What it is
Moral injury is the distress that comes from doing, failing to stop, or witnessing something that violates your own deep values. The term grew out of work with soldiers, notably by the psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, but it applies far beyond war: in hospitals, in families, in jobs that ask you to do things you can’t square with yourself.
It’s different from fear-based trauma. The core feeling isn’t danger. It’s guilt, shame, or a broken trust in yourself or in the people in charge.
How it shows up for me
In 2025 I said out loud, “I just realized that I’m morally afflicted. That’s my problem.” Some of what I’d carried for years wasn’t fear at all. It was the weight of choices I made to survive that didn’t match who I wanted to be. Naming it let me start making amends instead of just feeling bad.