avatarK.B. Silver

Summary

The text describes the author's experience with the painful repercussions of sharing their traumatic past, the loss of relationships, and the distinction between being crazy and broken.

Abstract

The author, K.B. Silver, reflects on the isolating experience of revealing a traumatic past, which often leads to social ostracism. Despite the personal cost, the author emphasizes their resilience and survival in the face of adversity. They draw a clear line between the states of being 'crazy' and 'broken,' with brokenness representing an irreversible shattering of one's being, while craziness is perceived as a contagious condition by those who retreat from the author's pain. The text underscores the importance of genuine support and the hurt caused by fair-weather friends who offer help but withdraw it when confronted with the darkness of the author's experiences.

Opinions

  • The author feels that sharing their traumatic experiences leads to being socially marked and alienated.
  • There is a perception that those who have lived through trauma are somehow infectious with their 'craziness.'
  • The author is critical of those who claim to offer support but abandon them when their presence is most needed.
  • The text conveys a strong sense of self-reliance and the ability to cope with trauma independently.
  • The author expresses a resolve to no longer trust those who have shown themselves to be unreliable in their support.

Blind Ear

Photo by Damon Hall on Unsplash

I know that speaking the terrifying words of sickly truth about a past too ugly and damaging even to remember paints a dripping red letter on my back. I’ve had to look into the eyes of smiling faces, watching them turn to empty stares that never smile at me the same way again. I’ve watched the backs of people I called friends disappear into the blurry summer night never to be seen or spoken of again. As if knowing is the same thing as having to have fucking lived it. They shy away, hurt like a wounded animal, slinking off and whimpering like they can’t stand it. I may be wounded but I am surviving. I have been blending, and dodging, blocking and running my whole life. There is a big difference between crazy and broken. Broken is being smashed onto the floor and having all the shards swept to the corners of the room, with some of them shoved down the vents, and tossed out windows into the yard, so you can never be glued back together. Crazy is thinking the haunting destruction that has decimated my life will somehow leap from my veins and also take you out. Just leave if things are too overwhelmingly dark, don’t say you are waiting with your hand out, only to run at the last second as I reach for it in desperate need of support. Calling out for help as if you were assailed in the dark. Yours is the last hand I ever reach forwards to. I will never again be sent sprawling onto my face, left with no means to evade my fate, my mind is always prepared to execute a solo escape.

K.B. Silver

~~KEEP SCROLLING TO COMPLETELY READ~~

Prose Poem
Freewrite
Ostracism
Trauma
Scuzzbucket
Recommended from ReadMedium
avatarNolcha Fox
I’m From

A poem

1 min read