There’s a concept in psychology called learned helplessness, studied by Martin Seligman. Dogs were placed in cages where they received mild electric shocks. At first, they tried to escape. But when escape wasn’t possible, they eventually stopped trying. Even when the door was later opened… they stayed. That’s the part that stays with me. Because trauma can do something similar. You reach for safety and it’s not there. You try to leave, to change things, to be heard—and it doesn’t work. After enough of that, something in you learns: nothing I do matters. So when the door finally opens… your body doesn’t move. Not because you’re weak. Because you learned it wasn’t real. Healing, for me, hasn’t been about forcing myself to run. It’s been about slowly teaching my system: the door is real now.