Afterward, there is the shame. The cold washcloth on the neck. The apology you do not owe anyone. You will be told you are too much . But in the quiet echo of the room, after the shaking stops, you know a secret: Hysteria is not a flaw. It is the language of a body that finally refused to lie.
Then it drops into the chest, where it nests between the ribs. It has no name yet. The doctors would call it wandering womb , an old ghost of a diagnosis, as if the body’s own longing could be a kind of demon. But you know better. It is simply the truth that would not fit into the silence. Hysteria
The attack, when it comes, is not a collapse. It is a clarity . Afterward, there is the shame