When Recovery Becomes a Performance
- lucywishart7
- Dec 18, 2025
- 1 min read
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New piece now live on Medium
There’s a side effect of psychiatric hospital that rarely gets named.
Not the medication.
Not the diagnosis.
Not the discharge process.
But what happens after — when you’re technically “better,” but still carefully curating your every move.
It’s a trauma response that looks like wellness.
Smiles timed just right.
Clothes folded just right.
Joy rationed into something digestible.
Not too messy. Not too regulated.
Just normal enough to avoid concern.
In my latest piece on Medium, I explore what I call Acute Normality Response — the subtle, exhausting performance of appearing “well” after you’ve been inside the system.
It’s the part of recovery that looks fine from the outside…
but feels like surveillance on the inside.
This piece is for anyone who’s ever felt the pressure to prove they’re safe.
To pass as palatable.
To never again be misunderstood.
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