The Overblown Language of the Modern Victim

An ironic take on how everyone, everywhere, is always in a state of collapse.

Once upon a time, in the quaint land of Reasonable Emotional Responses, someone could have a bad day and just call it “a bad day.” Maybe they’d say, “I’m a little off,” or “Things didn’t go my way.” They’d shrug. Maybe eat a donut. Pet a dog. Call it Tuesday.

But that era is dead and buried.

Welcome to the golden age of emotional hyperbole, where no inconvenience goes unlabeled, no rejection is too small to escape the trauma-industrial complex, and no person simply feels—they suffer.

Language Level: Catastrophe.

We used to say we were “busy.” That was real. Now? We are overwhelmed, depleted, burned out, and cognitively paralyzed. We don’t go to bed early anymore—we “crash from emotional overload.” We don’t lose our keys—we spiral into “executive dysfunction brought on by environmental chaos.” That’s right. A messy kitchen is a result of ADHD, or a legitimized self-diagnosed psychiatric disorder.

It’s not that you forgot your friend’s birthday. You were dysregulated due to complex trauma from generational patterns that were activated by an internalized microaggression during that Zoom call you didn’t want to be on anyway.

We’re all just out here trying to breathe in a world that apparently exists only to wound us.

Minor Event? Major Identity.

The victim dialect is now the dominant tongue. You don’t just have feelings anymore—you are your feelings. And not the pleasurable ones. We’re not talking "happy" or "content." No, no. You’re shattered, triggered, devastated, and exiled. These days, even being “offended” is passé. Now, you're “deeply harmed” by someone’s tone. Their tone.

You were once "dumped." Now, you were emotionally violated and discarded. A former friend didn’t call back? That’s relational abandonment. Your boss gave feedback? That’s corporate gaslighting.

Being left on “read” by a romantic interest? Prepare a dissertation on attachment wounding, emotional starvation, and textual ghosting as psychological warfare.

It’s not just that something happened. It’s that something happened to you, and your experience—elevated, inflated, and captioned in grayscale—is now Exhibit A in your ongoing personal documentary: Survivor of Literally Everything.

Therapy-Speak for the Masses

Let’s be clear. The spread of therapy-speak isn’t the problem. Language evolves. Self-awareness is good. But somewhere between “I’m setting a boundary” and “I’m removing toxic energies from my life,” we all became PR reps for our own nervous systems.

Now, instead of saying “I don’t want to hang out with you,” we say “I need to honour my bandwidth.” Instead of admitting “I made a mistake,” we say “I was in a trauma response.” Nobody ghosts anymore. They "energetically withdraw to reclaim autonomy."

We’ve weaponized wellness terms to avoid adult conversations. Accountability? That’s for people who aren’t “healing.”

It’s not that you were rude—it’s that you were “activated.” It’s not that you ignored someone—it’s that you were “in a freeze state.” It’s not that you messed up—it’s that you “did what you needed to survive.”

You see, it’s not your fault. It’s your inner child. Or your inner teen. Or your past-life ancestral wound that hasn’t fully metabolized the eclipse season of 2013.

Pathologize All the Things!

Gone are the days when people were simply shy, distracted, disorganized, or sad. Now, we are socially phobic, neurodivergent, executively dysfunctional, and clinically despondent.

Don’t get me wrong—some people are all of these things. But the diagnostic inflation we’re seeing makes the 2008 housing bubble look like a nap. Every quirk, habit, mood, or passing emotional gust must now be filed under a DSM-coded identity and shared on Instagram with a caption like “My ADHD Depression Anxiety Bipolar Healing Journey 🌿✨.”

You don’t just dislike Mondays. You suffer from existential fatigue rooted in the trauma of late-stage capitalism.

You don’t forget to drink water. You disassociate from your body due to survival-based coping mechanisms. You don’t cancel plans because you’re feeling a bit lazy. You experience situational collapse due to an overwhelmed nervous system.

And we lap it up, because who doesn’t want their daily stress validated with a Latin-sounding acronym?

The Currency of Collapse

Let’s face it: being a victim sells. It gets likes, sympathy, followers, book deals. It gets you out of jury duty and into group chats titled “Healing Babes Only 💗.” In a world where everyone wants to be seen, pain is the new influencer aesthetic. Vulnerability is monetized. Suffering is SEO-optimized.

And if you don’t constantly post about your inner turmoil, are you even doing the work?

We've turned suffering into a status symbol. “I cried in yoga today” isn’t a breakdown anymore—it’s a badge of honour. “I’m literally shaking” is no longer cause for concern, but a performance cue.

The Problem with Being Perpetually Wounded

Here’s the twist: all this theatrical distress, all this perfectly curated brokenness—it’s exhausting. Not in the real way, but in the I-don’t-have-the-energy-to-keep-up-with-your-nervous-system’s-personality way.

Because once you cast yourself as the victim, you’re forever in the waiting room of your own life—waiting for the apology, the validation, the external solution to your internal state.

And heaven forbid someone suggest you’re capable of more. That’s “invalidating your lived experience,” which, as we know, is a cardinal sin right after not using someone’s preferred emojis.

Isn't it Time to Stop Being in the Grip of the Victim Archetype?

Now, before someone claims this article personally triggered their abandonment wound from that time in third grade when they weren’t picked for dodgeball, relax. Irony is a love language, too.

Feel your feelings. Seriously. Just maybe don’t brand every pang of awkwardness or discomfort as a psychospiritual rupture. Sometimes, your boss isn’t gaslighting you. Sometimes, you're just late.

Sometimes, you're not traumatized. You're not a victim. You’re just human and acting from your victim archetype.

And sometimes? You’re not overwhelmed. You’re just out of snacks and need a nap.

And in the famous words of Wayne Dyer, "Choose not to be offended."

Wayne Dyer advocated that not being offended is a choice, a way of exercising control over one's feelings and choosing peace regardless of external circumstances, emphasizing that "that which offends you only weakens you". He suggested that seeking to be offended is a drain on energy and that "feeling hurt or offended does not mean getting angry or striking back". Instead, he encouraged focusing on inner peace and self-fulfillment, highlighting that "when you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended".