You (or someone) is burning out, self-sabotaging, or destroying a part of themselves to escape, and you want to name what the destruction actually costs.

The contrapasso here is stark: "Men once we were, and now are changed to trees." The ones who discarded their bodies never get them back — no human form, no human voice; they only speak when their branches are broken, bleeding words and blood together. The logic holds in life: the part of yourself you destroy to escape the pain is the part you lose the use of. Self-destruction is sold as an ending, but it's really a conversion. The self doesn't vanish. It becomes a thing.