As a complex trauma survivor, a lot of this landed strangely with me. “Don’t make trauma my identity.” “Consider when to disclose.” Ok, I grew up in an abusive home, I was sent to a homeless shelter via taxi as a teenager, I was homeless for three years, I’ve been involuntarily committed more times than I can count (ditto rape), I’m a drug war survivor, I’m an eating disorder survivor, I have every “serious” mental illness label under the sun, I no longer speak to my family and am gaslit because of it, I was kicked out of a fully funded PhD because I was too traumatized to work..like how does that not become an identity? Today, I’m a drug user and anti-psychiatry activist and am trained in medical sociology. Everything I’ve done is in direct response to my trauma. Does that make my life sad? Should I have somehow transcended all of that and become an interior decorator? Trust me, if doing so were possible, I would love to. But framing those who embody their trauma and must disclose it to live as somehow less evolved is dismissive.