There are still tones of voice that make my body choose caution before thought

Dear Delyara, The room changes in one subtle way, someone speaks with sharpness they may not even fully mean, and before I have consciously interpreted anything, my body has already shifted. Smaller voice. Faster explanation. Less spontaneous honesty. More monitoring. I don’t like how quickly that happens. I don’t like how invisible it is to the people around me. And I especially don’t like the tiredness afterward, when I realise I have once again spent part of myself surviving a room that no one else thought required survival.