The Prison Without Bars: A Different Kind of Escape
Some prisons have no walls. No bars. No guards. No door you can rattle or lock you can pick. Just words — repeated often enough, by someone close enough, until those words become the voice inside your head. Until you stop questioning them. Until you start believing them. If you have ever felt consistently confused after conversations with someone you love. If you have ever walked away from an interaction feeling smaller than when you walked in. If you have ever found yourself endlessly apologizing without quite knowing what you did wrong — you may already know what this kind of prison feels like from the inside. ...