And the cruelest part, the part I still have to work to forgive myself for, is that it works from the inside.

By the end I was not just being told I was overreacting.

I was telling myself.

I had become my own most reliable doubter, finishing their sentences, apologizing for my fear before anyone asked me to.

Learning that this had a name, that it was a real and studied and common thing and not a private failure of my character, was the beginning of getting my mind back.

I had not been weak.