I’ve never been officially diagnosed with PTSD, but sometimes it feels like I carry it in my body anyway. I wrote this to try and put that feeling into words.
Sometimes I think I was born without skin. I react to every sound, smell, glance. I can’t go to a coffee shop if the chairs make that squeaking noise. I have to carry earplugs just to survive a flight.
People call me too sensitive. Neurotic. Dramatic. But I feel like I’ve seen too much. Felt too much. My nervous system isn’t overreacting — it’s remembering.
When I was little, I could hear my mother’s anger even when she was smiling. I could sense tension in the room before anyone said a word. I learned to survive by noticing everything. And now I can’t turn it off.
Sometimes I wish I could. I wish I could walk through this world with thicker skin. But I can’t. So I try to make space inside myself for all that I feel.
That’s my way of surviving now.
Comments
I think this might be my first post here.
This is so beautifully written and deeply relatable. The way you described your nervous system “remembering” really hit home it’s not an overreaction, it’s a survival response. Thank you for sharing something so personal. You’re not alone in feeling this way.
Wow, thank you for putting this into words — this really hit home for me. The way you describe carrying that sensitivity, like being born without skin, feels so familiar. It’s not being “too sensitive,” it’s having a body that remembers what the mind tries to move past. That hyper-awareness isn’t weakness — it’s survival. Learned in silence. Honed in chaos.
You’re not alone in this. I see you. And I think it’s incredibly powerful that you’re finding ways to make space for your feelings instead of fighting them. That in itself is a kind of strength most people don’t even recognize.
Thank you again for sharing this. It made me feel less alone.
Try mushrooms, start slow, they have done wonders for my PTSD, the first few months were hard because of the trauma processing, but the healing has been great and now I function much better, I regularly dose to keep things balanced.
DMT is a game changer as well, but can be intense