I've been thinking about the framing of being trapped lately. I started thinking about it because of the tech downturn. A couple years ago, there were lots of chances to change jobs if you were a software engineer. Now the executive class has decided you can't. If you're in a bad spot after the carousel has stopped, you're probably going to be there for a while.
This framing is not inaccurate. We can't say it's not true.
However, I think it feels worse if you're not aware of it. If you are trapped but don't really think about it, it's rough. You get the bad feeling of being trapped without being able to move on. It's just "I feel trapped!" over and over again. If you say "I am trapped", maybe you get to move on to whatever mental state prisoners get to after the first few years of prison.