I also grew up with the pain of being systematically dehumanized by boys at schoolfor more than a decade because I was a fat girl.

This is not to mention all the violence that comes with surviving sexism and racism; this violence is so deeply entrenched in my daily life it takes effort to analyze its potency sometimes.

Each of these experiences has shaped me in a unique way, yet they all map onto each other seamlessly.

I mean, this week I couldn’t accurately tell which part of my history was making me rage out…

Your trauma brain is definitely up and alert — hypervigilance is what that’s called. It’s a symptom of PTSD and it is what keeps trauma survivors safe in a lot of ways and situations — but later on it can definitely interfere with moving forward.

Read more here.