How Trauma Steals Your Voice (and How to Find It Again)
3 years following a C-PTSD diagnosis, here’s what I’ve learned so far
“In this bleak abyss the key is to not be afraid, because fear, though inevitable, only compounds the awful feeling of being lost.” — Esmé Weijun Wang
In the original version of “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Anderson, the Little Mermaid makes a deal with a sea witch to exchange her voice for a pair of human legs.
According to the witch, if the Little Mermaid can go to land and convince the prince to marry her, then she’ll gain a human soul that will live on forever. If the prince refuses to marry her, she’ll die and become seafoam, as all soulless merpeople do.
The deal allows the Little Mermaid to dance, run, and walk on land among the humans, but each step sends shooting pain up her legs. Without her voice, she can’t speak her truth or ask for what she needs.
Although she looks human, the Little Mermaid is still, deep down, a fish out of water.
That’s how it feels to live with complex post-traumatic stress disorder: Surreal, painful, and isolating.
