As I later learned, I was sacrificing my authentic self in order to receive love from my caretakers, and acceptance from my community — a damaging form of emotional repression and trauma.

Unresolved trauma runs us, on a subconscious level — like malware running in the background of our central processing unit — subtly (or not so subtly) influencing every decision we make, every reaction to stimuli, and yes, even our thoughts, beliefs, and actions.