We love the idea that pain makes us wiser. We glorify the phoenix—ashes, rebirth, glow-up, repeat. But no one talks about what happens when you’ve burned so many times, you stop rising. There’s a moment when trauma stops transforming you. Not because you’re weak, but because your nervous system has built walls so thick that nothing gets in—not even healing. At that point, suffering isn’t medicine anymore. It’s just maintenance. The Numbness of Repetition At first, pain is cat