Since former President Donald Trump left office in January, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has been on the quieter side.
Recently, she spoke out about why.
She’s going to therapy.
Speaking with the radio show Latino USA, Ocasio-Cortez said that after Trump’s time in office and the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill, she needed a break.
“I’m doing therapy but also I’ve just slowed down,” she said. “I think the Trump administration had a lot of us, especially Latino communities, in a very reactive mode.”
She was encouraged by a fellow “Squad” member to “recognize trauma” and seek mental help.
“After the 6th, I took some time and it was really Ayanna Pressley when I explained to her what happened to me,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “Because I ran to her office and she was like, ‘You need to recognize trauma.'”
Ocasio-Cortez says she had never learned how to identify trauma and found out the hard way by repressing the death of her father in her youth.
“That happened at a young age and I locked it away,” she explained. “You have to live with it for years.”
According to the Breitbart report, Ocasio-Cortez said that her and fellow lawmakers in Congress basically “served in war” by being in session when the riot happened.
CBS reports that more than 400 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol Hill incident.
The Horn editorial team