[serious] What is a completely normal thing that you can’t do anymore because of a traumatic event?

Clip my nails down too far because my stepmom used to cut them down so far that I’d start bleeding. -ironically she’s a small Asian woman who’s worked in the nail salon industry for most of her life...
— ShadowJacob

Scuba dive. When I was 12 my family went to Mexico for a vacation. We went on a scuba excursion. My Mom and Dad stayed on the boat while the instructor and about 8 of us went in the water. It was about 15 to 20 feet deep. I was loving it, exploring the reef and looking at the fish when my much older brother turned off my air tank valve and pulled my mask off. I panicked and bolted to the surface. The instructor saw what happened, came up and warned my brother not to do that kind of thing. He calmed me down and we went down again. Within 10 minutes my brother came over and yanked my regulator out of my mouth and pulled my mask off again. When I tried to get to the surface, he held me down for a while. I swallowed water. The instructor yanked him off me and took me to the surface. He then ordered my brother out of the water and refused to allow him back in. By then I was too terrified to reenter the water. The whole rest of the vacation, my parents and brother insulted me for ruining his good time by complaining. To this day, I cannot breathe through a scuba regulator without having massive anxiety. My family and I are pretty distant these days.
— throwaway10qwe

Wear high necklines on clothes, not even turtlenecks, I mean not even touching my throat
— Mollzozz

Vacuum the floor. I have to have all of the doors and windows shut and locked and ZERO background noise. Even then, I stop after every pass to look around to make sure no one is in the house. After my ex-husband and I separated, I was home alone in rural Texas cleaning my house. The kids were at my mom’s. It was a beautiful spring day so I had all of the doors and windows open and I was jamming out and dancing. The next thing I know, I’m being dragged to my bedroom with his hand over my mouth. It took 30 min for me to get away. I still can’t vacuum the floor if I’m home alone.
— maryarlene84

Use the dove body soap with the orange cap. The smell vividly reminds me of a guy that abused me when I was underage because I obsessively and repeatedly tried to scrub myself with it clean after he raped me. When I was a kid, I used to think PTSD flashbacks were an exaggeration. Now I smell that soap and it's like I'm totally gone from the present moment. Like I'm not even there. It's bizarre.
— skyeblu_43

Drive. I was a passenger in a car accident where the skin of my face was peeled back and I touched my own skull. The pulled the skin back and sewed my face back together w out too much damage. The mental scar is still there.
— traceyh415

I flinch any time someone goes to high five me or reach over me or something. I'm very jumpy and even if someone jumps out at me for a joke or even shouts at me, I have a complete adrenaline rush and my fight or flight response kicks in hard. It's become quite embarrassing actually.
— EllipticPeach

Have sexual relations with people or even being touched, like a tap on the shoulder causes pretty severe anxiety for me. Relationships and the like are pretty much out of the cards for me.
— TheTFEF

I was extremely depressed and suicidal during middle and early high school. Listening to music from that time is really difficult. I have a lot of stuff left behind in my old room from around that time, and I can't go through stuff for long without disassociating. I have photos from that time hidden in a separate folder in my computer. It's just been best for me to try and forget those times.
— ukugayle

Sleep with blankets over my face or my face down in the pillow. It’s a fucked story but at like 11 I ended up with verrucas from school swimming lessons. My mum wanted them OUT and instead of working with me and listening to when i was in pain she used nail clippers and a pumice stone to cut them out and shave them away before putting freezing serum on them. Obviously this is PAINFUL and so my dad would sit on me till I couldn’t move while she did it. My family thought this was hilarious and while I was screaming that I couldn’t breathe because my dad was suffocating me they’d cover my face with pillows and laugh about how upset I got. Even my younger sister got involved and my mum would joke and say “get the pillows!” And my fking sister would gleefully hold them over my face. Now when I feel constricted by covers or pillows or breathe that hot air that happens when your under covers I have to rip them off because I start to hyperventilate. They still think it’s hilarious btw, even now I’m older and have explained the trauma it caused.
— LtDeannaTroi

Top 10 Answers