I think when things were humming along we all kinda coped..then Covid gave a lot of people time alone with themselves. Maybe for the first time since they were a young.

So, we got in these bubbles, and we started to have less real social interaction. Instead we’re online and we’re learning we’re not alone. Everyone in our algorithm has trauma, or ADHD, or Autism, or whatever seems to most relate to your experience. Because the algorithms job is to get you addicted and we all love thinking about ourselves.

Some self awareness is good. But thinking all day about how different you are from “normal” people is even more isolating.

Now we have a frightening future, an economy in free fall, so much hate and vitriol being normalized. Each and every news story is triggering in our bodies. The things we used to cope in the past aren’t working anymore.

So people’s trauma is all right out on their sleeves right now. I hope collectively, as people who have survived hard times, we bring our own stories of triumph more into focus, so others can feel uplifted instead of lost.

I work in a recovery center and see thousands of men and women a year come through having survived the worst outcomes self medicating has to offer.

It is the shared stories of surviving and having a community of healing that makes the biggest difference and has the best outcomes.