About Contraumia
[ID] A 7 stripe flag split down the middle, with an octagon icon in the middle turned on one of its points and containing an x symbol. The stripe colors are light beige, white, violet, desaturated dark red, then violet, white, and light beige. The other half of the flag is the same, except the colors are darker, as if cast in shadow. The middle symbol is a white octagon outlined in the same desaturated dark red, and the x inside is the same color. [End]
Contraumia are identities which one are not and/or cannot be, but find themselves drawn to due to traumatic experiences. This is a vague term, able to refer to identities one wishes that they had, identities one heavily connects to, identities one has shared symptoms with, identities one keeps intrusively thinking they have despite not, and more.
Contraumia was created as a way to express these feelings without being forced under the transid label. People with contraumia do not actually believe they “should be” these things or want to transition into them. They acknowledge the feeling is a result of their trauma but still wish to identify with it.
-----
Flag Meaning:
Beige - Simple and generic. A representation of not actually being what the contraumia refers to.
White - The divide between feelings and truth.
Violet - Mental illness and divergence.
Red - Trauma and its effects.
Octagon - Inspired by hex bolts (inspired by lightning bolts being the disability icon), but changed because many flags already use hexagons.
X Symbol - Represents acceptance of being not what the contraumia refers to.
Split Design - In derived flags, the shadowed half will instead be a representation of what the contraumia refers to. In this case, the shadow represents the effects trauma has on one’s perception of self.
-----
- Q: Do I need to be traumatized to have contraumia?
To put it simply, if you have feelings like this, you probably are traumatized in some form (these feelings are extremely common for neglect victims). That said, people with delusions are free to use contraumia for IDs they have delusions about being, as there is a lot of overlap.
- Q: Are contraumia ableist/racist/etc.?
Under some circumstances, yes.
While it’s a rather broad term, one of the reasons someone may ID as a contraumia is because they don’t feel like what they experienced was “bad enough”, or they have some conception that people would be more willing to take care of them if they were that thing, or that they deserve the kind of perception people who are that get. This is both internalized and external ableism.
It’s also the intent of the ID. Contraumia are about realizing these feelings are not logical or true, very possibly objectifying, bigoted, or otherwise harmful, and accepting them as that. The first step to dealing with anything is accepting that it exists.
People who identify with contraumia should not be judged for it, as the label itself implies that they are working through the feelings.
- Q: Why make this an ID? Can’t people work through this sort of thing without making it part of them?
They can. However, this isn’t an ID because it needs to be, it’s an ID as an alternative to transid. Transid gathers a lot of people who have these feelings, and contraumia exists as a different perspective which promotes healing instead of doubling-down.
In that vein, sometimes having a label, a symbol, and seeing other people say it too, can be helpful in accepting these things.
