The PTSD healing journey requires dedication, responsibility and action-taking.
When survivors write, talk and don't shy away when the going gets tough the payoff is often a lessening in the severity of PTSD symptoms.
Sometimes, thought, all of this work brings about a painful moment: a stark realization showing just how horrible the past was.
This recognition can throw you for an emotional loop.
The truth is, sometimes we often have to feel worse before we feel better.
The reason for this is because that's how healing progresses, in cycles, where we go up and down riding the recovery roller coaster.
Many of survivors experience this sort of forward/backward phenomenon.
You think you're going about healing doing all you're supposed to do and moving forward and then, Wham!, you find yourself two steps back.
There are a few reasons for this: 1 - When we begin the healing process we are often emotionally numb.
In order to cope we have trained ourselves not to feel, or to feel less.
Part of the healing process, however, is about slowly coming out of that emotional coma.
This is a critical process, and yet, one for which we have no coping skills.
We have to learn anew how to feel, process our feelings, and allow them to move through us.
As we learn to make this shift in adjusting to emotions, we can temporarily feel overwhelmed by their intensity.
It's only natural we feel worse for a time.
Think of it as growing pains.
The body experiences them; so does the mind.
2 - The psyche does what it needs in order to survive.
Technically, this means your mind structures experience, interpretation and coping mechanisms in such a way that the self and body can live through traumatic events.
For many this includes selective amnesia, and also, a lack of conscious clarity.
This can also mean that when an experience is too horrific and intense, a part of the mind splits from the experience and shuts down in a protective move to cope.
During healing you can look back and see the whole situation, not just selective parts of it.
For a while, the intensity of your realization about just how bad things were can make you feel more depressed, angry, sleepless, anxious, etc.
This is a natural response to the truth which you have not been seeing for a long time.
3 - Healing is tough.
It's only natural that you approach recovery with an "I want it done yesterday!" attitude.
You've been sidetracked with symptoms and you want to be released.
Unfortunately, PTSD is a tenacious sucker and it will resist, which means you just have to work harder and maybe a little longer before you find freedom, which can be yours.
Throughout all of nature organisms struggle to grow.
As survivors healing PTSD we're no different.
When we take a dive and find ourselves in a free-fall of heightened symptoms, the key thing to remember is that healing happens in cycles.
There is no straight path to wellness.
We move forward two steps, which gives us strength.
We use that strength to push forward and face more challenging things.
We fall back one step as we're hit full force with this new phase of healing.
We acknowledge, accept, process, and push forward again.
This is how it goes - for all of us.
Accept the natural progression.
Don't fight against it.
Let the process.
Believe in yourself.
Every time you do healing work - regardless of the immediate outcome - you are making progress.
Healing is cumulative.
Keep pushing toward your goal until you get there.
The ultimate reward is worth the roller coaster of the entire struggle.
When survivors write, talk and don't shy away when the going gets tough the payoff is often a lessening in the severity of PTSD symptoms.
Sometimes, thought, all of this work brings about a painful moment: a stark realization showing just how horrible the past was.
This recognition can throw you for an emotional loop.
The truth is, sometimes we often have to feel worse before we feel better.
The reason for this is because that's how healing progresses, in cycles, where we go up and down riding the recovery roller coaster.
Many of survivors experience this sort of forward/backward phenomenon.
You think you're going about healing doing all you're supposed to do and moving forward and then, Wham!, you find yourself two steps back.
There are a few reasons for this: 1 - When we begin the healing process we are often emotionally numb.
In order to cope we have trained ourselves not to feel, or to feel less.
Part of the healing process, however, is about slowly coming out of that emotional coma.
This is a critical process, and yet, one for which we have no coping skills.
We have to learn anew how to feel, process our feelings, and allow them to move through us.
As we learn to make this shift in adjusting to emotions, we can temporarily feel overwhelmed by their intensity.
It's only natural we feel worse for a time.
Think of it as growing pains.
The body experiences them; so does the mind.
2 - The psyche does what it needs in order to survive.
Technically, this means your mind structures experience, interpretation and coping mechanisms in such a way that the self and body can live through traumatic events.
For many this includes selective amnesia, and also, a lack of conscious clarity.
This can also mean that when an experience is too horrific and intense, a part of the mind splits from the experience and shuts down in a protective move to cope.
During healing you can look back and see the whole situation, not just selective parts of it.
For a while, the intensity of your realization about just how bad things were can make you feel more depressed, angry, sleepless, anxious, etc.
This is a natural response to the truth which you have not been seeing for a long time.
3 - Healing is tough.
It's only natural that you approach recovery with an "I want it done yesterday!" attitude.
You've been sidetracked with symptoms and you want to be released.
Unfortunately, PTSD is a tenacious sucker and it will resist, which means you just have to work harder and maybe a little longer before you find freedom, which can be yours.
Throughout all of nature organisms struggle to grow.
As survivors healing PTSD we're no different.
When we take a dive and find ourselves in a free-fall of heightened symptoms, the key thing to remember is that healing happens in cycles.
There is no straight path to wellness.
We move forward two steps, which gives us strength.
We use that strength to push forward and face more challenging things.
We fall back one step as we're hit full force with this new phase of healing.
We acknowledge, accept, process, and push forward again.
This is how it goes - for all of us.
Accept the natural progression.
Don't fight against it.
Let the process.
Believe in yourself.
Every time you do healing work - regardless of the immediate outcome - you are making progress.
Healing is cumulative.
Keep pushing toward your goal until you get there.
The ultimate reward is worth the roller coaster of the entire struggle.
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