"The reason your brain is on overdrive right now is because someone, or some people, hurt you so much that your mind is now programmed to believe that you are the cause of your own pain just because it appears on your own skin and trickles down from your own eyes. I want to tell them how much of me they've destroyed, how many bricks they've pulled from my foundations. I want to tell them how much they've scarred me, emotionally and physically, how their name was on my mind when I etched shameful marks onto my skin.

You want to tell them, "Look, you've broken me. Now fix me."

But you never really get the chance or courage to face them again, to tell them in their face that they've fucked you up so so bad. It gets to a point where you're just so afraid of being hurt again that you leave your heart in shards on the floor and cordon it off with insecurities, so that no one will find it and break it to even smaller pieces that cut twice as painfully."

- Deborah Lee