A lifetime a go I read Platos Allegory of the Cave. At the time I was 19, a know it all and I took it to mean I could see the world in a way other people couldn’t. I went out and got a tattoo. The reality was I was an autistic kid even more confused about reality than the average person. I went through live growing, but always so worried about my masking slipping. Then they would find out? As I got older I got a little bit better at it, stopped panic attacks but my frame of the world was largely the same. Kind of like being in a country where you did not speak the language. I found my Wife though, and I had one place I could mostly be myself. My entire world was shattered. It forced me to step out of myself and reframe everything. I recently learned that was “Ego” death can happen with Trauma, dying before dying. I largely look at the before with a distance that feels like a different person. The reason I wrote all this, is I found myself also largely looking for a voice because it felt like I finally understood the Allegory of the Cave, and could give people a perspective. But still not really sure what the platform for that is, so I have focused on every little thing I can do to help.