Acute Normailty Response

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https://open.substack.com/pub/lucywishart/p/acute-normality-response?r=71cs29&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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The Side Effect No One Names

After I was discharged from psychiatric hospital, I didn’t expect to feel so… monitored.

Not by others — by myself.

I was well. I was healing. But somewhere inside, I was also constantly assessing how I came across.

Smiling enough. But not too much.

Keeping a routine. But not too precise.

Folding my clothes. But leaving the dirty pile messy, just enough to appear casual.

Even joy had to be managed.

A walk, a laugh, a moment of delight — all carefully rationed.

Just enough to look “better.”

Not enough to raise eyebrows.

I wasn’t pretending.

I wasn’t lying.

But I was performing wellness — trying to look normal, not too radiant, not too intense, not too free.

Because somewhere deep in my body, I remembered what happened when I was misread.

And I didn’t want to be flagged again.

I’ve come to call this Acute Normality Response.

It’s what happens when you’ve been detained by a system that couldn’t hold your truth — and now you’re shaping yourself to avoid being seen as unwell again.

It’s not recovery.

It’s survival dressed up as stability.

And it’s lonely.

The good news?

It’s curable.

It softens in the presence of truth.

It dissolves when we stop apologising.

It heals when we’re met by people who don’t flinch at clarity, intensity, or expansion.

You’re allowed to be unreadable.

You’re allowed to be radiant.

You’re allowed to be real.

Been there?

You’re not broken. You’re becoming.

And if you’re ready to talk about it — I’m here.

#AcuteNormalityResponse #LivedExperience #Trauma #Healing #RecoveryIsNotAPerformance #WishartWay