauma is that it can make ordinary situations feel emotionally loaded in a way that looks disproportionate from the outside. A tone. A sharp movement. A room with the wrong kind of tension in it. A conversation turning too quickly. And suddenly my body is no longer in the present with the same confidence as everyone else’s seems to be. I hate how invisible that is. I hate that freeze looks so much like calm to people who don’t know what they’re seeing.