Translation Tax is the emotional and cognitive toll of converting your internal experience into socially acceptable, digestible language – just to be heard or supported. It’s the cost of needing to pre-translate your pain, needs, or truth into a form others can receive without discomfort.
Before support can begin, you must do the work to make yourself legible. That work is the tax.
Often paid by:
- Neurodivergent individuals
- Trauma survivors
- Disabled people navigating medical systems
- Anyone in a relational mismatch with their environment
Why it matters:
Translation Tax isn’t just inconvenient — it’s exhausting. It delays help, punishes honesty, and burdens the already-struggling. The more foreign your experience is to the dominant framework, the higher the tax.