Healing Wounds
I haven't been around much but I have been working on healing myself. But I wanted to share something that really made a difference for me. I was talking to a therapist and they told me:
"Trauma is the greek word for wound. Like physical wounds emotional wounds need time to heal. When you keep picking at and opening up a physical wound it can't heal and may even become infected. Same idea applies for emotional wounds."
This just really made me realize that one of the biggest reasons I have't been able to heal from my trauma is because I was constantly being exposed to triggers that reopened the wounds time and time again. This summer I made the decision to move, and I have finally moved and am in a new state and I have done more healing in less than 2 months than I have in 5 years of therapy in the city that caused all of my trauma.
Something a friend sent me yesterday said: "you can not heal in the same environment that made you sick"
I feel incredibly lucky that I was able to escape the environment that was making me sick and I know it's not possible for everyone, but I do really believe these statements because of the difference I have seen. I just wanted to share this in case it's helpful for anyone else to hear.
@InvaderStitch - Thank you for sharing! It is encouraging for me to hear about someone else getting healing, feeling better, learning new growth-type things, and etcetera. I think it is even more encouraging when I feel I am not on that same road. At this time I don't think I am going backward really, but I am finding it very hard to see what forward progress I have made. So thank you for sharing, Stitch. ~ Platy
@InvaderStitch
I definitely agree with this. If you're staying in a place that has triggers, then all your energy just goes into maintaining functionality and limiting impact of triggers. This means you can't put your energy into moving forward. It could also mean that you never get to the point of feeling truly safe. I feel like when safety is compromised, it's difficult to be vulnerable at the level required for healing. It probably has something to do with our nervous systems being activated so frequently. If I remember corrently, constant stimulation of the autonomic nervous system can create some cognitive problems, especially with emotion and higher cognitive processes. So if you can't use complex thinking to manage emotions, then how is it even possible to heal trauma? You don't keep running on a broken leg, you'll only make progress slower and potentially damage the leg further. I think getting out of the environment does the same thing for trauma, let that leg rest!