Knowing If You Are On The Right Path

[Thinkingman85]

Saffy, seeking validation seems like a waste of time. The personal satisfaction of being yourself is much stronger than the hate from others, IMO. :)

 

[saffy]

very true . it is also stronger that admiration from others :)

Saffy :)

 

[Kim500]

Hi Thinkingman! :) Well, what I thought of when I read your question about how to tell if you're on the right track, this came to mind:

What would you tell another person suffering what you're suffering? Would you tell them that taking medication and going to therapy to help them get well is the right track? Or would you tell them that they are being lazy and not "living up to their potential" by doing so?

Just to add my 2 cents: I think you're definitely on the right track doing what you're doing now with meds and therapy!

**Also, a lot of people taking meds (like me) go through phases (like me) when they think they really don't need their meds and stop taking them. I've never met someone who had a positive outcome from doing this. (Of course, if you talk to your doctor who knows your symptoms and agrees that maybe you don't need your meds anymore and puts you on a safe plan of weaning off them, that's a different story.)

 

[Thinkingman85]

Kim500, thanks for helping me keep things in perspective.

 

[JustBe]

Sometimes I think about all the survivors of concentration camps and am in awe at how they lived meaningful and full lives despite what they witnessed and endured.

 

[Kim500]

Definitely, Movin'On!!! I have to recommend a famous small book that is a memoir of a psychiatrist who was in four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He struggled to find reasons to live and he found them! It's called 'Man's Search for Meaning'. Here's a link to the book on Amazon if you want to check it out! I recommend this to you too, Thinkingman,(unless you've read it already! :) and to all! It's amazing!
Dead Link Removed

 

[Kim500]

You're welcome Thinkingman! It helps to think of what advice we would give to others because sometimes our thoughts regarding ourselves are not nearly as clear or compassionate as they are of other people! It's a gift of trauma! ;) He he! Seriously though, and I'm going into religion a bit here:

I believe that somehow we will be very grateful for our sufferings in the next life for some mysterious reason(Heaven is what I believe in.) I think of Jesus and the wounds in His hands, feet, and side, and the glorious light that must shine forth from them now!
These are not my original ideas, I've heard it before! :)

 

[timid_flower]

**Also, a lot of people taking meds (like me) go through phases

I completely agree.

Btw Kim500, I almost didn't recognize you with your new avatar!!

 

[Kim500]

He he, timid_flower! :cool: I know, I apologize for the sudden avatar change! :D I try to express myself through them, so I change them sometimes, especially when I'm bored! I really like this one though since I think it describes me best so I might keep it! :p

 

[Thinkingman85]

Thanks for the book referall. In my last therapy session, my therapist recommended the book. I'm going to look into it, but from what I've gotten from it so far, Viktor Frankl believes in God. I have trouble accepting a god when there are children suffering and dying slowly right now. It's hard for me to have faith that a god has a benevolent reason for allowing this to happen. I used to think that it was all for a reason until I actually went through the reality of suffering. It's a whole new challenge in and of itself.

 

[Kim500]

Hi there! I'm not really sure if Viktor Frankl believed in God. I don't remember that he did when I read the book. More like it was a humanistic way to find meaning in life. (I would Google about him first before deciding whether to read the book or not.)

Suffering is what makes a lot of people turn away from religion obviously. My view of suffering is that we will be grateful for it in the next life, and that it had great meaning that we couldn't see or understand while we were here on earth.

In fact, I get the feeling that God entrusted you with great suffering because He trusts you and has great plans for you.

 

[Sailorgal]

Thinkingman,

Not to invalidate your feelings or do a comparison but a genocide is far different from people passing due to health reasons. It's a very different beast. People have gone into depression over losing jobs and see no reason to live as you are in right now.

As for the very nature of something being trumatic, your experience affected you the way it did. It's your journey.

I agree with Saffy that in the end it's wanting to live for yourself. People will always come and go in our lives. Some of us lose things more than others.

Whatever is holding you back, I know one day you will come to that awareness to be free to live again.

I myself am musically inclined and compose. It's funny because only after my trauma is when the music stopped "playing in my head." Only a few months ago did I get that back. It was a bit of a struggle at first. Once I broke through, it was amazing. Yours will come back to you.

Speaking of inspirational stories, look at our current concentration camps. North Korean defectors and the atrocities they grow up in. I won't mention here. Their struggle to be live and be accepted in this world. Many (I'm not stating majority) have found peace in God (not perfectly healed) and hope to live. Amazing stories.