Meandering Michele’s Mind: It’s never too late to heal

For many of you it’s been a long year of healing. You wonder when you’ll be finished, you wonder if you ever will be finished. You wonder if what you want — healing — is just a fantasy or will someday become a reality. You wonder if you have the strength to heal. And you wonder if healing is even possible for you because your trauma and PTSD are at the top of the chart of how awful something can and could be.

Of course you wonder all of that, why wouldn’t you? Healing is tough. There are no absolutes. There are no guarantees. There are no roadmaps or promises or safety nets. You’re on a tightrope over hell and you could fall down into a firey pit forever at any moment.

OK, let’s not get overly dramatic here. In the PTSD mindset it’s so easy to allow perceptions, thoughts and ideas to grow out of all proportion. Still, that feeling of wonder is real and legitimate and what I’m thinking about today is how much you need to be careful not to allow the “I-wonder” disease to hijack your healing. Wondering if you can, will, deserve or might heal is hazardous to your recovery. You WILL heal. That’s all there is to it. This determination must be the backbone of how you get through every day, regardless of how bad the day is.

A woman emailed me recently with such a wonderful energy of healing and possibility; her words are a great reminder never to give up. With her permission I’m sharing her thoughts with you today to remind us all that healing can happen at any time:

Because of my childhood traumas I have never been able to learn anything. My body has been occupied by the sexual abuse and therefore I havn´t been able to do anything but survive. And struggle with PTSD. My body got stuck in the horrible pain and shock that the abuse caused and with that my emotions also got stuck. After over 20 years in therapy, my life is to begin now. Therefore, I can say that it´s never too late to recover from childhood traumas.

Many of you know I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD for 25 years. And then I was diagnosed and went on a healing ramapge, and today I am free. Janna and I (and many others) are testimony to the fact that healing can come, even after a very long struggle.

You, then, must continue to look forward and fight for your freedom. It’s never too late to win it.

(Photo acknowledgement on Flickr.)

Tags: childhood, healing, Meandering Michele's Mind, ptsd, sexual abuse, trauma