For a woman, at the border, the sense that no one can comprehend the extent and intensity of her suffering is an understandable consequence of the sense of never having been known. She is saying to those around her, not ‘I want you to suffer as I have suffered,’ but “it is through my pain you shall know me.’
from Blood Math by Peggy Phelan and Adrian Heathfield
from The Pain Scale by Eula Biss
The Black Hole of Trauma by Bessel A. Van der Kolk: and Alexander C. McFarlane
Ariel Glucklich from Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul
The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture by Elaine Showalter
Nick Flynn from Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
Trauma impels people both to withdraw from close relationships and to seek them desperately. The profound disruption in basic trust, the common feelings of shame, guilt, and inferiority, and the need to avoid reminders of the trauma that might be found in social life, all foster withdrawal from close relationships. But the terror of the traumatic event intensifies the need for protective attachments. The traumatized person therefore frequently alternates between isolation and anxious clinging to others. […] It results in the formation of intense, unstable relationships that fluctuate between extremes.
Emma Hyche from Corpse Logic in Entropy
the tunnels!
Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted
Little Bristling Soul 