Stephanie Foo, What My Bones Know: A Memoir Of Healing From Complex Trauma

Arthur Rimbaud (b. 20 October 1854)

Whether you feel like you've missed the chapter or the whole manual, keep doing you. Those people don't know the things you may think they know. And you're much better off being on your current path. At least you're getting to know you for who you are.

Having a traumatic childhood means you cannot talk even objectively about your basic foundational experiences without it being "venting", even if you're not actually venting. You just straight up have a huge chunk of your life you can't talk about, full stop, without it being trauma dumping.

And it not being socially acceptable to talk about your own childhood is super alienating. Sometimes people want to know why, and any answer you can give them is going to be off putting.

It's to the point I get irritated when something I said is framed as venting when I'm literally just talking about my life experiences, doing my best to keep emotion out of it.

work in progress

self-flagellation and self-bullying are all bad motivators for change BTW. it can be hard to escape from a spiral but genuinely u have to be nice to urself or nothing will change

toastedbyeli

Grief in Three Bodies: A Conversation by Victoria Chang, Prageeta Sharma & Khaty Xiong