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7 Insensitive Things People Say (Without Knowing) That Belittle Your Trauma Experience

Protect your peace when it happens.

Victor Mong
9 min readOct 11, 2024
Photo by Larm Rmah on Unsplash

Trauma is deeply personal. It’s not just about what happened to you—it’s about how it changed you, how it still affects your life today.

But far too often, when you open up about your trauma, some people say things that minimize your experience. They think they’re being helpful or offering perspective, but what they’re really doing is invalidate your pain.

The worst part is they often don’t even realize they’re doing it.

They make comments that sound innocent on the surface, but on a deeper level, they belittle your trauma and make you feel even more isolated.

Here are 7 mostly insensitive things people say that belittle your trauma experiences.

“You Should Be Over That By Now.”

One of the most common and insensitive things anyone can say is that you should have “moved on” by now.

It’s a comment that seems to suggest that there’s a timeline for how long you’re allowed to feel pain, and once that time is up, your trauma is no longer valid.

But trauma doesn’t work like that.

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Victor Mong
Victor Mong

Written by Victor Mong

I write about human potential, building a life you want & mastering your mind || info.victormong@gmail.com

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