When we hear the word “entrapment” it is usually used in a legal context when the police lure an individual into doing something that they could ultimately be prosecuted for.  Entrapment can also denote other things such as an employer who lays traps for employees to trip over so they can be written up by superiors or steps taken to fire a particular employee.  For the purpose of this article, the focus will be on “self-entrapment” which can be much worse than being entrapped by the police or small minded employers.

What do I mean by self entrapment?  Our minds can be like prisons.  Often times we convince ourselves other people’s impressions of us and living up to those expectations is more important than who we truly are.  The only crime involved in self-entrapment is the inability to become aware of one’s own innate potential and become the blossoming flowers we were meant to be.

The inability to accept our realities can muddy up our individual perception.  Often times we entrap ourselves into thinking we are of lesser value than our fellow human beings.  We begin to lock ourselves into limits only created in the mind, thus ultimately creating feelings of loneliness, self-pity and anger.  Destructive thoughts and behavior then simply become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Living in the closet epitomizes the definition of self-entrapment.  We deny our reality of who we truly are.  We live within a façade of lies interwoven into what is real.  We become so enmeshed in our fear of what other people will think of us that we construct a separate world apart from the internal truth of who we are.  We entrap ourselves in a bubble of self denial and in the extreme case, self-destruction by suicide.

Decide to break the shackles of your self-entrapment.  Break free from your self-imposed prison.  Remove the roadblocks that are depriving you of your internal balance.  Look in the mirror and make a decision that the person staring back at you is worth fighting for.

Nurture your true potential by putting yourself in situations and amongst other like minded individuals that can help you realize that your self-entrapment, your self-imposed prison, is just a veneer of mistruth keeping you from being the best you that you can be as an out and proud LGBTQ individual.