Some traumas don’t get erased overnight. Some traumas sneak up on you months later, disguised as a notification, a feed, or an algorithm trying to “help” you.

Take me, for example. Last year, dating apps broke me. Completely. I didn’t even know that level of existential dread was possible between swipes, bios, and unread messages. Fast forward 10 months, I’m healed, mostly zen, living my best life… and yet if I see a conversation about dating apps pop up on my Instagram FYP? Block. Instantly. No mercy. No second thought. Even though I meticulously hid every keyword in my settings, the universe (or Instagram) keeps testing me.

Here’s the thing: healing isn’t linear. You can do all the shadow work, emotional purging, inner-child cuddling, and self-love rituals, and still – still – flinch when the world reminds you of past messes. And that’s okay.

Trauma doesn’t always live in the present; sometimes it’s a ghost in the algorithms, lurking behind a trending reel or a hashtag. You’ve moved on, you’ve integrated, you’ve leveled up… but your nervous system is like, “Nope. Not today.” And you honor that. You block, you scroll, you turn the page, you sip your coffee.

Avoiding triggers months later isn’t weakness. It’s self-preservation. It’s saying: “I survived that. I’m not letting it sneak up on me again.” And the funny part? Sometimes the universe tests you just to see if you really meant it when you said, “I’m done.”

Healing is doing your work, loving yourself, and still having the grace to block a post about dating apps in 2025 because… trauma. And hey, sometimes self-love is as simple as saying no to things that remind you of last year’s chaos.