'I found myself reading a paragraph over and over again without understanding a word of it. Or, if I actually managed to read and understand anything, I was mentally fatigued after just a few pages.'
- Sian Ferguson https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-illness-and-reading#10

This was happening to me, a lifelong bookworm, a writer, a lover of literature. I felt useless. Awful. Out of touch with the bookish person I always thought I was. It wasn’t just that I struggled to read, it’s that I struggled to enjoy it.

Who could enjoy such a monumentally difficult task? - Sian Ferguson

In my case, I felt like a fraud — someone who claimed to love reading and writing, but in reality, couldn’t read more than a few pages a day. The books I bought and never read sat on my shelf, taunting me - Sian Ferguson

“Trauma absolutely affects cognitive ability, concentration, our ability to learn, and yes, even our ability to read,” says Alyssa Williamson, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma. - Sian Ferguson

When we sense danger, our body prepares us to go into flight, flight, or freeze mode so we can protect ourselves from danger. At that moment, the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of our brain responsible for reading, math, and other deep-thinking tasks, is put on pause

Reading is a higher-function activity and one that requires us to allow ourselves to be absorbed in the mind of another in order to ‘receive’ their communication,” says Mark Vahrmeyer, an integrative psychotherapist.