E
Echo
@kahlan - I do understand; I've held it all in for decades too. So much is pre-verbal and there were no words. So much from childhood when there was no understanding, then over 30 years since my last rape. All held inside; all too dangerous to remember or vocalise where I could. Now that I've finally written to my parents after a year of PTSD and having to speak for some months to a therapist, the reaction to my letter means that I'm closing down again. In the last few days I can feel me forcing my emotions into a tiny pea-shaped ball in my heart. And I am becoming rigid and emotionally blank. When the pain is too great and the reception so dangerous, it's what we have learned to do to try to be safe.