The Fear of Joy: When Happiness Feels Like a Betrayal
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The Fear of Joy: When Happiness Feels Like a Betrayal
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About this listen
Can joy be terrifying? For many trauma survivors, the answer is yes.
In this deeply reflective episode of Numbness Paralysis – The PTSD Podcast, host Olga Costa gently explores the strange and tender space where joy and grief meet. When you've lived through Complex PTSD, emotional numbness, or loss, happiness can feel like a betrayal — of those you lost, of the pain you endured, or of the safety your nervous system has learned to crave in stillness.
Through poetic metaphors, real-life vignettes, and somatic tools, this episode offers a compassionate exploration of why joy often arrives hand-in-hand with guilt, anxiety, or tears. Learn how to recognize micro-joys, build a dialogue between Joy and Guilt, and create space for both grief and celebration in your healing.
This isn’t about forcing yourself to be happy. It’s about letting yourself trust joy… gently, slowly, without shame.
Because you deserve more than survival. You deserve to live — with presence, softness, and permission to feel it all.
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Next up: When Touch Feels Unsafe — reclaiming your body after trauma.