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How come is it that we don’t get to experience the depth and the beauty of life in the way we deserve after going through trauma?
And why do so many of us go through life and suffer, without the help that we so desperately need in order to heal?
Here is one reason – because we get turned away.
For it was the family doctors – I muster the courage to speak not because of strength, but pure desperation:
The woman I loved has left me for somebody else, and I’m in the bottomless pit of depression, drinking, and grief.
I blurt out the ways that I suffer – the nightmare from my past, and suffocating from panic, the fear of being alone.
He looks at me like a puzzle.
There is no need for questions, and so he hands me a piece of paper – here, this should help.
I walk out to find out a prescription – a drug I don’t want, or care for.
One swift move, and it’s in the bin.
I do this without thinking, not knowing what it is that I’m seeking, but somehow I know that this isn’t it.
Us, survivors of trauma, are real people – we are not broken, so we don’t need to be fixed.
We want to be understood, we want to feel heard, assured that we are okay.
And when you’re dismissed, judged, ignored, whether it is by doctor, loved one, or someone you meet – the first time we seek help is often the last.
At least for a while – for me, it is decades.
And all of that time, I never had the chance to find out about therapy, and how it can help us heal from struggle, and hurt.
To find yourself not as a tag in somebody’s file, but as a fragile and intricate human who wants to be heard and supported to find their own path to heal.
A human being who, above all, deserves to be happy.
It’s you, me, all of us who have suffered, who know what it’s like.
We deserve more, even if we have been knocked back!
For years, I was afraid to try therapy, to learn about different options, afraid I’m too broken, too late, afraid of being labelled…
It stuck.
But it was a conversation with a survivor who urged to reconsider, explore and to try.
It’s helping me heal, feel more calm, and make past to feel more like the past – as something that’s already happened, not overreaching into the now.
Being in this moment, alive, feeling that you belong, in this world today!
This is what we deserve.
I know that it’s hard to take next step, but it just might be the step you need to live a happier, more fulfilled life that you truly deserve.
For more on my journey of finding healing through therapy, check out this episode of The Happy YOU podcast.
If you are looking for a pick me up, check out my brand new book on thriving in times of uncertainty:
