Hey,
Welcome to the Salted Veins community.
You’ve accidentally (or fatefully) walked into our first ever blog.
Take a seat. Grab a coffee. Or something stronger, we don’t judge.
WARNING: This isn’t a soft pastel self-love post. This conversation contains lived experiences and direct language. If it feels triggering, pause. Breathe. Come back when you’re ready.
Now.
Let’s get into it.
Has your inner voice ever suddenly screamed
“RUNnnnn.”
“HIDEeee.”
“KILL ITttt.”
Has your body ever reacted before your logic could catch up. A flinch, a freeze, a shock-like reflex that made no sense in the moment.
Do self-reflection.
How often does it happen?
It happens because the body remembers. Those mind-bending responses are not random. They are echoes of unwanted touch, over abusive words, insults disguised as “feedback” or comments framed as “just jokes”. Trauma caused by these does not only create a psychological wound, but It also creates a biological one. Altering your memory, perception, and stress regulation.
Many women and young kids experience immoral events that alter them for a lifetime. The verbal abuse you endured in childhood or in the workplace doesn’t evaporate with time.
You might consciously forget it. Your body doesn’t.
The body-shaming comments that follow you like a shadow do not disappear after one “confidence era.” They linger in posture, in hesitation, in the way you enter a room. It contributes to chronic dieting, binge restricted cycles, and full-blown eating disorders. Starvation, over-exercise, purging, obsessive control are not vanity issues. They are trauma responses. They are attempts to gain control in a world that makes the body feel unsafe.
An unwanted touch can leave you feeling invaded long after it’s over like something is crawling under your skin, like invisible fingerprints that won’t fade, like you need to scrub yourself clean, but nothing really washes it off. A quiet disgust settles in. Your body grows hyper-aware, scanning rooms, calculating exits, flinching at sudden closeness. You may crave intimacy and fear it at the same time. Slowly, it seeps into relationships. You pull away, freeze when you want to speak, tolerate what makes you uncomfortable because conflict feels more dangerous than silence. Not because you are broken, but because your nervous system learned that closeness can equal threat.
As a result, your unconscious mind tells you to suppress triggers to tolerate disrespect, meet unrealistic standards, silence anger just to belong, that suppression becomes chronic stress. And eventually, the body “says no”. Sometimes it says "no" through panic, through dissociation, through chronic fatigue and through illness. Your body may distance itself from certain environments. Your muscles may tighten without permission.
At first your mind will warn you and later your body reacts. This isn’t dramatic. It’s neurological.
Not to frighten you but unacknowledged trauma has been linked to autoimmune disorders, heart disease, chronic pain conditions, and even increased cancer risk. The body absorbs what society refuses to confront. You cannot blame yourself for these responses. They were induced upon you through patriarchal conditioning. From ages we are being told:
“Don’t be angry.”
“Don’t be loud.”
“Your body is wrong.”
“Endure quietly.”
Many women and young people fall victim to abuse daily, verbal, physical and psychological. Society uses its voice to dictate our value through body shaming and assumes a God-given right to be abusive both verbally and physically. And yet it refuses to acknowledge the biological cost. The body remembers it all. It takes it to the grave.
This creates internalized shame. Chronic muscle tension. Nervous system dysregulation. A disconnection from self. Eventually, self-worth erodes. If you relate to any of this. Pause. Acknowledge it. Seek help. Therapy, somatic work or medical support. None of it is a weakness.
By the time the flame extinguishes, the body has already carried the burn for years.
So, the next time you feel tempted to touch without consent, body shame, belittle, or “joke” at someone’s expense, remember that you may be leaving a mark that outlives your sentence.
Our brooch, “The Bare Bust,” exists as a reminder of the same. A reminder of what the body endures. A visible refusal to shrink.
References
- Van Der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.
- Maté, G. (2003). When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress.
- Maté, G. (2022). The Myth of Normal.
- Pasque, L. S. (2023). The Lingering Effects of Sexual Trauma.
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